Couples
Late Host Alex Trebek and Wife Jean Were a Winning Team: See Facts About Their 30-Year Marriage
After 30 years of marriage, Alex Trebek couldn’t have felt luckier to have his wife, Jean Currivan Trebek, by his side. The late Jeopardy! host and the real estate guru were inseparable up until his death in November 2020, and fun facts about their incredible bond prove they were meant to be together forever.
The beloved TV host first crossed paths with the former project manager after being introduced by a mutual friend in the late ’80s. At the time, Alex was years off a divorce from his first wife, Elaine Trebek, whom he married in 1974.
After dating for some time, Alex and Jean tied the knot in a romantic wedding ceremony in 1990. That same year, the lovebirds welcomed their eldest son, Matthew Trebek, followed by their youngest daughter, Emily Trebek, in 1993.
Even though Alex was one of showbiz’s biggest stars, he was never one to publicly flaunt his romance. “Alex and Jean have one of Hollywood’s best love stories,” an insider exclusively told Closer Weekly in March 2020. “The fact that they don’t flash it in everyone’s faces, like a lot of couples in this town do, is [a true] testament [of] their confidence.”
Aside from having Jean as his partner in crime, the source noted how amazing the dedicated wife was throughout his nearly two-year battle with stage IV pancreatic cancer. “Alex says he never would have been able to get through his cancer battle without Jean,” the insider shared. “There were some very dark days when he just wanted to give up, but she has a way of lifting his spirits.”
Following Alex’s diagnosis in March 2019, Jean went above and beyond to make her husband’s cancer battle as painless as possible. Tragically, the Emmy Award winner died at age 80, Jeopardy! announced on their social media accounts in November 2020.
Six months later, Jean opened up about her husband’s legacy and the impact he made as a popular game show host. The Reiki master pointed out “one of the beautiful things” that “came” out of Alex’s heartbreaking death.
“If you can call it a blessing … [it’s] that he got to really see the outpouring of love and admiration that he gave to the world,” she said to Today in April 2021. “Some people just, you know, you don’t see that while you’re still embodied, you don’t get to really witness all the love that people feel for you. And I know that that was in and of itself a huge inspiration for Alex.”
In a separate interview with The Eden Magazine in October 2021, Jean called Alex her “most beloved friend.” She said, “Like most long-term relationships, we had our ups and downs, but the truth of it was that we were very close and experienced a lot of life together.”
“For the most part, Alex and I enjoyed staying at home. When we did go out, it was perhaps for a quick dinner or movie every now and then, so it wasn’t like we were always out in public for me to really notice his popularity,” Jean continued. “I started realizing just how much he was adored by people from all walks of life when he made his public announcement that he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.”
Scroll through the gallery below to see touching facts about Alex and Jean’s marriage.
