A little more than four years after their onstage wedding ceremony, Jack White’s wife, Olivia Jean, has filed for divorce.
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According to court documents obtained by TMZ, Jean submitted her divorce papers on June 3, citing “inappropriate marital conduct.” She listed the filing date as the couple’s date of separation.
“Wife would show that Husband is guilty of inappropriate marital conduct, which makes further cohabitation unsafe and improper,” Jean’s filing reads.
She didn’t reveal further details about why she and White were ending their marriage. TMZ noted that “inappropriate marital conduct” is a standard statutory term used in divorce pleadings in the state of Tennessee.
Jean also noted that she is dependent on White’s income and will need spousal support. She also requested that he add her to his life insurance policy.
White was married to his former bandmate, Meg White, from 1996 to 2000. He then married his second wife, Karen Elson, in 2005. They divorced in 2013. He and Elson share two children.
White and Jean Met in 2009
The former White Stripes frontman met Jean at a Dead Weather concert in 2009. However, the couple didn’t confirm their romance until years later.
They got married at a concert at the Masonic Temple in White’s hometown of Detroit. The wedding ceremony took place just minutes after White proposed to Jean, as the duo performed The White Stripes’ “Hotel Yorba.”
Jean previously opened up about her and White’s obstetrical wedding, calling it the “best experience” of her life.
“You could plan a wedding for five years, and it wouldn’t compare to that,” she told The New York Times months after the event. She recalled meeting White for the first time at the Dead Weather concert. She said he asked her to come record with him at Third Man Records.
“I put the phone down, and then I just laid on the ground for a few minutes,” she said. “Like, this is not real. This can’t be real. This doesn’t happen to people.”
White, who is notorious for keeping his personal life private, gave a statement to the media outlet about his first impression of Jean’s music.
“The fact that she incorporated surf guitar and the low-fi recording of all the instruments (that she played herself) into her songs, while also being from Detroit, not to mention the bouffant hairdo and style, all showed me this was a very unique and talented person worth inviting into the Third Man world,” he stated.
Elsewhere in the interview, Jean said that things between her and White didn’t get romantic until 2014. “We were just really good friends,” she pointed out. “You have to know that you can be friends for a while before you can date. It wasn’t really a transition. It was more, OK, this is happening. More like a continuation.”