Stephen King and Tabitha King: All About Their Decades-Long Romance

Stephen King and Tabitha King have been married since 1971

He might be known as one of the world’s most notable horror writers, but Stephen King isn’t the only author in the family — his wife, Tabitha King, is an accomplished writer and philanthropist, too.

The couple met in college, married in 1971 and have split their time between their home state of Maine and Florida. They have three adult children they raised in Bangor, Maine, the city that inspired the fictional Derry, Maine, the setting for Stephen's novel It.

Stephen credits Tabitha with making big contributions to his career: In the early years, she worked a second shift to help support their young family, freeing up the fledgling horror novelist with time to write, and she still reads all of his drafts and offers him feedback. He reciprocates, and they do the same for their kids’ writing.

"There's a long-running joke that I married Tabitha because we were poor, and she came with a typewriter," he told Bon Appétit in 2013. "But it's really because of the fish that she cooked for me."

After all this time, they’re still going strong. “A couple of kids got married 48 years ago today,” he tweeted on their anniversary in 2019. “So far it’s worked out pretty well. Still in love.”

Here’s everything to know about Stephen King and Tabitha King’s marriage.

They met in college

Stephen and Tabitha were students at the University of Maine when they met. He was known on campus as a columnist for the student newspaper, and they both worked at the library, according to Stephen’s website.

They married on Jan. 2, 1971, and in the fall of that year, he began work as an English teacher, and she worked a second shift at Dunkin’ Donuts so that he would have evenings to write.

Even in the early days, when he wasn’t earning a living from writing, Tabitha encouraged him to persevere. “​​She’d read my stuff and felt certain I’d someday support us by writing full-time,” he said in his acceptance speech for a National Book Foundation medal. “She never made a big deal of this. It was just a fact of our lives. We lived in a trailer and she made a writing space for me in the tiny laundry room with a desk and her Olivetti portable between the washer and dryer.”

Even though she never doubted him, he doubted himself. “When I gave up on Carrie, it was Tabby who rescued the first few pages of single-spaced manuscript from the wastebasket, told me it was good, said I ought to go on,” Stephen continued. “When I told her I didn’t know how to go on, she helped me.”

Later in the speech, he said: “My point is that Tabby always knew what I was supposed to be doing, and she believed that I would succeed at it. … I hope you know, Tabby, that they are clapping for you and not for me. Stand up so they can see you, please. Thank you. Thank you. I did not let her see this speech, and I will hear about this later.”

Stephen and Tabitha have three children

The Kings have three children: Naomi, Joe and Owen. Their oldest, Naomi King, was born on June 1, 1970. They are an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister and a yoga teacher, according to their website.

Stephen and Tabitha’s second child, Joseph Hillström King, was born on June 4, 1972. He took on the pen name Joe Hill, abbreviating his middle name, so that he wouldn’t carry the association of his famous father or benefit from nepotism.

“I was very insecure, and I didn’t want to sell something because someone saw it as a way to make a quick buck and then have it come out and someone would say it was terrible,” he told The New York Times in 2013.

Related: Stephen King's son follows his father's footsteps into literary horror

Joe is now a best-selling author, and several of his works have been turned into Hollywood productions. The novel NOS4A2 and the comic book series Locke & Key both had TV adaptations, and The Black Phone, from his short story collection 20th Century Ghosts, became a feature film.

The couple’s youngest, Owen Philip King, was born on Feb. 21, 1977. He’s also an acclaimed writer, best known for We're All in This Together and Sleeping Beauties, which he co-authored with his father.

They’re both accomplished authors

Stephen may be the more famous writer, having sold over 400 million copies of his more than 60 books, short stories and novellas, but as he noted in his National Book Foundation speech, his wife is equally devoted to the craft. “Tabby finished the first book of our marriage, a slim but wonderful book of poetry called Grimoire,” he said.

Tabitha has published eight novels, including Small World and Pearl.

“I knew she could write poetry,” Stephen told PEOPLE of Small World in 1981. “But I never guessed she could write such a good novel right out of the box.” Her first book advance was high for a first-time author: $165,000 in 1981 (about $578,000 in 2023). Tabitha readily admitted that she benefited from the association with her already-famous husband.

“I put 10 years into helping his career,” she told PEOPLE. “So if his name helps me with mine, I think it’s legitimate.”

They raised a literary family

Stephen and Tabitha always emphasized reading in their home — he even had his kids recite books on tape so he could listen to them in the car — and they would take turns reading aloud after dinner. It fostered a passion for writing in their sons.

“I can remember being 8, and eventually everything had to stop so he could write for two hours,” Owen told the New York Times of growing up with Joe. Owen eventually went to graduate school for writing.

Stephen said Tabitha once "threatened to divorce" him for playing 'Mambo No. 5' too often

In a September 2023 interview with Rolling Stone, Stephen recalled a time when his love of Lou Bega's 1999 hit "Mambo No. 5" almost ended his marriage to Tabitha.

"My wife threatened to divorce me. I played that a lot," he said of the song, before adding, “I had the dance mix. I loved those extended play things and I played both sides of it. And one of them was just total instrumental."

He continued, "And I played that thing until my wife just said, ‘One more time, and I’m going to f------ leave you.' ”

They founded a charitable organization

In 1986, the couple founded the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation, a nonprofit that supports community projects in their home state. According to the STK Foundation’s website, “The Foundation has a special interest in organizations and people who have less recourse to usual channels of resources, focusing on community-based initiatives in the State of Maine only.”

The foundation is based in their one-time Bangor residence, a dark red home with a wrought-iron gate decorated with bats and spiderwebs. The house also holds Stephen’s writing archives, and a guest house on the property functions as a retreat for working writers.

They help elevate aspiring authors

In 2021, their foundation donated $6,500 to an elementary school after he noticed the faculty were running a Kickstarter campaign to get their students’ work published. In 2022, when a fledgling author named Chelsea Banning tweeted that she was disappointed when only two people came to her book signing, Stephen responded with his own book signing horror story.

"At my first SALEM'S LOT signing, I had one customer," he replied. Authors like Neil Gaiman, Jodi Picoult and Margaret Atwood also responded with similar stories. The attention helped put Banning’s book into the bestseller sphere on Amazon.

They’ve both been recognized for their work

In addition to winning the National Book Award Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Stephen has won Hugo, Edgar and Bram Stoker awards, among others.

Tabitha has been decorated for her work as well. In 1987, both Stephen and Tabitha were awarded honorary doctorates from the University of Maine.

In addition to the family foundation, Tabitha has devoted significant time to charitable causes, including those promoting literacy. She’s been on the board of an adolescent homeless shelter in Bangor, the Maine Public Broadcasting, the Bangor Public Library, the University of Maine Press and the Maine Humanities Council. In 1998, she won the first annual Constance H. Carlson Prize, awarded for her contributions to public humanities.

In one instance, though, Tabitha wasn’t properly recognized for a donation — and she and Stephen were vocal about their disappointment. The couple donated $1.25 million to a local historical society, and the headlines from the ensuing press coverage referred to them as “Stephen King and his wife.”

​​“My wife is rightly pissed by headlines like this: ‘Stephen King and his wife donate $1.25M to New England Historic Genealogical Society,' ” he wrote on Twitter (now called X). “The gift was her original idea, and she has a name: TABITHA KING.”

He went on to tweet her response. “Wife is a relationship or status. It is not an identity,” she wrote. “You might consider the unconscious condescension in your style book, and give women their names.”

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