Tom Selleck’s First Wife Jacqueline Ray: Marriage, Divorce, and Her Life Story

Tom Selleck’s first wife was actress and model Jacqueline Ray. They married in 1971 and divorced in 1982, years before Selleck became an enduring TV icon for millions. If you’ve been trying to pin down who she was and how their relationship fits into his life story, the most reliable version is simple: Jacqueline was his first wife, they helped raise her son together, and their marriage ended long before his second marriage and later family life became widely known.

Who Is Tom Selleck?

Tom Selleck is an American actor best known for his easy charisma, deep voice, and a career that spans decades across film and television. Many fans first fell for him as Thomas Magnum in Magnum, P.I., where the mustache became a pop-culture landmark and his laid-back charm carried a show that blended action, humor, and heart. Later, he became just as recognizable as Frank Reagan on Blue Bloods, a role that reinforced his reputation as the kind of actor who can project authority without needing to shout.

What makes Selleck’s career unusual is its longevity. He didn’t peak once and disappear. He kept working, adapted across eras, and remained consistently watchable. At the same time, he has always kept a relatively firm boundary between public work and private life—which is why questions about his first wife still get searched decades later.

Who Was Tom Selleck’s First Wife, Jacqueline Ray?

Jacqueline Ray is a former actress and model who worked in film and television, with credits that include appearances in projects from the late 1960s onward. While she never became a household name on the level of Selleck, she did have a legitimate entertainment résumé and a public presence of her own.

She is often remembered today primarily through her connection to Selleck, but that framing can be a little unfair. Jacqueline was working in the same industry, navigating the same era of Hollywood, and building a life that included both career and motherhood. The reason her name still comes up is not because she chased fame later—it’s because Selleck’s fame grew so large that people inevitably want the “before” chapters.

When Did Tom Selleck and Jacqueline Ray Get Married?

Tom Selleck and Jacqueline Ray married in 1971. Their marriage began well before Selleck’s most famous long-running television era made him a global star, which matters for context. This was not a relationship formed at the peak of celebrity comfort. It was formed during the grind years—when careers are still unstable, schedules are unpredictable, and the future is more hope than guarantee.

During their marriage, they lived through the normal pressures that come with building adult life in the entertainment world: auditions, inconsistent work, shifting opportunities, and the emotional strain that can come from careers that don’t always move in sync.

Did Tom Selleck Adopt Jacqueline Ray’s Son?

Yes. One of the most important parts of the story is their family structure. Jacqueline Ray had a son, Kevin, from a previous relationship. Kevin was born in 1966, and he later became known as Kevin Selleck. Public biographies and widely repeated reporting note that Tom Selleck adopted Kevin during his marriage to Jacqueline.

This is a detail that often gets overlooked when people reduce the relationship to “first wife, then divorce.” For years, the relationship wasn’t only about two adults—it was also about building a home and raising a child. And even after the marriage ended, Kevin remained part of Selleck’s life story, because adoption doesn’t end when a marriage ends.

When Did They Divorce?

Tom Selleck and Jacqueline Ray divorced in 1982, ending an 11-year marriage. Because the split happened long before social media and modern celebrity oversharing, you won’t find a neat, highly detailed public narrative explaining every emotional reason. What exists publicly is mostly the timeline and the fact that the marriage ended.

That’s normal for divorces in that era, especially when neither person treated the breakup like a publicity campaign. People today are used to constant relationship updates, but back then, a couple could separate without turning the process into a rolling headline series.

Why Did Tom Selleck and Jacqueline Ray Split?

The honest answer is that the specific private reasons were never consistently laid out in a single, definitive public account. What you can say responsibly is that the relationship ended during a period when Selleck’s career was building momentum, and life in entertainment can amplify pressure in a marriage—time apart, long shoots, constant uncertainty, and public attention that doesn’t stop just because you’re tired.

When people go looking for a dramatic “one reason,” they often end up reading speculation. The cleaner approach is to stick to confirmed facts: married in 1971, divorced in 1982, and both moved forward with their lives.

What Happened to Jacqueline Ray After the Divorce?

After the divorce, Jacqueline continued to have acting credits and remained connected to the entertainment world, though her public profile stayed relatively limited compared with her ex-husband’s. Over time, she stepped further away from mainstream public attention, which is one reason information about her can feel inconsistent online.

When someone isn’t actively doing press, doesn’t run social media like a brand, and isn’t constantly photographed, the internet tends to recycle the same few facts and then add guesses. The most reliable picture of Jacqueline is that she had an entertainment career, she was married to Selleck for 11 years, she is Kevin’s mother, and she later lived a quieter life.

Tom Selleck’s Life After His First Marriage

Tom Selleck later married Jillie Mack in 1987, and they share a daughter, Hannah. That second marriage is often described as a more private, family-centered chapter, with Selleck frequently emphasizing that he values home life and stability over constant public visibility.

This is also why people sometimes mix up the timelines: they see Selleck’s long, quiet second marriage and assume he has always had that same private family structure. In reality, his first marriage was an earlier chapter—one that ended years before his most iconic later roles and his long-standing second marriage.