George Jones’ Widow Nancy Says She’s ‘Having a Good Time Now’ After Spending ‘32 Years of My Life Saving a Man’

George Jones’ widow Nancy says she’s enjoying life now after spending 32 years helping the country star through addiction and hardship.

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Nancy Jones reflects on her life 13 years after George Jones’ death and says she’s enjoying life

She spent 32 years helping George overcome addiction and believes patience and faith were key to his recovery

Nancy is hosting a 95th birthday celebration in George’s honor in Nashville this September

George Jones’ widow Nancy spent decades getting her country legend husband’s life back on track — so forgive her for wanting to have a little fun.

Nancy, 77, appeared on the Drifting Cowboy podcast on Thursday, Aug. 20, and opened up about her life now, 13 years after losing George.

“I’m not mean no more. I had to be. But… I’m all mellowed out,” she said. “I have missed out on life and so I’m enjoying life now. A lot of people don’t expect me to go out and do this and do that. I deserve it. I really do. And I pat myself on the back because I put 32 years of my life [into] saving a man. And so that’s why I’m out having a good time now.”

Nancy and George were married in 1983, but it didn’t take long for the “He Stopped Loving Her Today” singer’s demons to emerge. Though she maintains that George “was a good man,” he struggled for much of his life with alcohol and drug abuse.

“I knew that the man was with the wrong crowd and they were doing things that I did not approve of. So I just stayed there thinking, ‘I’ve got to save this man,’” she said. “I really, in my heart, I’ll always believe that’s why God put me on this earth.”

Nancy said she even wrote a 2023 memoir about their time together, called Playin’ Possum: My Memories of George Jones, to let fans of the star know just how difficult it was helping George through his darkest times.

“I’m not going to say nothing I did was easy. I wouldn’t wish it on nobody. People say [things] like, ‘She didn’t straighten him out, God did.’ Yeah, God did. But I had to lead him back to God, and I had to have the patience with him,” she said. “The first thing he would tell you was, ‘Don’t nag me.’ I never nagged him. I never did. I learned to have patience with him, and I think that was what was the clue to the whole thing.”

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George eventually got sober for good in 1999 after a near-fatal car accident in which he had to be extracted from his vehicle using the jaws of life.

Nancy said on the podcast that the singer’s doctor told her she should prepare herself because he was “going to die,” but George pulled through, and remained clean until he died of respiratory failure in 2013 at age 81.

“I know he’s in heaven and I know he’s just having a blast because when he hit that bridge in ‘99, to 2013 he never touched another drink or never smoked another cigarette,” she said.

George previously credited Nancy with saving his life in a 1996 interview, saying he “shouldn’t be here today” and wouldn’t be without her support.

Nancy opened up to PEOPLE about the couple’s life together in 2023, saying that while George was “very abusive,” she knew he was a good person.

“I loved this man, and I knew I was fighting for a good man, and I knew that it was not George when he was acting up and being drunk and doing the things he was doing that was not him,” she said. “It was those demons coming out.”

Nancy is set to host a 95th birthday party in her late husband’s honor on Sept. 13 in Nashville.

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