Jan Ashley’s name is attached to one of the shortest marriages in celebrity history: thirty days as the wife of Robert Kardashian Sr. That is the story most people know. It is not the story of her life.
Before she ever met Kardashian, Jan Ashley had already lived a full life — a Texas beauty queen, then the wife of a Hollywood actor and producer for nearly twenty years. After Kardashian, she went back to a quiet life in Oklahoma, and she stayed out of the spotlight for more than a decade, until a single magazine interview in 2012 put her name back in the headlines.
A Texas beauty queen
Jan Ashley was born Janice Lynn Glass on 3 August 1948 in Amarillo, Texas, to James Douglas and Monnie M. Glass. She grew up in Amarillo, far from Hollywood, and as a young woman she entered beauty pageants. In 1966, she was crowned Miss Tulsa.
That title was the first time her name appeared in public. It would not be the last, but the next time would come more than thirty years later, for a very different reason.
Nearly twenty years with John Ashley
Long before the Kardashian name touched her life, Jan Ashley was married to John Ashley, an American actor and film producer. They married in 1978, when Jan was living in Tulsa, and they stayed together for nearly twenty years.
John Ashley worked in Hollywood’s B-movie world, acting in and producing films through the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. Their marriage was, by every account, a steady one: a life built in California, rooted in companionship rather than fame.
It ended on 3 October 1997, when John Ashley died of a heart attack at the age of 62. Jan was 49, a widow, and for the first time in almost two decades, on her own.
Thirty days with Robert Kardashian
In early 1998, a few months after her husband’s death, Jan Ashley met Robert Kardashian Sr. She was selling her house, and Kardashian — the attorney who had become famous as a member of O.J. Simpson’s defence team — asked mutual friends for an introduction.
They dated for about seven months. On 25 November 1998, they married in Vail, Colorado, and spent their honeymoon there with Robert’s four children: Kourtney, Kim, Khloe, and Robert Jr.
Thirty days later, it was over. The marriage was annulled on 25 December 1998, and the divorce was finalised in 1999.
Robert Kardashian was not Jan’s first husband, and Jan was not his first wife. He had been married to Kris Jenner from 1978 to 1991, and they had four children together. Jan was his second wife. She had no children from either of her marriages.
Why did a marriage that began with such speed end so quickly? Jan spoke about it years later, in 2014, to Radar Online, but the accounts of what went wrong are hers alone, and the marriage itself left almost no public record beyond its dates. What is certain is the timeline: seven months of dating, a wedding in November, an annulment on Christmas Day.
The 2012 interview
For more than a decade after the annulment, Jan Ashley said almost nothing in public. Then, in 2012, she gave an interview to Star magazine that put her back in the headlines.
In that interview, she claimed that Robert Kardashian had told her, during their short marriage, that Khloe Kardashian was not his biological daughter, and that he had pointed to Khloe’s different physical appearance from her siblings.
Those were Jan Ashley’s claims, reported in a magazine interview. They were not confirmed by any DNA test or by the Kardashian family, and they should be read as claims she made, not as established fact. Khloe Kardashian has never confirmed them, and the family has never accepted them.
The interview was the last time Jan Ashley spoke at length in public. It was also, in a way, the moment that fixed her in the public mind: not as the woman who had been married to John Ashley for nineteen years, but as the woman who made a claim about Khloe Kardashian’s father.
Later life and death
After 2012, Jan Ashley returned to a quiet life in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she had grown up. She died on 1 October 2015 in Tulsa, at the age of 67.
She was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, next to her first husband, John Ashley. That burial choice says something about where her life really was: not in a thirty-day marriage to a famous lawyer, but in a nineteen-year marriage to a man she had chosen, and stayed with, until his death.
Frequently asked questions
Who was Jan Ashley?
Jan Ashley, born Janice Lynn Glass on 3 August 1948 in Amarillo, Texas, was a former beauty queen — Miss Tulsa 1966 — and the ex-wife of Robert Kardashian Sr. She was previously married to actor and producer John Ashley for nearly twenty years.
How long was Jan Ashley married to Robert Kardashian?
Thirty days. They married on 25 November 1998 in Vail, Colorado, and the marriage was annulled on 25 December 1998. The divorce was finalised in 1999.
Who was Jan Ashley’s first husband?
John Ashley, an American actor and film producer. They married in 1978 and stayed together until his death from a heart attack on 3 October 1997.
Did Jan Ashley have children?
No. She had no children from either of her marriages.
What did Jan Ashley claim about Khloe Kardashian?
In a 2012 Star magazine interview, she claimed Robert Kardashian had told her that Khloe was not his biological daughter. That was her claim, not a confirmed fact, and it was never confirmed by a DNA test or by the Kardashian family.
When did Jan Ashley die?
On 1 October 2015 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at the age of 67. She was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills, next to John Ashley.
