Getty Alex Trebek (R) and wife Jean Currivan Trebek
For thirty years, Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek has been married to his wife, Jean Currivan Trebek.
Trebek has vocalized his affection for his wife on more than one occasion, and has praised her for putting up with him when he’s “not the most pleasant person to be around.”
In a 2019 interview with People, Trebek said that his only regret was having not met his wife sooner.
Here’s what you need to know about Jean Currivan:
1. The Couple Met at a Party in 1988
GettyAlex Trebek with his spouse and family.
According to NewsWeek, Trebek and Currivan met at a party in 1988. They “hit it off instantly,” the outlet reported.
The couple remained friends for some time before they started dating. Currivan told People of meeting Trebek, “There was just this deep sensitivity about him with a gruffy exterior. I kept thinking, he’s 24 years older than me .. but there was something that just kept drawing me to him.”
The couple married two years later and were together for three decades before Trebek’s passing.
In an interview with People last year, Trebek shared, “I’m pretty satisfied with my life. But my wife Jean and I have been together almost 29 years, and I was thinking about President [George H. W.] Bush when he died, and all the comments about his life about what a nice guy he is, and how he and his wife had been together 73 years. I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, if I’d just met Jean in my 20s we could have had a longer life together.'”
2. She Is a Former Real Estate Manager
GettyAlex Trebek (L) and Jean Currivan Trebek
When she met Trebek, Currivan was working as a real estate manager for her own business, according to a previous Heavy article.
The article reveals that Currivan invested in her son’s business in 2016– she and Trebek purchased a building at 140th Street and Frederick Douglas Boulevard for their son.
Speaking to The New York Post in 2016, Trebek’s son, Matthew, shared, “I’m much more like my mom… My mom and I are much more reserved and shy, and my dad and my sister are a little more outgoing and [want] to be the entertainment people.”
In addition to her expertise in the world of real estate, Currivan Trebek is a professional sound healer, Reiki master, and Religious Science practitioner, according to News Week.
3. Trebek Was Married To His First Wife, Elaine Callei, From 1974 To 1980
GettySpecial Guest Alex Trebek attends the screening of ‘Wuthering Heights’
Trebek was previously married to Elaine Callei Trebek, but they divorced in 1981 after seven years of marriage.
Elaine is a businesswoman who majored in journalism at Ohio State University before getting into the party-planning business.
IMDB lists The Bunny Years and Canada A.M. as credits on her resume. The former is a nod to the years Callei worked as a Playboy Bunny under the pseudonym Teddy Howard.
Callei had a daughter, Nicky, from her first husband, Louis Callei, when she married Trebek. Trebek has since remained Nicky’s adoptive father.
4. She Is a Member of the North Hollywood Church of Religious Science
In an interview with The New Republic, Trebek revealed that his wife attends the North Hollywood Church of Religious Science. There, she works as a licensed practitioner of Religious Science.
Speaking to Survivor Net in 2019, Currivan Trebek opened up about her beliefs, explaining, “It’s really about self-love. And that love is the love of the Creator, but there are so many names for that,” she explained. “We might say ‘Universal Mind,’ ‘Infinite Intelligence,’ ‘God,’ ‘Jesus,’ ‘Abraham,’ … or if you don’t have a religious background, you might even call it, ‘gardening.’ It really does boil down to being kind to life and yourfellow human beings and having compassion for each other’s journey.”
A reporter penned an article about Currivan Trebek in 2019, writing that an interview with her “feels like a massage for your eardrums.” At the time of the interview, Currivan Trebek had been practicing sound healing for ten years.
She told the outlet, “The human voice has so much power and healing. It’s like how, when a mother sings a lullaby to her baby, it’s the intention in her voice that is calming the baby. She’s singing the words of love and beauty to this little baby, and the baby feels that in the vibration of her voice.”
5. They Are 23 Years Apart
Trebek passed away on the morning of November 8, 2020. He was 80. Currivan Trebek, meanwhile, was born in 1963, making her 57.
Currivan Trebek is the mother of Trebek’s two children, Matthew and Emily, along with Trebek’s adopted daughter, Nicky, from his marriage to Elaine Callei.
Matthew, 29, works as a restaurateur in Manhattan, while Emily, 27, works in real estate in Los Angeles. Nicky is both a production coordinator on Jeopardy! and a singer-songwriter.
In 2019, Jean shared of the couple’s children, “They’re really sharp, and have done their due diligence in their respective endeavors… They’re both very compassionate, sensitive people. They’re really the best of Alex and I. You can talk to them. They’re our good friends.”
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