After more than fifty years of silence, Temple Medley, known to countless fans by her stage name Mickey Jenkins, the first and only wife of the legendary Conway Twitty, has finally broken her long-held silence. Now at 82, Mickey courageously reveals the deeply emotional truths behind their marriage, the reasons for their divorce, and the enduring bond that has kept her heart connected to one of country music’s most iconic figures.
For decades, while Conway Twitty’s fame skyrocketed—from a rock ’n’ roll heartthrob to a beloved country music icon—Mickey remained an enigma. She was a chapter rarely explored, even by those closest to Conway. In a recently shared, quietly recorded interview orchestrated by family friends, Temple’s voice carries the weight of years, layered with tenderness and reflection.
“I never stopped loving him,”
Mickey admits softly,
“But sometimes love isn’t enough to survive the world that comes with it.”
The couple’s story began long before Nashville’s stage lights ever illuminated Conway’s path with hits like “Hello Darlin’” or “It’s Only Make Believe.” They married young, raising four children together, building a life from humble beginnings during the lean years when hope and money were both scarce. As Conway’s career took flight in the 1960s and 1970s, the pressures of fame and endless touring started to pull them apart.
“I used to wait up for him,”
Mickey recalls with a wistful sadness.
“Some nights, he came home so tired he couldn’t speak. Other nights, he couldn’t come home at all.”
By the late 1970s, the toll became undeniable. While Conway transformed into a public figure of almost mythic proportions, Mickey quietly receded into the background—remaining a devoted mother and steadfast partner, but increasingly invisible in the glow of his spotlight. Their divorce was finalized quietly, without fanfare—an end that left her heartbroken but unshaken in spirit.
“People always ask why I never remarried,”
she says, pausing thoughtfully.
“Because once you’ve loved someone that deeply, you don’t start over. You just keep loving them differently.”
There’s no trace of bitterness in her voice—only a profound reflection on a love that transcended the public narrative. Temple speaks with grace and honesty about the man the world adored, and the husband she truly knew: gentle yet conflicted, driven by the pull of music yet haunted by solitude.
“When he sang ‘I’d Love to Lay You Down,’ I knew that part of him still longed for home,”
she confides quietly.
“But the stage became his home. And I had to let him go.”
Now, after all these years, Temple Medley’s account fills in the missing half of Conway Twitty’s story—the love that shaped his soul, the heartbreak that deepened his songs, and the quiet, enduring devotion that never truly ended.
“He was my first everything,”
she reveals in closing,
“And in some ways, he still is.”
For the millions who grew up with Conway’s music, her words feel like a final, heartfelt verse—not about the fame or the hardships, but about a love so profound it outlasts time itself.
Video
https://youtube.com/watch?v=d7FspsAHqfQ%3Ffeature%3Doembed
