Who Was Paul Newman’s Forgotten First Wife?
What To Know
- Paul Newman’s first wife, Jackie Witte, married him in 1949, and they had three children together before divorcing in 1958 so Newman could marry Joanne Woodward.
- Jackie Witte largely left her own acting ambitions to support Newman during his early career and lived a private life after their divorce, passing away in 1994 at age 65.
- Their children, Scott and Susan Newman, both pursued careers in entertainment, with Scott dying young from a drug overdose and Susan becoming a filmmaker before her death in 2025.
Paul Newman, who passed away in 2008, would have turned 101 on January 26, 2026 — and while most fans know the story of his 50-year marriage to his widow, 95-year-old fellow actor Joanne Woodward, fewer remember that Newman had already built a family and a life long before that chapter began. His first wife, Jackie Witte, was there during his struggling years, and the couple had three children together, before divorcing so that Newman could marry Woodward.
Who was Paul Newman’s first wife?
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Born in 1929, Jackie Witte married Newman in 1949, shortly after he returned home from serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II. She was an aspiring actress and still in college when they wed, while Newman was trying to figure out what direction his life would take. The couple settled into a modest life on Staten Island, New York, raising their growing family while Newman pursued acting classes and small stage opportunities. They welcomed three children together: son Scott in 1950, daughter Susan in 1953, and daughter Stephanie Kendall in 1954. At that point, Newman was far from a household name, and Jackie largely set aside her own ambitions to focus on raising their children.
Everything shifted in 1953 when Newman met Joanne Woodward while appearing on Broadway in Picnic. The show was Newman’s Broadway debut and a breakthrough for him — originally rejected for the primary role of Hal, he accepted a smaller role and eventually worked his way up to the lead. He also began an affair with Woodward, which he described in his posthumous memoir as “brutal in my detachment from my family.”
The two later reunited onscreen in The Long, Hot Summer in 1958, and Newman and Witte divorced that same year, ending a marriage that had lasted nearly a decade. Newman married Woodward in 1958 and eventually moved the blended family to Connecticut in hopes of giving their children a quieter upbringing away from constant Hollywood attention.
They stayed together until Newman’s death in 2008, collaborating on several films over the course of their careers.
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What happened to Jackie Witte after her divorce from Paul Newman?
Although Jackie stayed largely out of the public eye after the divorce, the legacy of that first marriage continued through their children. Their son Scott appeared in films including The Towering Inferno, Breakheart Pass and Fraternity Row, but struggled with substance abuse and died in November 1978 at age 28 from a drug overdose. In response to that loss, Newman later founded the Scott Newman Center for drug abuse prevention in his son’s memory.
Their daughter, Susan Newman, carved out her own creative path. She became a documentary filmmaker and philanthropist, and also appeared onscreen, including a starring role as one of four Beatles fans in I Wanna Hold Your Hand. She had a small role opposite her father in Slap Shot and appeared in Robert Altman‘s A Wedding. Behind the camera, she earned significant recognition as a co-producer of Newman’s 1980 television film The Shadow Box, which brought her a Golden Globe and Humanitas Award, along with Emmy, Peabody, and Grammy nominations. Susan died on August 2, 2025, at age 72, although her passing was not publicly announced until October of that year.
Jackie herself died in 1994 at age 65, having lived most of her life outside the spotlight that eventually surrounded her former husband. Few interviews, photographs, or personal accounts capture her perspective on those early years, which is partly why she remains a forgotten figure in Newman’s story.
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Hollywoods Golden Couples
February 2022
Gaze back at the classic romances of old Hollywood, both onscreen and off.
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