Kenny Rogers and His Wife, Wanda Miller, Had Strange Encounters With Paparazzi
Kenny Rogers and Wanda Miller were married for more than 20 years. Here’s what he said about the strange encounters they had with paparazzi during their early years of dating.
Kenny Rogers and Wanda Miller couldn’t sit together at a basketball game
When they were dating, Rogers wanted to take Miller to a basketball game. The only problem was there would be photographers there, ready to take a picture of him with Miller, who was 26 years old at the time. Rogers was 28 years older than her, so he wanted to avoid scandalous tabloid headlines.
The country singer decided the only way for them to avoid unwanted attention was if they didn’t sit together. He planned to go on a double date, with Wanda and her sister sitting on one side, and him and her sister’s date on the other side. Here’s what Rogers said about that day in his book Luck, Or Something Like It.
The magazines would have loved to have gotten a picture of me with a beautiful 26-year-old girl. That would have added fire to what they were already saying about me, and I didn’t need that. The four of us went to the game, making sure Wanda and I were never standing together. They were great seats, however, two on one side of the arena and two on the opposite side.
The couple made the most of their date
Although Rogers and Miller couldn’t sit together, they made the most of their date. They didn’t let the distance between them get them down. Rogers said they made sure to wave to each other now and then.
“We waved at each other a couple of times but had no personal contact during the game, so there were no pictures of us for the tabloids,” wrote Rogers. “What a game it was. Chicago went on to win their second of three consecutive NBA championships. It never dawned on me that Wanda was just there to see the game and didn’t care where she sat.”
Kenny Rogers and Wanda Miller ran into a member of the paparazzi in a strange place
Rogers was successful when it came to dodging the paparazzi at a basketball game, but he wasn’t so lucky when it came to his vacation. During a trip to Mexico, Rogers and Miller bumped into a photographer who was waiting inside their hotel room.
It was on a trip down to Mexico during this period that I realized how crazy this press stuff was getting. Wanda and I checked into our room and there was a photographer for one of the tabloids actually in our room, ready to catch us in our ‘secret Mexican getaway.’
The hotel arrested him. Down in the lobby, the Mexican authorities showed up and were ready to take him off to jail. I didn’t want to see that happen and did not press charges, so they let him off. The next week, the pictures and story of the trip were on the front page of the tabloids.
Read more: How Kenny Rogers Met His Wife, Wanda Miller
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