On Friday's Oprah Winfrey Show, Kenny Chesney opened up about his quickie marriage to Renee Zellweger.
After just four months of dating, the two shocked fans when they wed in May 2005 in a barefoot-on-the-beach wedding at Chesney's cliffside estate in St. John. Four months later, Zellweger filed for an annulment, citing "fraud."
"I panicked," Chesney, 42, told Winfrey. "…I look at my life as a box. … So everything that I put in — learn how to play guitar, put that in the box. The friends I made. I put that in the box, and my career grew. Everything around me—all of the awards and all of the songs I wrote and all the success and everything — I put in that box. That box built grew into this wonderful house. Okay? And you protect everything and all the relationships and all the people that helped you build that house. And this is the first time I've actually talked about it, but that's what happened. I protected that box."
Asked whether their marriage was in or out of the box, Chesney replied, "It was out of the box. Oh my God, but it's tough. It really is tough. And she's a sweet soul, no doubt about it, but I just wasn't ready."
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Chesney — whose new concert film Kenny Chesney: Summer in 3D hits theaters Apr. 21 — is currently dating Nashville nurse Amy Colley; Zellweger is romancing Bradley Cooper.
