Shirley Collie was head over heels for Willie Nelson. “It was instant love. I saw things in him that give me goosebumps now,” the musician had told Time Magazine (via Heavy). Sadly, Nelson was about to give Collie goosebumps for all the wrong reasons, because her life turned upside down after opening what she thought would be a regular piece of mail.
According to People, the country singer revealed in his joint memoir, “Me and Sister Bobbie: True Tales of the Family Band,” the exact way his ex-wife discovered he was having an affair, and it was quite shocking. “Shirley saw a bill from a Houston hospital,” he said. “I tried to play it off as no big deal. I told her that I had to go to the hospital for something minor.” Nelson tried to hide what he knew the bill was for, but it didn’t work out because the bill’s charges revealed that it wasn’t something minor. Nelson was charged for the “birth of a baby girl, Paula Carlene, born to a Mrs. Connie Nelson.”
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Seeing the charge, Collie questioned the musician, who eventually fessed up. “Shirley wanted to know who in the hell was Connie Nelson,” He shared. “Couldn’t lie. Was caught flatfooted. Had to get the words out of my mouth. ‘Connie’s my girlfriend and Paula’s our daughter.'” That didn’t go over well with Collie, and by 1971, the couple had officially gone their separate ways.
