Alan Jackson’s Daughter, Mattie, Reveals New Love 3 1/2 Years After Husband’s Death [Pictures]
Alan Jackson's oldest daughter, Mattie Jackson Selecman, has found love again, three-and-a-half years after her husband died after a tragic accident.
She turned to social media on Thursday (April 14) to introduce her new love, whom she's been dating for six months.
Mattie's husband, Ben Selecman, died on Sept. 12, 2018, after suffering a fall during a family celebration on Alan Jackson's boat over Labor Day weekend. He slipped and fell while helping a woman onto the boat, hitting his head on the dock. The head trauma led to 11 days in a medically-induced coma and multiple surgeries, but after doctors brought him out of the coma, he suffered multiple strokes and eventual heart failure.
The couple had been married just 11 months at the time of his death.
Mattie Selecman turned to Instagram to share a series of very happy-looking photos of herself and her new love, who does not have an Instagram account and whom she identifies only as "Connor." She explains that Connor is one of her best friends' brother-in-law, and they met six months ago for a low-key happy hour "with no expectations besides a little fun."
"Well, four hours later, drinks turned to dinner, and from that day til now, he has been one surprise after another," she writes. "I have believed, prayed, and claimed for 3 and a half years now that God would give me the chance to love someone with my whole heart again."
Selecman adds that other widowed friends of hers had told her it would eventually be possible for her to love again, and she had held the idea close over the last few years as she believed and prayed about it.
"This man is more of an answer to prayer (mine and countless others!) than I sometimes think he even realizes," she gushes. "Beyond his playful, generous, childlike spirit (the kind that I always seem to fall for), he has this wonderfully tender heart that I didn’t even know I needed. Empathy, intentionality, and encouragement are his default mode, and not for a minute have I been anything but unapologetically myself."
"I cannot believe how good our God is to redeem broken hearts the way he does," Selecman writes in closing. "I am so grateful for that not-so-quick happy hour. I love you (Instagram-less) Connor and I can’t wait to see what this new chapter holds."
Selecman detailed the loss of her husband and her long grieving process very candidly in a book titled Lemons on Friday, which she published in 2021.
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