Johnny Cash's Complicated Relationship History

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Though they often sing songs about love, some of country music's biggest stars have shown their shady sides — particularly when it comes to their relationships. They may be singing sweet music together onstage, but behind the scenes, things were more complicated, in many cases. For Johnny Cash, the "Man in Black" became almost as notorious for his rocky relationship history as his now-classic catalog of songs.

From his troubled first marriage to his soulmate-level connection with a fellow country crooner, the "Ring of Fire" singer's love life has solidified itself as one of the most legendary in music history. But despite his own romantic roller coaster, Cash was known to sing some of the most iconic country love songs, like the aptly titled "A Thing Called Love": "It can lift you up never let you down/Take your world and turn it around/Ever since time nothing's ever been found/That's stronger than love" (via Genius).

In 1951, a young Johnny Cash met San Antonio, Texas, native Vivian Liberto at a skating rink, and the two hit it off right away. After dating for three weeks, Cash was shipped off to Germany to serve in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War. Despite being on different continents, the two exchanged heartfelt love letters that only furthered their fondness for each other — even to the disdain of post office workers. "[T]hose people probably thought they were just the average run-of-the-mill love letters, but they're priceless to me," Cash once wrote to Liberto (via All That's Interesting). "I love you Viv honey. I love you so very, very much."

Cash returned from his service on July 4, 1954, much to the joy of his love. "I just fell into his arms, he scooped me up, and we kissed," she recalled in her memoir "I Walked the Line: My Life With Johnny" (via ABC). The two were married just over a month later and began to grow their family. Around that same time, Cash auditioned for legendary producer Sam Phillips at the lauded Memphis, Tennessee, studio Sun Records. Even as his career began to take off and the couple moved to California, the then-family of five continued down a path in both the spotlight and heartache.

By 1958, Johnny Cash was a bona fide star who continually toured the country with his music. Meanwhile, wife Vivian Liberto and their daughters remained at home in California. In the absence of his family unit, Cash joined the ranks of the most unfaithful stars in music. His increasing abuse of drugs and alcohol also began to tear away at the family unit.

During those initial years in California, Liberto began to sense the downfall of their union. "[E]verything, and I mean everything, started to fall apart," she wrote in her memoir "I Walked the Line: My Life With Johnny." While on the road, Cash went on drinking binges and abused pills, acting out to the point of attracting police attention. His drug arrest in 1965 became one of the final straws, especially considering that Liberto had started getting hints from those around them about her husband's infidelity. She also found receipts that proved his lavish spending on gifts and other luxuries. "She'd say, 'If I only could have traveled with him instead of being here raising four kids, things would have been different,'" Liberto's friend Alice Smith recalled (via Ventura County Star).

In what became one of the most scandalous affairs in music history, Johnny Cash and June Carter's coupling played a huge part in the end of Cash's first marriage to Vivian Liberto. While Cash and Carter's relationship also went through its own tumultuous times, their stars continued to rise at an exponential level.

Carter herself was skeptical about her feelings for Cash, though this ultimately didn't stop her from succumbing. "I didn't want to fall in love with him, didn't mean to fall in love with him," she revealed in archival footage featured in the documentary "June" (via Country Living). "I was scared to death of him. ... I wouldn't even admit it to myself for a long time." Those feelings ultimately inspired her to co-write what became one of Cash's most iconic songs, "Ring of Fire." As for Cash? He was head over heels for Carter from the start. "You influence me for the better," he once wrote to Carter in one of their now infamous love letters (via Rolling Stone). "You're the object of my desire, the #1 Earthly reason for my existence."

While some accounts of their relationship have portrayed it as a star-crossed affair (including the Oscar-winning film "Walk the Line"), Liberto herself has refuted the idea that it was quite so happy-go-lucky. Recalling a backstage encounter between the two women, Liberto reportedly said that Carter was less than angelic. "[Liberto] wanted people to know June went after Johnny," said Ann Sharpsteen, who co-authored Liberto's memoir with her (via Ventura County Star). "That was where most of her pain and anger rested all these years."

Throughout their 35-year marriage, Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash had their fair share of issues. Cash's ongoing drug problem continued to worsen, and by the 1980s, his career was experiencing a lull — along with their financial stability. "I have a terminal disease called chemical dependency," Cash told Christian Broadcasting Network. He also told The New York Times, "There is that beast there in me. And I got to keep him caged, or he'll eat me alive." For Carter Cash, it wasn't just her husband's demons that needed fighting; she herself battled a pill addiction and was a serial shopper, according to the pair's son, John Carter Cash.

Cash entered the Betty Ford Center in 1983 for rehabilitation before eventually finding religion again and reaffirming his Christian faith. But no matter what they faced, together or apart, they chose to address those issues together. "They were long-suffering, always forgiving, open-minded, willing to look over past pains," John Carter Cash told JohnnyCash.com. "As a result, their love lasted a long time."

Though Cash himself was credited with writing great love letters, Carter Cash has continually been recognized for her patience and unyielding love for the singer. "The fact she always stood by him is a real testament toward their feelings for each other," J.J. Blair, who produced Carter Cash's album "Press On," told Closer. "What I find most inspiring is that they had issues, but they continued to work through them and they stayed committed."

Johnny Cash had four children with Vivian Liberto and another child with June Carter Cash. He also became a stepfather to Carter's two daughters from previous relationships. The siblings could arguably be counted among the many troubled children of country music stars. There was a lot of discord over their blended family's portrayal in the Oscar-winning film "Walk the Line." Starring Joaquin Phoenix as Cash, Reese Witherspoon as Carter Cash, and Ginnifer Goodwin as Vivian Liberto, the film portrays the two country singers as destined lovers with a Hollywood ending, and Liberto as the jilted ex-wife.

The film reportedly so perturbed Kathy Cash, whose mother is Liberto, that she walked out of a family-only screening five times due to her discomfort. "My mom was basically a nonentity in the entire film except for the mad little psycho who hated his career," she told "Today." "That's not true. She loved his career and was proud of him until he started taking drugs and stopped coming home." In general, its lack of accuracy disappointed her. "Anyone who wants a good sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll movie is gonna love it," she shared with the outlet.

But not all of the Cash-Carter clan were as vehemently against the film. John Carter Cash, the music duo's only child together, was more subdued, if not understanding, of the movie's artistic license. "I'm compassionately understanding," he told the outlet. "[T]he point of the film is my parents' love affair."

Along with a memoir released after her death, Vivian Liberto's tale was told in her own film — this time a documentary. "My Darling Vivian" premiered in 2020 and shared the story of her and Johnny Cash's 12-year marriage. All four of their daughters were main figures in the film. Singer Rosanne Cash shared particularly poignant moments of her childhood, her memories of her father's drug problem, and reflections on her mother's role in their relationship. "She was a very private person and was not prepared for all of the attention and public life," she shared in the film (via Facebook). "And my dad's notoriety and fame, there was nothing in her past that would have prepared her for that."

The film also detailed the aftermath of Cash's 1965 arrest for amphetamine possession. Upon his release, Liberto flew to Texas to support him. After seeing photographs of Cash's wife in the news, many assumed that the Sicilian-American was actually African-American. This was particularly troublesome due to the illegal nature of mixed-race marriages and corresponding racism in several states at the time.

Backlash against Liberto triggered a fear so strong that Cash himself released official documentation proving his wife's race. "The stress was almost unbearable," Liberto wrote in her memoir, "I Walked the Line: My Life With Johnny" (via The Seattle Times). "I wanted to die. And it didn't help that Johnny issued a statement to the KKK informing them I wasn't Black."

Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash are counted among the celeb couples who died close together. When Carter Cash died from complications after heart surgery in 2003, a devastated Cash lasted a handful of months before dying of complications from diabetes later that same year.

Cash made his last public performance in the summer before his death, when he claimed that Carter Cash's spirit was still with him. "The spirit of June Carter overshadows me tonight," he told the crowd (via Rolling Stone). "With the love she had for me and the love I have for her ... she came down for a short visit, I guess, from Heaven, to visit with me tonight to give me courage and inspiration, like she always has."

As for Vivian Liberto, she died in 2005 after complications from lung surgery. She notably visited her ex-husband at his Tennessee home just after Carter Cash's death. While Cash reportedly never apologized to her for his behavior during their marriage, it seems like the two were on somewhat amicable terms before the end of their lives. During her visit, Liberto reportedly told Cash that she was writing a book about their relationship and family (via Ventura County Star). His response? "What took you so long?"

Despite the circumstances around the dissolution of their parents' marriage, Johnny Cash and Vivian Liberto's children don't seem to have any ill will toward their stepmother, June Carter. In fact, Rosanne Cash, the eldest Cash child, even delivered the eulogy at Carter's funeral. "She was forever lifting people up," the singer-songwriter shared (via Country Living). "It took me a long time to understand that what she did when she lifted you up was to mirror the very best parts of you back to yourself."

Rosanne Cash has praised both her biological and stepmother, crediting them both for contributing to the way she carries out her life and career. "I had two really good examples from women in my life," she explained in Ken Burns' docuseries "Country Music" (via People). "My mom gave me this powerful sense of discipline, family, mothering, and detail orientation. And June gave me this sense of expansiveness and how to live life as a performer."

For John Carter Cash, the only son in the Cash clan, his appreciation for his family lends itself to the pride he feels in maintaining the family name's legacy. "The honest thing is that my parents wanted to help people," he told Reuters. "That is part of my responsibility, to carry on that legacy."