Jack White’s third wife Olivia Jean filed for divorce, cited ‘inappropriate marital conduct’

While I pay attention to Jack White’s work and interviews, I had no idea that he was married to his third wife. Did you know that? I remembered the weirdness with his first wife, Meg White, and I definitely remember the messiness around the end of his second marriage, to Karen Elson. That was more than a decade ago, and it involved Karen Elson getting a restraining order against White, and White beefing with Dan Auerbach from The Black Keys (that beef was exposed during the divorce). Well, Jack White remarried, to singer Olivia Jean. And now she’s filed for divorce and she’s not just citing irreconcilable differences.

Singer Olivia Jean has filed for divorce from her rocker husband Jack White after more than three years of marriage.

Jean, 36, filed for divorce from White, 50, on June 3 in Nashville, citing irreconcilable differences and “inappropriate marital conduct” as reason for the split, according to documents obtained by PEOPLE. She listed their date of separation as the date she filed.

Jean’s filing alleges that White is “guilty of inappropriate marital conduct, which makes further cohabitation unsafe and improper.”

Reps for the stars did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s requests for comment. TMZ was first to report the news. The pair were married on stage in Detroit in December 2022 after White proposed that same night, popping the question before a hometown crowd at the Masonic Temple.

“It’s been such a great day, mind if we get married right now?” he asked the crowd before his Third Man Records co-founder Ben Swank officiated the ceremony.

Jean’s filing claims she is “dependent on [White’s] income for her support,” and requests alimony and for him to keep paying her medical insurance. Jean also asked the court that she stay on his life insurance policy as beneficiary.

White was previously married to White Stripes bandmate Meg White, 51, from 1996 to 2000, and to singer and model Karen Elson from 2005 to 2013. He and Elson, 47, share daughter Scarlett, 20, and son Henry, 18, with Elson.

[From People]

Hm… she’s 36, he’s 50 and getting divorced for a third time. Some men are just extremely messy. As much as I like Jack’s music and his whole deal, I think he’s probably deeply problematic in relationships. I believe Olivia, I think he’s probably made her feel unsafe. Karen had to get a restraining order for a reason, you know? Well, this sucks. Throw the whole man away.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

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16 Responses to “Jack White’s third wife Olivia Jean filed for divorce, cited ‘inappropriate marital conduct’”

  1. Jayna says:

    They were only married three-and-a-half years, and she wants to stay on his life insurance policy as beneficiary? LOL

    • FYI says:

      I think divorce attorneys overshoot as part of negotiating a settlement. She wants some kind of financial security, which is pretty normal when one party far out-earns the other.

  2. Kittenmom says:

    Yes, toss him. Medical insurance, sure. Reasonable alimony for a reasonable length of time, okay. Life insurance proceeds? No way. She doesn’t have kids with him and would have a compelling reason to off him!

  3. Dee(2) says:

    It sounds like you can’t do irreconcilable differences divorce in Tennessee unless all parties agree all aspects of the separation. And if she wants spousal support and to stay on his life insurance policy I can’t see him agreeing to that, regardless of what went on in their marriage. This may be one of those Renee Zellweger ” fraud” divorce filings where specific terminology has to be used for legal reasons. I’m sure more details will come out though, they always do.

  4. June Bug says:

    Karen Elson retracted those actions, which she said were those of her attorney,not herself. Dee’s statement is correct, that is the legal language used in Tennessee for irreconcilable differences, nothing more. Not really too much to argue about.

    • Sue says:

      I am glad to hear that Karen said those things at the end of their marriage didn’t happen. I remember some weird story about Jack threatening the Black Keys guy at their kids’ school?

      • Starry Owl says:

        Did she say them and then retract her statement or was it gossip and attributed to her?

        Either way – no. He’s someone I knows long time obsession / hero because of his feminist talking points. So that sucks. But I’m gonna look at his track record and believe his wives.

  5. Kirsten says:

    He might be kind of messy in relationships, but he’s still good friends with both Meg White and Karen Elson. He also uses his money to help music venues, musicians, other venues in Detroit and Nashville, + a slew of other causes. I’m skeptical that there’s anything there there.

    • Starry Owl says:

      I don’t know. He’s the one with the money and the power in these relationships. If they want to keep working, it makes sense to keep things cordial.

      It almost always behooves the women to try and keep things as amicable and as easy as possible for the men who they used to be married to, in cases of such serious powder dynamic discrepancy.

      • Kirsten says:

        Idk about his current wife, but Karen Elson is an incredibly famous model and very wealthy in her own right — her career doesn’t depend on him at all.

  6. Penny Candy says:

    They have only been married for 3 years but they have been together a lot longer, She was pretty young when they got together.

  7. jferber says:

    Kaiser, totally agree with your take. Jack White is an extremely talented musician, but he’s shit with women. Rene Zellwegger was involved with him before he married Karen Elson, I think. Well, Rene really dodged a bullet. I hope the third wife gets what she needs and moves on with her life.

  8. Glamarazzi says:

    His wives keep getting younger, and the length of marriage getting shorter. Not a great look.

  9. Anare says:

    I was reading something about him meeting his current wife and it seemed like the dates might have overlapped with his time married to wife #2. IDK, I could be completely misreading that. But maybe monogamy is not his thing. Asking to stay on his life insurance is a bit of stretch for a marriage that lasted all of 3 years and he is still in fine health as far as we know.

  10. bisynaptic says:

    Is a restraining order not enough of a warning label?

  11. goofpuff says:

    That life insurance request really put me off her there. Who asks for that when you don’t have kids and haven’t been married long? The rest though, I can see it. He is messy.

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