John Bennett Ramsey has been married to his wife, Jan Rousseaux Ramsey, since 2011.
The Other Side of Suffering author’s 6-year-old daughter, JonBenét Ramsey, was killed on Dec. 26, 1996. JonBenét’s death, which is the subject of Netflix’s three-part docuseries Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét, remains unsolved despite theories of a potential intruder and one alleged false confession.
John was previously married to Lucinda Ramsey and to JonBenét’s mother, Patsy Ramsey, from 1980 until her death of ovarian cancer in 2006. On July 21, 2011, 15 years after JonBenét’s murder, he tied the knot with fashion designer Jan per CBS News, expanding his family in the process.
“I’m very grateful that she’s part of my life and walked along beside me in this craziness, because it’s nice to have a partner in dealing with this madness,” John said in the 2016 A&E documentary The Killing of JonBenét: Her Father Speaks.
So, who is John Bennett Ramsey’s wife? Here’s everything to know about Jan Rousseaux Ramsey.
Jan was raised in East Africa
Jan Rousseaux in Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey.
Courtesy of Netflix
According to a 2022 blog post on Jan’s retail website for The Find, the designer grew up overseas in East Africa, where her parents worked as missionaries in the 1960s.
She returned to the United States at the age of 18.
She had a career in fashion design
A few months after marrying John, Jan became the president of YellowKat Marketing, a “provider of hospitality uniforms,” per her LinkedIn.
She began designing clothing at age 11, according to her blog on The Find, beginning with a pair of boxer shorts she made from a pillowcase.
As her career progressed, Jan had the opportunity to design clothing for musicians and celebrities in Branson, Mo., some of which are on display at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., per The Find.
Jan switched her focus to uniform design in 2004 after moving to Las Vegas to serve the city’s hospitality industry.
John and Jan met at a wedding
Courtesy of Netflix
John met his future wife while attending the wedding of a mutual friend in Denver.
CBS reported that while John and Jan first crossed paths in 2009, their relationship didn’t become romantic until June 2010.
Jan told the National Enquirer in a 2011 interview that things changed for the pair after she sent him a text to let him know she was thinking of him. “Immediately he asked if he could come to see me, just as friends,” she recalled.
Soon after, they began a relationship and eventually tied the knot.
John and Jan have been married for more than a decade
John and Jan exchanged their vows in Charlevoix, Mich., on July 21, 2011, per CBS News.
John spoke to the National Enquirer after the wedding acknowledging the joy he believes his youngest daughter would have seeing him move on. “I have no doubt she will be smiling,” he said.
Jan reflected on her relationship with John ahead of the couple’s anniversary in 2022. “This July will make our 11 year anniversary, so thanks for your recent nice comments and well wishes for way back then,” she wrote on Instagram in May. “JR and I are happy as can be.”
Jan never believed John was guilty
In 2016, Jan appeared alongside her husband in the A&E documentary The Killing of JonBenét: Her Father Speaks.
She shared her first impression of the JonBenét case, noting that she never believed that John and Patsy, who were considered suspects in their daughter’s murder for more than a decade before being publicly exonerated in 2008, were responsible for her death.
“I remember clearly that I saw a tabloid of them in a grocery store,” she recalled. “I was shocked … I thought, ‘Look at Patsy. She’s normal. She loved that child. John is normal. These are stable people. They had no history, before or after.’ ”
Jan added: “I couldn’t fathom how people could actually still believe this.”
Jan and John share a blended family
Burke Ramsey.
Dr. Phil/Peteski Productions/CBS Television Distribution
Prior to marrying John, Jan welcomed two daughters, Juliette and Jessica, with her then-husband. She shared an Instagram post in her kids’ honor in September 2022.
“I love my dear daughters, Juliette and Jessica,” the mother wrote, adding, “You’ve brought much joy to my life.”
Jan also revealed that she was a grandmother in the same post, writing, “My two little granddaughters make my heart sing.”
She is also stepmother to John’s children Melinda and John Andrew Ramsey, whom he shares with Lucinda, and Burke Ramsey, whom he shared with Patsy. John also had another daughter, Elizabeth Ramsey, who died in a car crash in 1992.
