Alex Trebek’s Wife Jean Posts Photo From Their Wedding and Shares Special Message for Fans

Alex Trebek’s wife, Jean Currivan Trebek, is thanking fans for their support following the death of her husband. Just days after the Jeopardy! host following a months-long battle with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, Jean broke her silence with a moving Instagram post shared alongside a throwback photo from their wedding in 1990.

The image showed the moment the longtime game show hose slid a wedding ring on Jean’s finger and was accompanied alongside a message directed to fans, whom Jean thanked for the many “compassionate messages and generosity” she and her family have received since Trebek’s Nov. 8 passing. She said that fans’ “expressions have truly touched our hearts” before closing out the message with, “thank you so very, very much” and “many blessings.”

Trebek and Jean tied the knot in front of 150 guests at L.A.’s Regency Club on April 30, 1990, after having first met at a party in 1988. Reflecting on their meeting in his memoir, The Answer Is…Reflections On My Life, the Jeopardy! host wrote, “Sometimes you look at something, you look at someone, and you know. I mean, you’ve heard stories of people who meet and decide within half an hour; I knew this was going to be the person I’d end up with.” He said that he “recognized at a gut level that here was someone who was going to complete me as a human being.”

In April of this year, the couple, who share children Emily and Matthew Trebek, celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary, a little more than a year after the host announced his cancer diagnosis. Throughout his battle with the disease, Jean was by his side, trying to “uplift” him as he underwent various treatments. According to Jeopardy! producer Mike Richards, Jean remained at his side through his final moments and had spent her last day with him sitting on the swing in their backyard, fulfilling the wish Trebek had written about in his memoir.

“Here I am wanting to enjoy what might be the last of my days, and, what, I’m supposed to just stay at home and sit in a chair and stare into space? Actually, that doesn’t sound too bad,” Trebek wrote. “Yep, I’ll be perfectly content if that’s how my story ends: sitting on the swing with the woman I love, my soul mate, and our two wonderful children nearby.”

Born in Sudbury, Ontario on July 22, 1940, Trebek began hosting Jeopardy! in 1984. By the time of his Sunday passing, he had hosted more than 8,000 episodes of the beloved game show. His final episode of Jeopardy! will air on Christmas Day.