Most people who come across the name Jan Ashley do so by accident, usually while reading about Robert Kardashian Sr. and the family that later became a household name. Her own marriage to him barely lasted a month, yet it’s the detail most often repeated about her life. That’s a shame, because there’s more to her story than a short-lived wedding announcement. She was a beauty pageant winner, a longtime working woman in the oil industry, and a widow long before she ever met Robert Kardashian. This article pulls together what’s actually known about her, in the order it happened, and separates the confirmed facts from the parts of her story that were never fully proven.
Quick Bio Table
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Full name | Janice Lynn Glass |
| Known as | Jan Ashley |
| Born | August 3, 1948, Amarillo, Texas |
| Raised in | Tulsa, Oklahoma |
| Pageant title | Miss Tulsa, 1966 |
| Occupation | Executive secretary, Phillips Petroleum |
| First husband | John Ashley (actor and producer), married 1978 until his death in 1997 |
| Second husband | Robert Kardashian Sr., married November 1998, annulled after about 30 days |
| Died | October 1, 2015, Tulsa, Oklahoma, age 67 |
Who Was Jan Ashley Before Robert Kardashian
Long before her name was linked to the Kardashians, Jan Ashley was building an ordinary, fairly private life in the American Midwest. She was born Janice Lynn Glass on August 3, 1948, in Amarillo, Texas, to James Douglas Glass and Monnie M. Glass. Her family later moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and that city became the place most associated with her upbringing. As a teenager, she entered local pageant life and won the title of Miss Tulsa in 1966, a city-level competition rather than a state or national one, but still a meaningful achievement in a Midwestern town where such contests carried real social weight at the time.
She didn’t try to turn the pageant title into a modeling or acting career, which was a common path for young women in that era. Instead, she moved into regular working life. Multiple sources describe her as an executive secretary at Phillips Petroleum, one of the major energy companies headquartered in Oklahoma, reportedly working for senior executive Kenneth “Boots” Adams. It was steady, unglamorous work, and by most accounts, she was good at it. This period of her life — pageant winner turned career woman — set the tone for someone who valued stability over spotlight, a trait that would define the rest of her story.
Ashley: Her Marriage to John Ashley
The surname most people know her by didn’t come from Robert Kardashian at all — it came from her first husband. In 1978, she married John Ashley, an American actor and television producer known for his work in beach party films of the 1960s and later for producing shows connected to projects like The A-Team. Their marriage lasted nearly two decades, a stretch of time that stands in sharp contrast to the month she would later spend married to Kardashian.
By most accounts, this was the more significant relationship of her adult life. John Ashley worked steadily in the entertainment industry while Jan largely stayed out of the public eye, supporting his career without chasing fame of her own. Their marriage ended not in divorce but in loss: John Ashley died in October 1997, reportedly from a heart attack. His death left Jan a widow in her late 40s, and it was only after this period of mourning that Robert Kardashian entered her life.
How Jan Ashley Met Robert Kardashian
According to accounts she gave years later, Jan and Robert Kardashian Sr. met in early 1998 under fairly ordinary circumstances — she was selling a house, and he came through during a showing. He reportedly asked one of his contacts to arrange an introduction after seeing a photo of her. They dated for around seven months, and Kardashian proposed during a trip to Hawaii. The couple married on November 25, 1998, in a ceremony in Vail, Colorado, and left the same day for a honeymoon that included Robert’s four children.
At the time, Robert Kardashian was already a well-known figure, having gained national attention a few years earlier as part of O.J. Simpson’s defense team. Marrying him meant a level of public attention that Jan, by all accounts, hadn’t experienced before — not even during her Miss Tulsa days or her marriage to a working actor.
The Wedding and the Quick Annulment
What made the marriage end so quickly? The reported answer centers on family tension. Kardashian’s four children from his first marriage to Kris Jenner were reportedly unhappy with the new relationship, and the friction is said to have grown quickly once the wedding took place. Rather than trying to work through it over time, the marriage was annulled roughly 30 days after the ceremony — a strikingly short run for a union that began with a proposal in Hawaii and a wedding in Colorado.
Was it a divorce or an annulment? Sources consistently describe it as an annulment rather than a divorce, which legally treats the marriage as though it never fully took effect. Beyond the general explanation of family conflict, detailed court records or a full public account of the proceedings haven’t surfaced, so the exact legal reasoning behind the annulment remains something of a gap in her story.
The 2012 Paternity Claim
What did Jan Ashley say about Khloé Kardashian? In January 2012, more than a decade after her brief marriage ended, Jan Ashley gave an interview in which she claimed that Robert Kardashian had once told her he questioned whether he was Khloé Kardashian’s biological father. The comment drew significant media attention given the family’s rising reality television fame at the time.
Did the Kardashian family respond? Yes. The family publicly denied that any such conversation took place, and no medical or court documentation has ever surfaced to confirm the claim one way or the other. It remains an unverified statement from a single source, made many years after the fact, and should be treated as such rather than as an established fact about the family.
Life After the Kardashian Marriage
Once the brief marriage ended, Jan Ashley largely stepped back from public attention again. Did she remarry after Robert Kardashian? There’s no record of another marriage. Did she have children? No — she had no children from either her marriage to John Ashley or her marriage to Robert Kardashian Sr. She returned to a quieter life in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and outside of the 2012 paternity comments, she didn’t maintain any notable media presence, public profile, or social media accounts. Friends and acquaintances who spoke about her afterward generally described someone who preferred a private, grounded life over any lasting connection to celebrity culture.
Her Death and How She’s Remembered
Jan Ashley died on October 1, 2015, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at the age of 67. She was buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills area of Los Angeles, next to her first husband, John Ashley — a detail that, in a quiet way, says something about which marriage she considered the more lasting one.
How is Jan Ashley remembered today? Mostly through a single, brief chapter: her month-long marriage to Robert Kardashian Sr. and the paternity comments she made years later. That’s an incomplete picture. Before any of that, she was a small-town pageant winner, a working professional in the oil industry, and a devoted wife to a working actor for nearly twenty years. The Kardashian connection brought her into public conversation, but it was only one part of a much longer, quieter life.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Jan Ashley? Jan Ashley, born Janice Lynn Glass, was an American former beauty pageant titleholder and executive secretary, best known as the second wife of attorney Robert Kardashian Sr.
How long was Jan Ashley married to Robert Kardashian? Their marriage lasted about 30 days before it was annulled in late 1998.
Who was Jan Ashley’s first husband? Actor and producer John Ashley, whom she married in 1978. They remained married until his death in 1997.
Did Jan Ashley have children? No, she did not have children from either of her marriages.
What did Jan Ashley say about Khloé Kardashian? In 2012, she claimed Robert Kardashian once expressed doubt about being Khloé’s biological father — a claim the Kardashian family denied and that was never independently confirmed.
When did Jan Ashley die? She died on October 1, 2015, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at age 67.
