Details You Never Knew About Alex Trebek's Wife
Fans of the late Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek may know that he was married to his second wife, Jean Currivan Trebek, for 30 years. Despite their 24-year age difference, the Trebeks had an incredibly sweet love story, caring for each other up until the moment of his death.
The Trebeks met at a New York party in 1988, Newsweek reported in January, and the rest is history. Jean and Alex Trebek were married in 1990 and went on to have two children together, Matthew and Emily Trebek.
"Alex is really down to earth. He's much more casual than he is on the show," Currivan Trebek told People in 1990. But how much do fans know about Alex Trebek's wife? Currivan Trebek has stayed largely out of the public eye, despite her husband's fame. (Alex even told People in 2019 that the two of them were "homebodies.") Here's what to know about the late host's widow and what she's said about her husband over the years.
Jean Currivan Trebek is a sound healer and Reiki master
While Alex Trebek's Jeopardy! hosting job focused on facts, Jean Currivan Trebek was more in touch with the metaphysical. A sound healer and Reiki master, the late game show host's wife focuses on the power of sound and the many types of "healing" that are out there.
"The human voice has so much power and healing," Currivan Trebek told Survivor Net in 2019. "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."
In addition to her sound healing work, Currivan Trebek co-founded the wellness site Inside Wink, which encourages positivity and has articles on everything from gardening tips to reducing your carbon footprint. She's also a member of the North Hollywood Church of Religious Science, according to Survivor Net.
And even after her husband's stage 4 pancreatic cancer diagnosis, Currivan Trebek found ways to let her positive outlook guide her and guide their relationship. "With each passing day, I have found so much to be grateful for. Alex's work. Our kids, our friends, a sunset, a flower blooming in our garden," Currivan Trebek wrote in a July 2020 Guideposts essay. "The smallest things that I once took for granted now carry more meaning." Currivan Trebek supported her husband however she could until his tragic death on Nov. 8.
Alex Trebek made a Jeopardy! joke at his wedding to Jean Currivan Trebek
Alex Trebek was known to have a sense of humor, and that even extended to his 1990 wedding day. According to People, the Jeopardy! host couldn't resist making a reference to the game show during his vows. When asked if he would take Jean as his wife, he responded, "The answer is ... yes," according to the magazine. Well, that beats saying "I do!"
Twenty-nine years later, Trebek gushed about his wife in an interview with People. "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," Trebek said. "I guess if I'd met her when I was in my 20s, she wouldn't have been born yet. But hey, 29 years is pretty good!"
Nice to see Trebek's sense of humor extended to the sizable age gap between them.
Jean Currivan Trebek supported Alex Trebek through his cancer battle
In the January 2020 ABC interview special What Is Jeopardy!? Alex Trebek and America's Most Popular Quiz Show, Alex Trebek shared that he was battling depression after his cancer diagnosis and that his wife was helping him with his mental health.
"I'm not always the most pleasant person to be around when I'm experiencing severe pain or depression, and she has to tread lightly around me," Trebek said in the ABC special, according to HuffPost. "My oncologist told me one of the symptoms, if you will, of pancreatic cancer is that you get these moments of depression, sadness."
And while Jean Currivan Trebek expressed her frustrations with not being able to do more to ease her husband's pain in the same interview, she has also shared that she used her background and her positive outlook to help her husband's mental state.
"It comes from a place of love because I want to uplift him ... and when I keep my own self buoyed and enjoying my life, I can actually share that with him. He can look at me and have a sense of 'life is beautiful; my wife is doing something good,'" Currivan Trebek told Survivor Net in 2019. The outlet also noted that Currivan Trebek had used her "sound-healing crystal bowls" with her husband.
The Trebeks' love for each other shined through all of the interviews they gave over the years, and it's clear that Alex Trebek will be dearly missed.