Last updated: 2026
Jan Ashley is a name that shows up again and again in Kardashian trivia, usually in one short line about a very short marriage. Most people who search for her want to know who she really was, where she came from, and what happened after the headlines faded. The honest answer is that Jan Ashley lived a fairly private life, so the public record is thinner than many websites pretend. This article collects what can be reasonably confirmed, points out where sources disagree, and leaves out the guesses.
Jan Ashley Quick Facts
| Detail | What is known |
|---|---|
| Full name | Janice Lynn Glass (known as Jan Ashley) |
| Born | Reported as August 3, 1948, in Amarillo, Texas (not confirmed by a primary record) |
| Known for | Being Robert Kardashian Sr.’s second wife |
| First husband | John Ashley, actor and producer (married 1978 until his death in 1997) |
| Second husband | Robert Kardashian Sr. (married 1998, annulled 1999) |
| Children | None reported by most sources (one site disagrees) |
| Died | Reported as October 1, 2015, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at age 67 |
| Buried | Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills, California (reported) |
Who Was Jan Ashley?
Jan Ashley was an American woman who became publicly known mostly because of her marriage to Robert Kardashian Sr., the Los Angeles attorney and businessman who was part of O. J. Simpson’s defense team and later became the father of Kourtney, Kim, Khloé, and Rob Kardashian. She was not an actress, a singer, or a celebrity in her own right, even though many low-quality websites describe her that way. Some of those pages even give her a Hollywood career, an awards list, and a different birth date every time, which tells you they are guessing. Her real connection to entertainment came through her first husband, John Ashley, who worked in film and television for decades.
Early Life and Background
Most reliable-looking biographies say Jan was born Janice Lynn Glass in Amarillo, Texas, and grew up there. The commonly repeated birth date is August 3, 1948, which would have made her 67 when she died. I could not find a birth record or a major newspaper profile that confirms this, so it is best treated as “reported” rather than proven. Details about her parents, schooling, and childhood are mostly missing from the public record, and I won’t invent them.
One detail that appears in a few biographies is that she was crowned Miss Tulsa in 1966. That would mean she was still a teenager at the time, which is possible, but I only found it in a small number of online biographies and not in an official pageant archive. For that reason, I’m mentioning it as a claim made by those sources and not as a settled fact. Later in life she was connected to Tulsa, Oklahoma, which fits the idea that she spent part of her adult years there.
Marriage to John Ashley
Jan’s longest and most important relationship appears to have been her marriage to John Ashley. John was an American actor, producer, and singer who became well known for the “Beach Party” movies of the 1960s and later worked behind the scenes as a producer, including on the TV series The A-Team. Entertainment databases list Janice Lynn Glass as his spouse from 1978 until his death, and one profile says the two met in Tulsa that same year. After they married, they reportedly moved to California because of his work.
John Ashley died on October 3, 1997, after a sudden heart attack in New York City, where he was working on a film project. That means Jan was widowed in the fall of 1997, only a few months before she met Robert Kardashian. Because her marriage to John lasted close to two decades, many writers describe it as the most stable chapter of her adult life, although that is an opinion built from limited information. What can be said safely is that her years with John gave her the Ashley name that she kept for the rest of her life.
Meeting and Marrying Robert Kardashian
According to Jan’s own account in a later interview, she met Robert Kardashian in early 1998 while she was selling her house. She said he toured the home, noticed her photo, and arranged an introduction through one of her late husband’s actor friends. Reports say they dated for several months before getting engaged, and they married on November 25, 1998, in a ceremony said to have taken place in Vail, Colorado. Some accounts add that Robert’s children joined them on the honeymoon, but this comes from interview coverage and not from official records.
Robert’s own background matters here. He had been married to Kris Houghton, now Kris Jenner, from 1978 until their divorce in 1991, and he was dealing with the aftermath of the O. J. Simpson trial years. His marriage to Jan was his second, and he would marry a third time, to Ellen Pierson, in 2003, only weeks before he died of esophageal cancer.
Why the Marriage Ended
The marriage did not last. Robert Kardashian’s Wikipedia entry lists it as running from 1998 until an annulment in 1999, while some biographies say it was over within about a month. These dates don’t fully match, and the likely reason is that the couple separated quickly while the legal paperwork took longer. Since I couldn’t find the court documents themselves, I’d treat “about a month of marriage, annulled soon after” as the safest summary.
Years later, Jan said that constant stress involving Robert’s ex-wife and his children played a big part in the breakup. In her words, as reported by entertainment media, he seemed upset much of the time because of pressure from his family. This is her version of events only, and Kardashian family members have not agreed with this picture. It’s fair to read it as one person’s recollection of a painful and short chapter.
The 2012 Claim About Khloé Kardashian
In 2012, Jan Ashley made headlines when she told a media outlet that Robert once said Khloé Kardashian was not his biological child. The comment spread quickly because it involved one of the most famous families in America. Khloé reacted publicly and strongly, calling the claim disgusting, and Kris Jenner also dismissed the allegations. No evidence has ever been shown that proves the claim, so it should be read as a disputed statement and not as a fact.
This moment is probably the main reason people still search for Jan Ashley today. It also shows why her name stays linked to the Kardashians even though she was married to Robert for such a short time. Anyone writing about the topic should stay careful, since it involves living people and a private family matter.
Later Life and Death
After the annulment, Jan Ashley mostly kept out of the spotlight, apart from a few interviews in 2012 and 2014. Several biographies describe her as a private person, and there’s no sign she built a public career from her Kardashian connection. Most sources say she had no children, though one website lists a son named Cole Ashley without giving any clear support, so I am not treating that as confirmed.
Reports say Jan Ashley died on October 1, 2015, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at age 67, and that she was buried beside John Ashley at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills, California. This information is repeated across several biography sites and appears to trace back to a grave-record listing. I did not find a major news obituary, which fits with how privately she lived. If you’re doing serious research, a death certificate or cemetery record would be the best final check.
Jan Ashley Timeline
| Year | Event | Confidence |
|---|---|---|
| 1948 | Born in Amarillo, Texas (reported) | Medium |
| 1966 | Reported Miss Tulsa title | Low to medium |
| 1978 | Marries actor and producer John Ashley | Medium to high |
| 1997 | John Ashley dies on October 3 | High |
| 1998 | Marries Robert Kardashian (reported November 25) | High for year, medium for date |
| 1999 | Marriage annulled, per Wikipedia | Medium to high |
| 2012 | Makes public claim about Khloé Kardashian | High |
| 2015 | Reported death on October 1 | Medium |
Facts About Jan Ashley That Don’t Match Online
If you’ve read several Jan Ashley articles, you’ve probably noticed that they disagree with each other. Some pages say she was born in 1960, others say 1962, 1972, or 1980, and many of them place her birth in Los Angeles. Those pages also describe an acting career, a music career, and charity work that I couldn’t verify anywhere reliable. They look like auto-generated text, and the details contradict one another.
The better-supported picture is simple: a Texas-born woman who was married to a film producer for years, then briefly married to a famous lawyer, then lived privately until her death. If a page gives her a long career or a big net worth, it’s not backed by evidence. I’m leaving net worth out on purpose, because no trustworthy source gives a figure.
How This Was Researched
I checked what’s available online, including Wikipedia’s entry on Robert Kardashian, entertainment databases for John Ashley, news coverage of Jan’s 2012 and 2014 interviews, and several biography pages. I compared dates across sources and marked anything that only appeared once as unconfirmed. I also noticed that many top search results are low-quality pages with made-up details, so this article aims to separate what is supported from what is only repeated. A search for recent 2026 news turned up nothing new and credible, so I didn’t add a “latest news” section.
Accuracy Note
This biography is based on publicly available information, including interviews and reliable reference pages. Some details, like her exact birth date and the dates of the annulment, differ between sources and are marked as reported. If you spot anything outdated or incorrect, please let us know so we can update it.
Written and researched by Laura Castillo, contributor at icons golf cart