Al Green’s wife Shirley Kyles filed for divorce twice while they were still together and had three children.
Years of breakups and separations marked the turbulent relationship between Shirley Kyles and her second husband, Al Green; nonetheless, the singer claimed that the ex-couple could not help but keep returning to one another.
For Shirley Kyles, staying in an abusive relationship for her children’s sake and the embarrassment of having another failed marriage prevented her from leaving. But, Shirley Kyles not only had the courage to flee after taking inspiration from another abused person, but she has also utilized her experience to assist others.
Al first met Shirley, whose full name is Shirley Anne Watts Kyles Green, on a Sunday in 1976 at a Memphis Baptist church. They had never met since she would leave the Colesium in Memphis before they began playing music she did not like, music that Al performed at the time. She had opened two concerts that he had headlined years before.
Shirley, a Chicago-born Baptist preacher’s daughter, joined Al’s musical ensemble as a backup vocalist at his request. They were drawn together by her active involvement in Green’s Full Gospel Tabernacle Church, his place of worship.
Soon, traveling the nation and growing close through serving the Lord’s cause became visits to her apartment, where Shirley reminisced about their happy times spent talking, watching TV, and “smooching a little bit.”