Rita Coolidge

In November 1970, she met Kris Kristofferson at the Los Angeles airport when they were both catching the same flight to Tennessee. He got off in Memphis with her, rather than continue to his intended destination in Nashville. The two married in 1973 and recorded several duet albums, which sold well and earned the duo a Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in 1974 for "From the Bottle to the Bottom", and in 1976 for "Lover Please."

Coolidge didn't receive songwriting credits for the piano coda in the 1971 single "Layla" by Eric Clapton's band Derek and the Dominos. In 2016, Coolidge stated that she recorded a demo with her boyfriend, the band's drummer Jim Gordon, before they went to England to record with Clapton. Once they met with Clapton, Coolidge played the piece she composed for him and she gave him a cassette. Clapton, impressed by the piece, used it as part of the song in the coda section which she found out by hearing the song over the PA system a year later. She tried to contact Clapton, but was told by his manager Robert Stigwood, "What are you gonna do? You’re a girl. You don't have money to fight this." She hasn't heard from Clapton himself but believes he is aware of the situation.

"Time" ended up on the 1973 album Chronicles by Booker T. and Priscilla.

Coolidge was married to Kris Kristofferson from 1973 to 1980. Their daughter and her only child, Casey Kristofferson (also a musician), was born in 1974. Their marriage deteriorated after the miscarriage of her second child in 1977. In her memoir, Delta Lady, Coolidge described her marriage to Kristofferson as volatile due to his alcoholism and infidelity. She revealed he was also emotionally abusive and would belittle her talent. When they divorced she did not ask him for anything. However, in 2016 Coolidge told People that she and Kristofferson still shared a bond.

Coolidge's greatest success on the pop charts came during 1977–1978 with four consecutive top 25 hits, remakes of Jackie Wilson's "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher", Boz Scaggs' "We're All Alone", the Temptations' "The Way You Do The Things You Do", and Marcia Hines' "You". Coolidge and Kristofferson divorced in June 1980.

In 1992, Coolidge sang joint lead vocals with Roger Waters on the title track of his album Amused to Death.

In 1997, Coolidge was one of the founding members of Walela, a Native American music trio, that also included her sister Priscilla and her daughter Laura Satterfield. The trio released studio albums in 1997 (Walela) and 2000 (Unbearable Love), a live album and DVD (Live in Concert) in 2004 and a compilation album (The Best of Walela) in 2007. Walela means hummingbird in Cherokee. Coolidge considered this group important, not only in honoring her Cherokee ancestors but also in bringing their culture to others. Also as part of her Native American heritage, she performed with Robbie Robertson, who has Mohawk ancestry, at the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Coolidge married Tatsuya Suda, a world leader in computer architecture research, on June 19, 2004, in the Cook Islands. Suda, a Japanese citizen, retired in 2010 after a long tenure as a professor at the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (UC Irvine), when allegations of professional misconduct against him surfaced. In 2014, he pleaded guilty to a felony charge of receiving illegal payments. Coolidge had lived in Fallbrook, California, where she painted and exhibited her work.

She also was among the first hosts on VH1, a U.S. cable network. In 2006, she recorded a standards album, And So Is Love.

In October, 2014, Coolidge's sister, Priscilla, was killed by her husband, Michael Siebert, in a murder/suicide. The pain of that loss was exacerbated when the killer's ashes were delivered to Rita's home and she had to dispose of them.

Coolidge was inducted into the Southern Museum of Music Hall of Fame in 2015.

Her autobiography, Delta Lady: A Memoir, was published in April 2016.

In 2017, Coolidge rekindled a romantic relationship with a former college lover, Joe Hutto, and moved back to Tallahassee.

On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Rita Coolidge among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.