“You Can Marry at Ten if You Can Find a Husband!“
In Louisiana back then, a marriage between a grown man and a thirteen-year-old girl, or marriage between cousins, was not exactly commonplace. However, it was not too unusual. Where Jerry Lee Lewis grew up, it was not a deal. So he did not think that his new wife’s age, or her blood relation to him, were problematic. To the extent he was worried about potential scandal, it had more to with the wedding date. Just as he’d done with his second marriage, Lewis’ third marriage took place before the divorce from his second wife was finalized.
Lewis simply did not realize that marriage to his thirteen-year-old cousin might offend plenty of people. Folk from his label warned him not to take his child bride with him on his first European tour. Lewis ignored them, and took Myra with him to England. It turned out to be a huge mistake. When he arrived in May, 1958, Lewis introduced Myra to British reporters as his wife – although he fibbed a bit, and claimed that she was fifteen. That was still shockingly young, and when Myra was asked, she did not help when she remarked that fifteen was not too young to marry where she came from. As she put it: “You can marry at ten, if you can find a husband“.
