‘Jeopardy!’ Host Ken Jennings Reveals Rare Details About His Wife
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It’s been over 20 years since Ken Jennings began his ascent into Jeopardy! fame, first as a contestant with a record-breaking, 74-game run, then by succeeding the late Alex Trebek to become the show’s Emmy-nominated host and the emcee of two spinoffs, Jeopardy! Masters and Celebrity Jeopardy. Throughout his decades of stardom, Ken has stayed relatively quiet about his private life, but fans have caught glimpses of his relationship with wife Mindy Jennings, and their two children, Dylan and Caitlin.
Before Ken ever set foot behind a Jeopardy! podium, he was a college student at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. He enrolled in 1996, pursued a double major in English and computer science, and fostered his lifelong passion for trivia by serving as captain of the university’s quiz bowl team. It was also during this time that Ken first crossed paths with his future wife, a theater major named Mindy Boam.
According to The Week, Ken declared to Mindy’s roommate that he was going to ask her out. Nine months went by before he finally did, but things progressed quickly once the two started spending time together. As far as what initially charmed Mindy about Ken, it wasn’t anything to do with him showing off his intelligence. “He mostly wanted people to know he was funny,” she told The Week about Ken’s persona in college. “He’s not the type of person who wants you to know he knows everything.”
Ken Jennings in December 2004. Getty Images
Ken and Mindy were engaged by the time they graduated from BYU in 2000, and officially tied the knot on September 16th of that same year. As newlyweds and recent graduates living in Salt Lake City, Ken entered the world of professional engineering and Mindy became a preschool teacher. Two years later, they welcomed their first child, a son named Dylan.
Fast forward to 2004, and Ken was working as a software engineer for a healthcare staffing company when he got the call from Jeopardy! that he would be appearing on the show. Speaking with Vulture, Ken revealed that Mindy was supportive of his journey from the start, including when he made the trip to Los Angeles to audition in 2003. “My wife was all right with it,” he told the outlet. “We had been married for about four years at that point, my son had just been born, and we had recently moved into our starter home.”
After accomplishing his original goal of winning just one game on the show, Ken quickly got into a rhythm of being declared champion. Despite signing an NDA, he clued his wife in on how he was doing throughout his historic streak. “She was always my first call when I got back to the Sony parking garage,” he told Vulture. “But none of my friends, family, or co-workers knew why I was sneaking away a few times a month.”
Following his six-month Jeopardy! run, the couple expanded their family again with the addition of their daughter Caitlin in 2006. While Ken doesn’t share photos of his loved ones often on his social media, he has posted a few of his son Dylan over the years, including one from a Seattle Mariners baseball game in October 2022 when Dylan was a sophomore in college.
Celebrity Jeopardy
Ken also delighted fans earlier this year during an appearance on Good Morning America, where he shared Dylan’s nickname for him during his time as a Jeopardy! contestant. “He was only a year old, and he called me ‘Ken Jennings’ all summer,” he shared in a clip posted on TikTok. Apparently, Dylan took his cue from how then-announcer Johnny Gilbert referred to his dad on the show.
These days, Ken lives in his native Seattle with his family and their dogs. Though it’s unlikely fans of the Jennings family will be hearing from Mindy anytime soon (she doesn’t have any public social media accounts), Ken has recently started to share personal updates on his new Instagram page, where he posts selfies, dog photos, and behind-the-scenes moments from the Jeopardy! set.
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