Ken Jennings’ Wife Mindy: Everything to Know About ‘Jeopardy’ Host’s Marriage

Ken Jennings and his wife Mindy have been married for over 20 years. Find out everything you need to know about their relationship here.

• Ken Jennings is an author, game show host, and former ‘Jeopardy’ winner, most notably in the ‘Greatest of All Time’ tournament.
• Ken later went on to host ‘Jeopardy.’
• Ken has been married to his wife Mindy since 2000.
• The couple have two children.

Ken Jennings is a TV icon. After his record-setting Jeopardy streak in 2004, he became a pop culture sensation and has gone on to compete in a wide range of game shows over the years. He also notably defeated fellow Jeopardy greats James Holzhauer and Brad Rutter during the 2020 “Greatest of All Time” tournament. After longtime host Alex Trebek passed away in 2020, Ken was brought on as a temporary host before being named a permanent host alongside Mayim Bialik. 

By his side through his epic original run and the many other times Ken, 48, returned to the show (including to host) was his wife Mindy. While she’s mostly stayed out of the spotlight, it’s clear she’s a driving force behind his many on-screen accomplishments! Find out more about Mindy here.

How did Ken and Mindy meet?

Long before Ken was making Jeopardy history, he was a student at Utah’s Brigham Young University. The trivia whiz reportedly began studying English, but he later switched over to computer science. While at the college, he met Mindy, and the pair got engaged before they graduated, according to The Week. While they’re still going strong over 20 years later, Ken did take nine months to ask her out, even though he told Mindy’s roommate that he planned to. They got married in 2000.

Mindy supported him trying out for ‘Jeopardy’

Ken’s initial run on Jeopardy came relatively early in the pair’s marriage, and they were living in Seattle at the time. Ken recalled visiting Los Angeles with Mindy when he wanted to try out for the show, but they learned that auditions weren’t being held until a week after they first showed up. He admitted that she encouraged him to give it another try in a 2020 interview with Vulture. “We drove back home and came back. My wife was all right with it. 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. I was a computer programmer at a small firm. So, we both drive back to Los Angeles, and we both passed the test at the Radisson on a Tuesday morning. It was great,” he said.

While Ken was making history with his initial run, he admitted that his wife was one of only two people that he let in on the secret that he was doing so well on the show. “I couldn’t tell anybody where I had been or what had been going on because these shows weren’t going to air for three months or longer, and I signed an NDA. I told my boss at work because I didn’t want to get fired, and my wife knew because I didn’t want to get divorced,” he joked with Vulture. “She was always my first call when I got back to the Sony parking garage. But none of my friends, family, or co-workers knew why I was sneaking away a few times a month.”

Mindy and Ken have two kids

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The last time his team made it to the playoffs, this guy wasn't born yet. He just started his sophomore year of college. Congrats @Mariners! pic.twitter.com/pFgC2BbMqI

— Ken Jennings (@KenJennings) October 1, 2022

Ken and Mindy are also proud parents to two children. As mentioned above, the pair had their son Dylan shortly before tried out for Jeopardy. The pair welcomed their daughter Caitlin in 2006. While both kids have mostly stayed out of the spotlight, Ken has occasionally shared glimpses of his son on his Twitter account, like when he shared a photo of Dylan at a Seattle Mariners game, joking about the team not making the playoffs since before he was born. He said now Dylan is a college sophomore.

What has Mindy said about Ken?

While Mindy has mostly stayed out of the spotlight, she did share a small insight into her husband’s outlook in college during a 2015 interview with The Week. “He mostly wanted people to know he was funny,” she told the outlet, while speaking about their college romance. “He’s not the type of person who wants you to know he knows everything.”