On December 12, 1957, musician Jerry Lee Lewis caused a national stir by marrying Myra Brown, a 13-year-old girl. Their marriage quickly became a subject of public discontent and intense media scrutiny, leading to a decline in attendance at Lewis’s concerts.
Lewis’s personal life had been marked by controversy, notably with his second marriage occurring just 23 days before his first divorce was finalized. However, his marriage to Myra Brown in 1957 proved to be the most problematic. The couple initially saw nothing wrong with their union. However, the situation worsened when the media discovered Brown’s true age. Lewis had initially claimed Brown was 15, but during a UK tour, the media revealed she was only 13, earning Lewis the derogatory label of a “baby snatcher” and resulting in widespread ticket cancellations for his concerts in the UK.
This scandal severely damaged Lewis’s rock and roll career, while Brown faced extensive questioning about her marriage. Lewis remarried Brown following his second divorce in an attempt to salvage his career, but the public’s disapproval persisted, and his ticket sales suffered greatly. Their turbulent marriage is the subject of an episode on ID’s ‘Who the (Bleep) Did I Marry?’, titled ‘The Child Bride,’ airing Monday, December 18, at 9 p.m. ET.
Following the scandal, Lewis shifted his focus to country music, where he found success. Meanwhile, Brown and Lewis’s marriage lasted 13 years, ending in divorce in 1970 due to Lewis’s drug use and allegations of adultery and abuse by Brown, as reported by the New York Post. They had two children together.
Brown remarried soon after her divorce from Lewis, but that marriage was short-lived. She wed for the third time in 1984 and reportedly lives a content life, possibly working as a real estate agent in Duluth, Florida.
Despite the end of their marriage, Brown and Lewis maintained contact, primarily for the sake of their daughter, Phoebe. Following Lewis’s death in October 2022, Brown acknowledged his talent and contribution to entertainment. In an interview with Cuepoint, she reflected on how she never shed the label of the “13-year-old child bride,” urging people to be mindful when discussing her past with Lewis.
Brown has authored two books about her relationship with Lewis: ‘The Spark That Survived’ in 2016 and ‘Great Balls of Fire: The Uncensored Story of Jerry Lee Lewis’ in 1982. Their story was also adapted into the 1989 film ‘Great Balls of Fire,’ starring Dennis Quaid as Jerry Lee Lewis and Winona Ryder as Myra Brown.
