Jack White’s Wife Files for Divorce, Citing Dangerous Conduct

Jack White, the 50-year-old frontman of the White Stripes, is headed for a divorce that appears likely to be contentious. His wife, musician Olivia Jean, 36, filed the petition earlier this month and cited the usual irreconcilable differences, but also accused White of “misconduct” that made their life together “dangerous and inappropriate.”

Jean’s filing says she depends on White’s income and is asking for spousal support, for him to keep paying her health insurance, and for her to remain a beneficiary on his life insurance policy.

The marriage began in dramatic fashion in 2022 during a White concert in Detroit, where he brought Jean, a local resident, onstage. While performing “Hotel Yorba,” just before the lyric that says “Let’s get married,” he proposed. The pair then married moments later onstage in front of the audience. White asked the crowd, “It was a great night, would you mind if we got married right now?”

Afterward, Jean told an interview it was “the best experience of my life,” adding that a wedding planned for five years could not compare. She said it was flattering that others approved and described it as “positive, but weird. Very weird.” For White, this is his third marriage. He was married to Meg White from 1996 to 2000, then to singer and model Karen Elson, with whom he divorced in 2013 after eight years and has two children, Scarlett, 20, and Henry, 18. For Jean, it was her first marriage.