Chris Watts Seeks Marriage From Prison 8 Years After Murdering His Pregnant Wife and Two Daughters

Chris Watts, the Colorado man who strangled his pregnant wife and smothered their two young daughters in 2018, has applied to marry a woman he met from behind bars. Watts, 41, is reportedly seeking to wed 39-year-old Ohio realtor Lizzie Henderson, who has relocated to Wisconsin and visited him dozens of times at the maximum-security prison where he is serving five consecutive life sentences.

The pair have submitted a formal marriage request through the prison system, and Henderson has already begun using the surname 'Watts'. The application, first reported by the Daily Mail, has reignited scrutiny of one of America's most notorious domestic murder cases eight years after it shocked the country.

Chris Watts and the Prison Romance That Has Shocked True-Crime Followers

Henderson relocated from Ohio to Wisconsin specifically to be closer to Watts, who is housed at Dodge Correctional Institution in Waupun. Prison visitation records reviewed by the Daily Mail show she visited him 20 times in 2025 alone, including on Christmas Day.

Henderson confirmed the relationship to the Daily Mail, acknowledging that others might find it 'weird' but declining to explain how the two met, saying their story was between herself, Watts and God. Photographs obtained by the outlet show her wearing what appear to be wedding rings.

Sealed court records confirm Henderson filed a petition to legally change her name on 12 September 2025, though the details remain confidential. People magazine reported the filing, confirming the case exists.

How a Life-Without-Parole Inmate Can Marry Behind Bars

Henderson's family told the Daily Mail that the couple had formally submitted a marriage request to prison officials as part of Wisconsin's inmate marriage approval process. Such applications typically require review by prison administrators before a ceremony can be authorised, and no date for a wedding has been confirmed publicly.

Watts is serving his sentence without any possibility of parole, meaning a legal marriage would not affect his incarceration status. Wisconsin, like most US states, permits inmates to marry while incarcerated provided the request meets administrative approval, though visitation and contact remain governed by prison rules.

This is not the first relationship Watts has pursued from behind bars. In October 2025, he wrote to a woman identified only as Deborah that he believed God wanted him in prison, comparing his suffering to that of Jesus Christ. Deborah told the Daily Mail she had corresponded with Watts since 2022 before he told her late last year that they 'couldn't be together'.

The 2018 Murders That Made Chris Watts Notorious

Watts pleaded guilty in November 2018 to murdering his pregnant wife, Shanann Watts, and their daughters, four-year-old Bella and three-year-old Celeste, at the family's home in Frederick, Colorado. He initially told police his wife had disappeared, but later confessed to strangling her. He then disposed of the children's bodies at an oil work site where he was employed.

Prosecutors said Watts was having an affair at the time of the killings and had grown resentful of his family, resentment they argued drove him to kill his pregnant wife and both children in a single night. He accepted a plea deal that spared him a possible death sentence in exchange for cooperating with investigators and providing further details of the murders.

Watts was later transferred out of Colorado's prison system to Dodge Correctional Institution in Wisconsin, a move driven by safety concerns after threats against him inside Colorado facilities. He remains one of the most recognisable convicted killers in recent American criminal history, having been the subject of a Netflix documentary and extensive true-crime coverage.

Nearly a decade after the murders that made him notorious worldwide, Chris Watts is now attempting to build a new life, and a new marriage, from inside a prison cell.