Last Updated: September 28, 2026
When people search for Mark Kerr wife, two names often appear: Franci Alberding and Dawn Staples. Mark Kerr’s current wife is Franci Alberding Kerr, a fitness and wellness professional whom he married in 2023. Dawn Staples is his former wife and an important part of his earlier life, especially the difficult period that was documented in The Smashing Machine and later shown in the 2025 film starring Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt.
The confusion between the two women is understandable because much of the public interest in Kerr’s personal life comes from The Smashing Machine. That story focuses on the late 1990s and early 2000s, when Dawn was his partner and later his wife. Kerr’s life today is very different because he is retired from professional mixed martial arts, was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in 2025, and now works in the fitness and wellness field alongside Franci.
Mark Kerr Wife at a Glance
Mark Kerr’s present marriage should not be confused with the relationship shown in The Smashing Machine. Franci is part of his current personal and professional life, while Dawn was closely connected with the years when Kerr was competing at the highest levels of mixed martial arts and dealing with serious personal struggles. Understanding those two different periods makes his relationship history much easier to follow.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Current wife | Franci Alberding Kerr |
| Marriage | December 31, 2023 |
| Franci’s profession | Fitness and wellness professional |
| Franci’s role | Principal and Owner of Absoulute Wellness |
| Former wife | Dawn Staples |
| Marriage to Dawn | Married in 2000; later separated |
| Child | One son, Bryce, with Dawn Staples |
| Mark Kerr’s profession | Retired wrestler and mixed martial artist |
| Major recent honor | UFC Hall of Fame, Pioneer Wing, 2025 |
| Movie connection | Emily Blunt portrays Dawn Staples in The Smashing Machine |
The most important point is that Franci Alberding Kerr is Mark Kerr’s current wife in 2026. Dawn Staples remains widely searched because of her connection with his fighting years, their son, and the story presented in The Smashing Machine. Some older online biographies do not make this difference clear, which is one reason readers can find conflicting answers.
Who Is Mark Kerr’s Wife in 2026?
Mark Kerr’s wife in 2026 is Franci Alberding Kerr. Kerr and Franci had known each other through a gym before reconnecting during the pandemic, and their relationship later became serious. They married on New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2023, beginning a new chapter in Kerr’s life many years after the period shown in The Smashing Machine.
Franci has an established professional career of her own and is not simply known because of her marriage to Kerr. She is the Principal and Owner of Absoulute Wellness, a company involved in fitness, wellness, and amenity-space design. Her professional experience covers more than two decades and includes work connected with residential communities, corporate environments, municipal developments, fitness spaces, and other wellness-focused projects.
Her career makes her relationship with Kerr different from the celebrity-spouse story people may expect when searching his name. Both have professional experience connected with fitness and wellness, allowing them to work together in an industry that fits naturally with Kerr’s athletic background. Readers interested in similar profiles about accomplished people who are also known through famous spouses can read our recent article about Kali Woodruff Carr, a developmental neuroscientist and the wife of actor Jesse Spencer.
What Do Mark Kerr and Franci Alberding Do Together?
Mark Kerr and Franci Alberding are both involved with Absoulute Wellness, which works on fitness and wellness environments. Franci brings years of experience in planning and designing these spaces, while Kerr contributes knowledge developed through decades of wrestling, strength training, professional fighting, and athletic performance. Their work therefore combines Franci’s professional experience in the wellness industry with Kerr’s practical understanding of high-level training.
Their business activities continued to develop in 2026 when Absoulute Wellness announced a new performance division led by Kerr. The division focuses on athletic equipment and strength-training environments, including areas such as equipment selection, flooring, installation, recovery products, and performance-facility design. Franci continues to serve as Principal and Owner of the wider business while Kerr has become more directly involved with its performance-focused side.
This part of Kerr’s current life receives much less attention than his years in professional fighting. However, it gives a more complete picture of what he and Franci are doing today rather than leaving readers with the impression that his story ended when his MMA career finished.
Who Was Mark Kerr’s First Wife, Dawn Staples?
Before marrying Franci, Mark Kerr was married to Dawn Staples. Their relationship developed during one of the most demanding periods of his fighting career, when Kerr was achieving major success but was also struggling with substance use, injuries, pressure, and the physical demands of professional combat sports. Their relationship became an important part of the original The Smashing Machine documentary.
Kerr and Dawn married in 2000 and later had a son named Bryce. They eventually separated, with several reliable accounts placing the breakdown of their marriage around 2006. However, different online sources give different dates for when their divorce was formally completed, so it is better not to present one specific divorce year as completely certain.
This uncertainty is important because many biography websites simply repeat the same dates without explaining where they came from. The most reliable way to describe their history is that Dawn was Kerr’s wife during an important period of his life, they had one son together, and their marriage later ended.
Why Dawn Staples Is Linked to The Smashing Machine
Dawn Staples continues to receive public attention because her relationship with Mark Kerr plays a major role in The Smashing Machine. The original documentary followed Kerr during a difficult stage of his fighting career, showing both his success inside competition and the problems developing in his personal life. His relationship with Dawn was part of that story, making her name closely connected with Kerr even many years later.
The story reached a much larger audience when The Smashing Machine was turned into a major feature film. Dwayne Johnson plays Mark Kerr, while Emily Blunt portrays Dawn Staples. The movie focuses on Kerr’s career, addiction struggles, personal relationships, and the pressure surrounding his life as a professional fighter.
The relationship shown in the movie belongs to a much earlier period of Kerr’s life and should not be confused with his current marriage. This is particularly important for people who discover Kerr through the film and search for his wife afterward, because they may assume Dawn is still married to him.
Mark Kerr and Dawn Staples’ Son
Mark Kerr and Dawn Staples have one son named Bryce. He has generally remained outside the public spotlight and has not developed the kind of public career associated with his father. Most information about him appears in stories about Kerr’s family, personal struggles, and later recovery rather than through Bryce’s own public profile.
Bryce also played an important part in one of the major changes in Kerr’s personal life. Kerr has said that his son asked him in 2018 whether he could stop drinking, and the request had a strong effect on him. For Kerr, it became an important moment that encouraged him to make changes in his life and move toward greater stability after years of personal struggles.
This part of Kerr’s story provides useful context when looking at his family history. His relationship with Dawn may have ended, but their son remained an important part of his life and later became connected with Kerr’s efforts to improve his health and personal direction.
Mark Kerr’s Career in Brief
Mark Kerr was already an accomplished wrestler before becoming a major name in mixed martial arts. He won the NCAA Division I wrestling championship in 1992 while competing for Syracuse University, establishing himself as an elite wrestler before moving into professional combat sports.
Kerr later entered MMA and quickly became known for his size, wrestling ability, power, and aggressive fighting style. In 1997, he won heavyweight tournaments at both UFC 14 and UFC 15. He later competed in Japan for PRIDE Fighting Championships, where he faced some of the leading fighters of his generation and became one of the recognizable names from the early international MMA era.
His skills were not limited to MMA because he also achieved success in submission grappling. Kerr’s combination of wrestling, physical strength, and grappling ability made him an important figure during a period when modern mixed martial arts was still developing its identity.
In June 2025, Kerr was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame Pioneer Wing, giving official recognition to his influence on the early years of the sport. His professional MMA record includes 27 bouts, with 15 wins, 11 losses, and one no contest. The Hall of Fame honor and the release of The Smashing Machine brought renewed attention to both his career and personal story.
Latest Mark Kerr and Wife Update in 2026
Mark Kerr and Franci Alberding continued to appear publicly together after the release of The Smashing Machine. In January 2026, they appeared together on the Now with Nadine podcast, where their discussion covered marriage, Kerr’s story, the film, and their life beyond the attention created by his fighting career.
Their professional partnership has also continued through Absoulute Wellness. The company expanded its work in 2026 with the launch of its performance division, where Kerr took on a leadership role connected with athletic and strength-training environments. Franci remains Principal and Owner of the wider company, making the business an important part of their current professional life together.
These developments give readers a much clearer picture of Kerr’s life in 2026. While The Smashing Machine has encouraged people to revisit his difficult earlier years, his present life is focused more on family, wellness, training environments, and business than professional fighting.
Why Online Articles Give Different Answers
People searching for Mark Kerr wife can easily become confused because many articles focus more heavily on Dawn Staples than Franci Alberding. That happens largely because Dawn appears in one of the most famous stories about Kerr’s life and is portrayed by Emily Blunt in The Smashing Machine. As a result, older information about Kerr and Dawn often appears more prominently in search results than information about his present marriage.
Another problem is that websites sometimes repeat relationship dates without checking whether the information can be strongly confirmed. This has created conflicting claims about Kerr and Dawn’s separation and the exact date when their divorce became final. When sources disagree, the safest approach is to explain the uncertainty instead of choosing one date and presenting it as a confirmed fact.
The clearest answer in 2026 is straightforward. Franci Alberding Kerr is Mark Kerr’s current wife, and they married on December 31, 2023. Dawn Staples is his former wife and the mother of his son Bryce, and she remains an important part of Kerr’s public story because their relationship was shown in the original documentary and later dramatized in The Smashing Machine.
How This Was Researched
I researched this biography using official sports records, established news coverage, public interviews, film information, company material, and recent coverage of Mark Kerr and Franci Alberding. I also compared biography pages discussing Kerr’s relationships because some of them give conflicting dates or do not clearly separate his current marriage from his relationship with Dawn Staples. Where the available information was unclear, I avoided guessing and explained the uncertainty instead.
The main gap in many existing articles is that they focus almost completely on Dawn because of The Smashing Machine. This article gives more attention to Franci Alberding as Kerr’s current wife while still explaining Dawn’s important place in his earlier life and family history.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Mark Kerr’s wife now?
Mark Kerr’s current wife is Franci Alberding Kerr. She is a fitness and wellness professional and serves as Principal and Owner of Absoulute Wellness. Kerr and Franci married on December 31, 2023, and they remain married in 2026.
Is Mark Kerr still married to Dawn Staples?
No, Mark Kerr is no longer married to Dawn Staples. Dawn is his former wife, and they married in 2000 before later separating. They have one son together named Bryce.
Who plays Mark Kerr’s wife in The Smashing Machine?
Emily Blunt portrays Dawn Staples in the 2025 film The Smashing Machine, while Dwayne Johnson plays Mark Kerr. The film focuses on an earlier stage of Kerr’s life, so Dawn’s appearance in the movie does not mean she is his current wife.
What does Franci Alberding do for a living?
Franci Alberding works in the fitness and wellness industry. She is Principal and Owner of Absoulute Wellness and has more than two decades of experience connected with fitness facilities, wellness environments, amenity spaces, and related projects.
Does Mark Kerr have children?
Yes. Mark Kerr has a son named Bryce from his marriage to Dawn Staples. Bryce has mostly stayed outside the public spotlight, although Kerr has spoken publicly about the important influence his son had on his personal recovery.
When did Mark Kerr marry Franci Alberding?
Mark Kerr and Franci Alberding married on December 31, 2023. They had previously known each other through a gym and later reconnected during the pandemic before beginning their relationship.
Who was Mark Kerr’s first wife?
Mark Kerr’s former wife is Dawn Staples. Their relationship became widely known through The Smashing Machine, which documented an intense period in Kerr’s fighting career and personal life.
Is Franci Alberding in The Smashing Machine?
No. The story shown in The Smashing Machine takes place during an earlier period of Mark Kerr’s life, before his marriage to Franci Alberding. Emily Blunt portrays Dawn Staples, who was Kerr’s partner during the period covered by the story.
Accuracy Note
This biography is based on publicly available information, including official sports records, interviews, company information, film materials, and established reporting. Some sources provide different dates for parts of Mark Kerr’s earlier relationship history, so details that cannot be confirmed consistently have not been presented as certain facts.
If any reliable new information becomes available, this profile can be updated to keep it accurate and useful for readers.
Written and researched by Laura Castillo, contributor at icons golf cart