C.S. Lewis married the American writer Joy Davidman in a civil ceremony in 1956.
Joy Davidman and Lewis first became friends through correspondence. Davidman, an American poet and writer, moved to England with her sons in the 1950s. Lewis married her in a civil ceremony at Oxford’s register office on 23 April 1956. The marriage initially served a legal purpose connected with Davidman’s immigration status.
The couple later received a Christian marriage ceremony at Holy Trinity Church, Headington, in 1957, conducted by Lewis’s friend Reverend Peter Bide. Their relationship became deeply important to Lewis, and Davidman’s illness and death influenced his later writing, especially A Grief Observed.
Davidman died of cancer in 1960, aged 45. Lewis did not remarry. The story is sometimes simplified by mentioning only the 1956 civil ceremony, but the later church ceremony is also an important part of their marital history.