Kenny Rogers' 5 Children: Everything to Know

Kenny Rogers left behind a legacy of country hits and five children.

The Grammy-winning music star was married five times and had five kids with four of his wives: Carole Lynn Rogers, 65, with Janice Gordon; Kenny Rogers Jr., 59, with Margo Anderson; Christopher Cody Rogers, 42, with Marianne Gordon and twins Justin Charles Rogers and Jordan Edward Rogers, 19, with Wanda Miller.

After earning countless accolades — including three Grammys and several ACMs — and a spot in the Country Music Hall of Fame, Rogers retired from music to focus on his family.

“The Gambler” singer announced his retirement on the Today show in 2015, saying, “I’ve done this long enough.”

“I wrote in my book that sometimes there’s a fine line between being driven and being selfish. And I think I crossed that line when I was younger,” he continued. “I really want to be there with my kids and my wife. They’re very important to me and I don’t see enough of them.”

He later clarified to AZ Central that he “accomplished everything and more than I set out to do.” Rogers added, “And I really need to spend some time with my boys. They’re 11 now. I have two older boys. I didn’t spend this time with them and I regret it. I’m 77 now, and you don’t know how much longer you’re gonna last.”

The singer added, “Will I miss the business? Absolutely. I’ll miss the faces of the people that are out there and the laughs and smiles but not as much as I would miss my boys. They’re getting to that age.”

Rogers died at age 81 on March 21, 2020. His family said in a statement that he "passed away peacefully at home from natural causes under the care of hospice and surrounded by his family.”

On the one-year anniversary of his death, his family released another statement.

"It's so hard to believe it's been a year since Kenny left us. As you can imagine, some days are better than others, so we wholeheartedly thank you for your thoughts, prayers and support over the last year. It means so much to us," the statement read.

"The memories of Kenny and the kind words you've shared have inspired and uplifted us ... brought tears to our eyes and made us laugh," it continued. "No matter what we're going through on any particular day, we know we will never stop missing him, and we'll forever celebrate the person he was and his extraordinary musical legacy."

Here’s everything to know about Kenny Rogers’ five kids.

Carole Lynne Rogers, 65

Rogers’ firstborn child and only daughter is Carole Lynne Rogers, who was born on Sept. 15, 1958, to Rogers and his then-wife Janice Gordon. Rogers was only 19 at the time of her birth.

“I understood how girls got pregnant and that guys had an obligation when they did,” Rogers wrote in his autobiography, Luck or Something Like It, referring to Gordon's surprise pregnancy. “When my Janice got pregnant, I was fully prepared to take the step into married life. It never occurred to me to walk away from the responsibility.”

However, Rogers and Gordon's relationship didn’t last long.

“You know what? I loved her,” Rogers later told Fox News in 2012. “At 19 I thought, ‘This is ok with me.’ That was a thing where her parents thought I’d ruined her life and were determined to break me. It didn’t work, and it’s really sad because I think it could have worked. You can’t say I’m afraid of commitment. I’ve been married five times!”

The pair went their separate ways in 1960, and Rogers didn’t see his daughter often as his music career began to take off. In 1980, PEOPLE reported that Rogers was granted only two hours of weekly visitation with Carole.

Rogers eventually lost touch with Carole, and she was adopted by his ex-wife’s second husband.

During his 2012 interview with Fox News, Rogers spoke about their estrangement, acknowledging that they did not keep in contact. “That was my promise to them, that I would be her father but he [his ex-wife’s second husband] would be her Dad, and I don’t want to disrupt that,” he said. “He stepped in at a time that was really awkward for all of us and he became her Dad, and I love him for that. He was a good guy.”

Kenny Rogers Jr., 59

In 1963, Rogers married Margo Gladys Anderson, his third wife, who was a mom to a daughter named Shannon. Together, they had Kenny Rogers Jr., born on May 24, 1964.

However, the couple divorced in 1975, and Anderson resettled in Palm Springs with Kenny Jr. In the years following their split, Rogers barely saw his son. “I would wish desperately that my relationship with Kenny Jr. were better,” he told PEOPLE in 1980.

In a 1982 interview with PEOPLE, when Carole was 23 and Kenny Jr. was 17, Rogers said, “As you try to get ahead, it’s too easy to think that these kids are still going to be kids tomorrow and that once you get your current project done, you’ll spend some time with them.”

“Then you say, ‘Well, he’s still a child, after all, so I’ll go ahead and get one more project done,’ ” he continued. “The next thing you know the child is grown up and you can’t relate to him at all.”

Now, Kenny is an actor and composer, known for his work on films like Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping and Get Him to the Greek, among others.

Christopher Cody Rogers, 42

Christopher Cody Rogers was born on Dec. 4, 1981, to Rogers and his fourth wife, Marianne Gordon. He was born at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, and Rogers passed out Hershey bars to celebrate.

Christopher experienced hyaline membrane disease at birth, a respiratory disorder that was fatal to John F Kennedy’s infant son in 1963, but he overcame it.

“Before I leave in the mornings, I hold him and talk to him and get him to smile,” Rogers told PEOPLE in March 1982. “Every day I see what he’s doing that he didn’t do the day before. I know the hard way that we cannot recapture this age, and I’m not missing those things, because I don’t think I’m going to have another chance. This is it.”

When Rogers and Gordon decided to get a divorce, Christopher took it hard. Rogers recounted telling his son the news during a 2006 interview with The Independent.

"I remember when I told him - we were out in a golf cart together - I said, 'Chris, your mom and I are going to get a divorce,' and he started screaming,” he recalled. “I said, 'It's going to be OK, I won't spend as much time with you but the time I spend will be quality time,' and he said, 'But will you still be my dad?' ”

“So I told him, 'Of course', and he said, 'I thought Mom was going to remarry and somebody else was going to be my dad and I could never tell people you were my daddy and you wouldn't look at me like I'm your son,' ” he continued. “It was just a 12-year-old sorting out those things in his head, but then he was fine."

Christopher is now an actor and director known for his work in The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw and Loneliness.

Jordan Edward Rogers and Justin Charles Rogers, 19

Jordan Edward Rogers and Justin Charles Rogers were born on July 6, 2004, in Atlanta, Georgia, to Rogers and his fifth wife Wanda Miller.

“Boy, has it ever changed my life,” Rogers told PEOPLE in 2006 about his twins. “They say that twins at my age will either make you or break you. Right now I’m leaning towards break. I would kill for the energy they’ve got."

He added: "I’m embarrassed to tell you I can’t tell them apart. Jordan has a little freckle in the middle of his forehead. I have to turn them around to see who it is."

In his 2006 interview with The Independent, Rogers recounted the story of how he decided to have another baby.

"Actually, before we married my position was, 'Been there, done that', so I told her, 'I don't want any more kids' and she said, 'I don't either,' " he recalled. "But Wanda hadn't had any kids, so I said, 'That may be your choice now but when you turn 30 your body is going to say, Have a baby now or miss it forever' and she said, 'Not me.’ ”

“Yet on her 31st birthday Wanda, sure enough, asked, 'Can we have one?' ” the country star added. After doing some "soul-searching," Rogers agreed to try for a baby.

”So we went for it, and when I was told it was twins, man, I was thrilled,” he told the outlet. “So was Wanda. It wasn't just 'We are going to have a baby' it was totally overwhelming."

When the twins got older, they started to realize how famous their dad was.

“I’ll hear Justin say to his friends, ‘My dad’s very famous,’ ” Rogers said on The Bobby Bones Show in 2013, adding: “Last year on New Year’s Eve, we went on a Disney Cruise, and we go over to this Disney Island. We’re coming back to get in line, there’s 200 people in front of us, and I’m standing in line, and Jordan says, ‘Hey Dad. I thought we were supposed to be VIPs.’ ”

Rogers brought both Jordan and Justin with him on his farewell tour. “My goal is to spend some time with them and take them to some places they might not have gone to without me,” Rogers told Rare Country in 2016, per Country Rebel. “So, they can look back someday and say, ‘My dad took me there.’ That, to me, is my legacy to them.”

Being there for his two youngest kids was very important to Rogers. “I think being a father is what I'm best at,” he told The Independent. “Even if it did take me five attempts to get here! But maybe anybody who doesn't get it right after five marriages doesn't deserve to!"

In June 2023, Justin and Jordan graduated from high school. Rogers' team shared a photo of them on Instagram posing together in their cap and gowns, and the boys bore a striking resemblance to their late father.

"Kenny always said 'Friendships come and go, but families are forever.' Indeed," read the caption.

The following month, the twins opened up to PEOPLE about some of their favorite memories of their father.

“I used to be bullied a lot. I’d come home crying and my dad would say, ‘Just keep being yourself. You’re very funny,’ ” Jordan said. “Every day I still live up to that.”

“I miss everything about him," Justin added. "He was a really fun dad.”