Is Kenny Chesney Gay or Straight?

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Putting an old, unfounded rumor to bed

Co-authored by Mira Lazine and Eric McClure

Last Updated: August 29, 2025 Fact Checked

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• Is Kenny Chesney gay?
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• Origins of the Rumor
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• Why the Rumor Persisted
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• The “Fraud” Mishap
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• The Real Reason They Divorced
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• Video

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In 2005, Kenny Chesney and Renee Zellweger met. They dated for four months, got married, and divorced three months later. On the divorce paperwork, Zellweger cited “fraud” as the justification for the separation. As a result, rumors blew up all over the place that Chesney was secretly gay, and what followed is a great lesson in why it’s unkind (and pointless) to speculate on the sexuality of people trying to recover from a rocky relationship. We’ll take a look at these rumors in depth, explain where they came from, and break down the truth for you below.

Steps

Section 1 of 5:

Is Kenny Chesney gay?

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1. 
   No, Kenny Chesney is not gay. Chesney has publicly stated that he is not gay. The original rumors are based on a misunderstanding from his divorce fallout with Renee Zellweger (more on that later). But to put it plainly, Chesney has confirmed that he’s not gay. He has only been in public relationships with women, and he has been dating Mary Nolan for over a decade now.

   • It’s really not a good idea to speculate on the sexuality of anyone. Chesney had never spoken about his sexuality prior to the rumors, and this whole story is really a testament to why you shouldn’t try and guess people’s sexual orientations.
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Section 2 of 5:

The Source of the Kenny Chesney Rumors

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1. 1
   Chesney’s first public relationship ended fast. Kenny Chesney and Renee Zellweger met in 2005. They dated for four months before getting married in May of 2005, and the couple divorced just three months later. This sparked rumors that something was fundamentally wrong with their relationship.
2. 2
   Zellweger cited “fraud” on the annulment papers. Technically, Chesney and Zellweger never got divorced; they got an annulment—a type of separation that basically means the marriage was never real in the first place. On the paperwork for the annulment, Zellweger listed the cause of the annulment as “fraud,” which many people took to mean that Chesney had lied about something…like his sexuality.
3. 3
   The use of “fraud” plus the speed of the separation fueled the gay rumors. Between the marriage lasting a few months and Zellweger blaming “fraud” for the end of the marriage, people went crazy with rumors that Kenny Chesney was gay. Neither Zellweger or Chesney commented on the rumors, so they went unchecked for a long time.
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Section 3 of 5:

Why did the rumors persist for so long?

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1. 1
   Chesney initially ignored the rumors, which made things worse. Chesney was kind of probed about the rumors in several interviews following the annulment, but he didn’t say anything. He later justified this by explaining that he didn’t want to give the rumors any attention. He’d later say, “Maybe I should have come out and said, ‘No, I’m not (gay),’ but I didn’t want to draw any more attention to it.”
2. 2
   While denying he was gay, Chesney seemed kind of dishonest. In the years that followed, Chesney would make a few statements that made people feel like he might be hiding the fact that he’s gay. In a random interview, he claimed to have slept with over 100 women, which made everyone think he was trying to compensate for how he really felt. He also would double down by emphasizing how much he loved women in a way that made people feel convinced that he was lying.
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Section 4 of 5:

Why did Renee Zellweger write “fraud” on the papers?

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1. “Fraud” is just a legal designation for the sake of the paperwork. Zellweger didn’t write “fraud” because she wanted to spark rumors—it’s just that she was legally required to select one of several options to justify the annulment. Zellweger would later explain, “The term 'fraud' as listed in the documentation is simply legal language and not a reflection of Kenny's character.”

   • Annulments are very specific legal events. You must justify an annulment with something serious; it’s not like a divorce, where you don’t actually need a reason (in most states). It’s possible that if Zellweger had opted for divorce instead of annulment, these rumors would have never started.
   • Chesney explained, "In order for us to get an annulment, the legal papers could claim either physical abuse, which wasn't true, or three or four other things that also weren't true. The best thing we could put in there was fraud. So I said, 'All right, do it. Whatever.'"

Section 5 of 5:

Why did Renee Zellweger divorce Kenny Chesney?

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1. 1
   Zellweger has refused to spill the deets. In 2016, Zellweger described herself as “an old-fashioned gal who doesn't feel it's appropriate to hang out your laundry on the lawn.” Simply put, Zellweger refuses to make her private experience with Chesney a public matter, which is a darn good reason to not speculate any further.

   • The gay rumors did upset her quite a bit, though. In the same 2016 interview, she said, “It made me sad that somehow people were using that as a way to be cruel and calling someone gay as a pejorative, which has fateful consequences.”
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   Chesney has implied he wasn’t a very good husband. In an interview from 2015, Chesney reflected, “I didn’t have any clue as to what true marriage meant. I was so used to committing to one thing—music—and then I had to totally commit to a second thing, marriage. I didn’t know how...I did the only thing I knew to do: I ran. I pushed her away, in every way possible—to the point where I just didn’t want to be married to her anymore.”
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