For a man with four Super Bowl rings, Terry Bradshaw’s most challenging battles were often fought away from the gridiron, a struggle he’s only now fully confessing to. The former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback recently addressed the dilemma surrounding his earlier marriages and revealed exactly how he found true love after breaking the chain.

“I got a great wife,” the Hall of Famer confessed on the Nothing Left Unsaid podcast with Tim Green. “I’ve been divorced a couple of times, and I never thought I would really find true love.

“I felt I didn’t understand why I got married three times and it didn’t work. It was embarrassing. I was ashamed of myself. I went to counseling for three years, and realized it’s not my partner’s fault, but mine. I’m one and they’re three. And I had to break the chain. Through counseling, I was able to do that.”

Terry Bradshaw married Tammy Bradshaw on July 8, 2014, after spending nearly 13-15 years together. Tammy is a mother (to a daughter named Lacey and a son, Cody, who passed away). She also became a step-mother to Terry’s daughters from prior marriages. They live on a ranch in Oklahoma, cherishing family time with horses and other outdoor life together.

Before this, Terry was married three times. His first marriage was to Melissa Babish, the 1968 Miss Teenage America. The duo reportedly met on a blind date set up, and the NFL star immediately realized how taken the young girl was with him.

“She liked me a whole lot,” he recalled during a separate conversation. “In fact, she liked me so much that after we’d gone out only a few times, she introduced me to her friend and suggested I go out with her.”

However, their union was short-lived. The duo exchanged vows in 1972 and separated just 18 months later. Reports suggested Bradshaw’s affinity toward alcohol while he was battling mental health issues led to the split. Details about Melissa post-divorce is largely unavailable, as she chooses to stay away from public life.

Just two years later, the 4x Super Bowl winner tied the knot with famous ice skater JoJo Starbuck, which lasted till 1983. Bradshaw later admitted his fault in a Washington Post interview, saying that he had lost focus on his marriage, failed to fulfill his duties as a husband and concentrated more on his business ventures during the offseason instead.

Terry Bradshaw’s third marriage was to Charla Hopkins, daughter of Denton councilman Charles Hopkins. The two wed in 1986 at the Texas Woman’s University, when Charla was a law student. The couple then had two daughters, Erin and Rachel.

His marriage to Charla ended in 1999, after which Terry took some time before starting a new life with Tammy. While the overall journey might sound messy, his first-ever interaction with Tammy turned out to be quite interesting.

Terry Bradshaw unveils that it wasn’t love at first sight with Tammy

Terry Bradshaw’s long-time relationship with Tammy didn’t start without complications. While the former quarterback decided not to be involved in a relationship after his last divorce, he recently confessed that his first meeting with Tammy turned out to be an epiphany. In the aforementioned interview, the 77-year-old mentioned how Tammy wasn’t actually ready to be with a celebrity, along with adding how her daughter convinced her to give it a shot.

“She didn’t want to be a part of the celebrity world,” he said. “She didn’t think she could handle that. Dating a celebrity, they can be misled with this phony belief that this is really the way that things are gonna be, when in fact it isn’t. I kept pursuing her until her daughter said, ‘Mom, go out with him and you’ll find out!’ We went out, and that was it.

“My wife’s my best friend. I don’t do anything without her.I don’t travel without her. I’m never without her. I never thought there would be a day in my life where I would play golf with a woman and she’s my golfing partner. It’s a perfect balance of two people.”

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With their 12th anniversary approaching in 2026, Terry and Tammy Bradshaw’s relationship stands as proof that the right connection arrives in its own time. According to the Steelers legend, the counseling he went through before getting into a relationship turned out to be the core reason behind the success of his married life.