Their personal relationship had changed, and their professional partnership would pause. Yet the musical bond between them proved difficult to leave behind. Nearly nine years after they stopped performing together, a phone call from Haggard brought Owens back to the stage.
Their story is one of love, creative collaboration, heartbreak, and a lasting respect that survived the end of a marriage.
Bonnie Owens had a place in Bakersfield country music long before she became Merle Haggard’s wife. She had previously been married to Buck Owens, another central figure in the Bakersfield Sound, and continued pursuing her own career after their marriage ended. She sang in clubs, appeared on local television, and recorded music.
When Owens met Haggard in Bakersfield in the early 1960s, he was still building his career. Haggard later credited her with helping him get opportunities to perform outside Bakersfield. She recognized his potential and encouraged promoters to book the young singer.
Their professional connection grew into a romance. Owens and Haggard married in June 1965.
But Owens was never merely a supporting figure in Haggard’s life. She was an accomplished singer in her own right, with her own musical experience and instincts. Those qualities shaped their collaboration and helped make it more than a story about a famous husband and his wife.
One of the best-known results of their partnership was “Today I Started Loving You Again.”
Haggard later said the idea began during a break from touring. After months on the road, he was home with Owens when he felt a fresh surge of affection for her. He expressed the feeling in a simple remark: he had started loving her again.
Owens recognized that the words could become a song. Haggard said he wrote it a few days later, composing the words and melody in about ten minutes on hotel stationery. Owens shared songwriting credit.
The song, released in 1968, became a country standard. It was later recorded by artists including Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, and Connie Smith.
Their collaboration extended beyond that one song. Owens helped Haggard recognize and develop musical ideas, and she encouraged him to draw more directly on his own experiences. Haggard later credited her encouragement with helping him become more personal in songs such as “Branded Man.”
The partnership was creative as well as romantic: Owens brought a singer’s instincts and a songwriter’s ear to the music Haggard was making.
The success of their musical partnership did not make their marriage easy. Haggard’s demanding touring schedule and relationships outside the marriage placed serious strain on the couple. By the mid-1970s, Owens had grown tired of life on the road and the instability surrounding their relationship.
She filed for divorce in 1976. The divorce became final in October 1978.
That same month, Haggard married Leona Williams and Owens stood as a bridesmaid. It was an extraordinary gesture, but it should not be taken to mean that the divorce was painless or that the former spouses immediately resumed working together. Their relationship had changed, and their professional collaboration eventually stopped.
By 1981, Owens and Haggard were no longer performing together.
For several years, their musical partnership remained in the past. Then, around June 1987, Haggard called Owens with an invitation: he wanted her to return to his touring band.
In a 1990 interview with The New Yorker, Owens recalled what Haggard said: “Bonnie, as long as I’m up there on a bandstand, I want you to be with me.”
The request was personal as well as professional. Haggard was asking a former wife and a longtime musical partner to share the stage with him again.
Owens accepted. In the same interview, she spoke candidly about how their relationship had changed. They were friends, she said, but no longer shared the closeness of married life. Still, she valued the chance to make music together again. Years of experience, she observed, had enriched their voices.
The reunion did not restore their marriage. Instead, it gave their musical connection a new form: one shaped by shared history, professional respect, and an affection that no longer depended on being a couple.
In 1996, Haggard reflected on Owens during an appearance on Prime Time Country. His words were brief: “I still love Bonnie.”
The statement carried weight because of all that had happened between them. It was not an announcement that their marriage had resumed. By then, Haggard had built a life with Theresa Lane. Rather, it spoke to the place Owens continued to hold in his life and musical history.
Haggard and Owens had been spouses, collaborators, and, in time, friends. Their relationship did not fit neatly into a single category—or end neatly when the marriage did.
Bonnie Owens died on April 24, 2006, at age 76. Merle Haggard died on April 6, 2016 his 79th birthday.
Owens helped shape the early years of Haggard’s career, contributed to a song that became a standard, and returned to his band years after their divorce. Her role in their story was not simply that of a former wife. She was a singer and collaborator whose talent and judgment helped shape the music they made together.
The most enduring reminder of that partnership may be “Today I Started Loving You Again.” The song began with a moment between two married musicians, but it traveled far beyond their private lives. Listeners have continued to find themselves in its words, whether or not they know the story behind them.
The marriage of Bonnie Owens and Merle Haggard ended in 1978. Their musical connection did not end on the same date or in the same way.
Their story was not one of a couple simply returning to the past. They separated, stopped performing together, and later chose to share the stage again. What remained was neither their marriage nor an uncomplicated romance, but a bond built from years of music, experience, and mutual respect.
Owens and Haggard showed that a relationship can change profoundly without erasing what two people created together. The wedding, the divorce, and the years apart belong to their history. So does the music and the music kept going.