Melissa Lee Gatlin is best known as Billy Bob Thornton’s first wife. The two Arkansas natives married in 1978, when Thornton was 22 and still years away from Hollywood success, and divorced in 1980. Their marriage produced one child, Amanda, who is Thornton’s oldest child and was raised mainly by Melissa after the split.
Apart from that marriage and her role as Amanda’s mother, Melissa has lived almost entirely out of public view. She has never pursued a public career or given well-known interviews, so most of what can be said about her comes from Thornton’s history and from coverage of her daughter’s legal case.
Quick Facts
| Detail | Information |
| Full name | Melissa Lee Gatlin |
| Known for | First wife of actor Billy Bob Thornton |
| Home state | Arkansas |
| Married to Thornton | 1978 |
| Divorced | 1980 |
| Child with Thornton | Amanda Brumfield (born 1979) |
| Public profile | Private; no known public career |
Her Marriage to Billy Bob Thornton
Melissa and Thornton were both from Arkansas and married in 1978. At that time, Thornton was not an established actor. He had not yet moved into film, and his breakthrough with Sling Blade was almost 20 years away. Melissa knew him before the Oscar, the tabloid marriages, and the celebrity.
Their daughter, Amanda, was born in 1979. The marriage ended the following year. Melissa filed for divorce in 1980 and cited incompatibility and adultery on Thornton’s part in the petition.
It was the first of Thornton’s six marriages. His later wives were Toni Lawrence, Cynda Williams, Pietra Cherniak, Angelina Jolie, and Connie Angland. Because Thornton’s marriage to Jolie drew so much attention, his earlier, pre-fame marriage to Melissa is often forgotten. That is also why many people look her up when they learn Thornton was married long before he became famous.
Raising Amanda After the Divorce
After the divorce, Amanda stayed with Melissa, who raised her largely on her own. Thornton’s career took off in the 1990s, but he and Amanda were estranged for much of her life. News coverage has consistently described her as his estranged daughter.
Amanda later took the surname Brumfield. For most of her life, she, like her mother, had no connection to Hollywood.
Amanda Brumfield’s Legal Case
The public mostly heard the family name again through a criminal case involving Amanda, not through Melissa herself.
In October 2008, a 1-year-old girl named Olivia Garcia died after an overnight stay at Amanda’s home in the Orlando, Florida, area. Olivia was the daughter of Amanda’s best friend. Amanda said the child had fallen while trying to climb out of a playpen and hit her head. Prosecutors argued that the girl’s skull fracture could not have come from a fall of that height.
In 2011, an Orange County jury acquitted Amanda of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse. It convicted her of aggravated manslaughter of a child, and she was sentenced to 20 years in prison. News reports on the verdict named Melissa Lee Gatlin as Amanda’s mother and noted her 1978–1980 marriage to Thornton. For many readers, this was the first time they had seen her name.
Amanda maintained her innocence throughout. The Innocence Project of Florida later took her case and argued that the medical evidence used to convict her rested on outdated science about pediatric head injuries. In September 2020, after about eight and a half years in prison, Amanda was released under an agreement with prosecutors. Under that deal, she was freed but agreed to stop challenging her conviction in court. Florida records at the time listed her new address in Malvern, Arkansas, her mother’s home state.
Where Is Melissa Lee Gatlin Now?
Melissa has kept a low profile for more than four decades. She does not appear to hold any public role, and there is no confirmed public social media presence under her name. Details of her current life, including her whereabouts, occupation, and whether she remarried, have not been reliably documented.
That privacy seems to be her choice. She was connected to fame for only about two years, before Thornton became famous, and she has not used that connection to build a public profile.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How old is Melissa Lee Gatlin?
Her exact birth date has not been confirmed by reliable public records. Some websites give a specific date in the late 1950s. That would fit with her marrying Thornton, who was born in 1955, in 1978, but the date is unverified, so her current age cannot be stated with certainty.
- What is Melissa Lee Gatlin’s net worth?
There is no reliable public information about her finances. She has no known public career, business, or earnings on record, so any net worth figure you see online is a guess.
- How many children did Melissa Lee Gatlin have with Billy Bob Thornton?
One. Their daughter, Amanda Brumfield, was born in 1979 and is Thornton’s eldest child. Thornton’s other children came from his later marriages.
