COVER STORY
THE JEOPARDY! HOST OPENS UP ABOUT HIS MARRIAGE, HEALTH CRISIS AND RETIREMENT
Everything you ever wanted to know about Alex Trebek but were afraid to ask in the form of a question.
Alex Trebek insists he’s never really disliked a Jeopardy! contestant, but that doesn’t mean he always respects players’ strategies. He’s been disappointed by some who bet too conservatively on Daily Doubles and believes it’s foolish to leap around the board too much. “If you jump to the bottom of the category you may get a clue that would be easier to understand if you’d begun at the top,” Alex reasons. “I like there to be order on the show, but as the impartial host I accept disorder.”
Married since 1990 to his wife, Jean Currivan Trebek, with two grown children, the Jeopardy! host, 78, is happiest when he’s away from Hollywood’s spotlight, putting things right in his own little world. “If you move anything out of place, he lets you know about it,” his mother, Lucille, said about her son’s proclivity for tidiness. Alex has been known to store his light and dark shirts on color-coded hangers and once arranged his spice rack alphabetically.
But don’t confuse Alex’s neatness for stuffiness. Although Jean, 55, notes that “people think he goes to bed in a suit,” Alex likes to wear jeans, a casual shirt and a tool belt when he’s home at his rambling estate in the Hollywood Hills or his country retreat near California’s Lake Nacimiento. “Audiences are
always surprised when they discover that I’m not a nerdy person. I like to fix things around the house,” says Alex, explaining that he dismantled and repaired his leaf blower recently. “I got it working properly. That’s what gives me pleasure: fixing things.”
After graduating from college with a degree in philosophy and a passion for the debate club, the Ontario, Canada–born performer thought he’d try broadcast journalism, but found his calling as the ringmaster of a Canadian high school quiz show called Reach for the Top in 1966.
He moved to Los Angeles in 1973, became the host of The Wizard of Odds and married a former Playboy bunny from Ohio named
“I was not a player. I dated not that often.” — Alex
Elaine Callei. “I was a shy, small-town Canadian kid,” he recalls of trying to fit into Hollywood’s social scene. “I never felt like I really belonged.”
Alex found his niche when the Wizard of Odds producer introduced him to Los Angeles’ backgammon-playing community — which included celebrity enthusiasts like Lucille Ball. “I met people that way; I didn’t have to go out on my own,” remembers Alex, who was dumbfounded when he discovered that some of Hollywood’s biggest stars were familiar with his TV work. “Frank Sinatra told me he was a fan. Jimmy Stewart, too. I thought, Oh my gosh. These major stars watch me on occasion. I felt good about that.”
HEARTBREAK & HEALING
As Alex’s career continued to build through hosting stints on game shows including High Rollers, Double Dare and The $128,000 Question, his marriage to Elaine faltered. Their divorce, after seven years together, became the biggest disappointment of his life. “Flamingos and I have a lot in common,” Alex once joked on Jeopardy! when a clue revealed that the pink birds only mate once a year. The bright point of his failed marriage remains his stepdaughter, Nicky, 50, whom he helped raise.
In the 1980s, Alex lived in a big home on Mulholland Drive and dated several Canadian actresses, but he didn’t find love again until he met Jean Currivan at a party. Jean, a real estate professional 23 years his junior, admits she felt intimidated by the Jeopardy! star when he invited her to dinner. “I was afraid I’d mispronounce my own name,” she says. “But Alex is really down-to-earth. He’s much more casual than he is on the show.”
He proposed marriage on Jean’s birthday in 1989 with a 16-carat sapphire and diamond ring. “It took my breath away,” says Jean. “I mean, it was a rock.”
The couple married in 1990 and had two children together, Matthew, 28, a New York restaurateur, and Emily, 25, a real estate investor. “He’s a devoted, proud father,” says a friend. “He’s a quirky dad — that’s what his kids call him. He makes them laugh and is even-tempered at home.”
His success on Jeopardy! — he’s one of TV’s
highest-paid hosts, earning an estimated $10 million a year — has allowed him to dote on his kids. Alex purchased the building where his son lives in Manhattan and has been hands-on helping Emily renovate homes that she flips. One time, “He basically demoed the whole house,” Emily reveals. “He did the tile in the bathrooms. I don’t have words to express how much it means to me that he helped.”
HEALTH CRISIS
As he’s gotten older, Alex has been forced to slow down a little. He sold his horse farm in Creston, Calif., where he raised thoroughbreds, in 2008. “It was getting to be too much for him,” says the friend, “but he continues to ride.” The star has also suffered some health issues. He’s had two heart attacks — the second in 2012. “I had been doing some work around the house with a heavy ladder. I just thought it was a muscle strain,” he says about the “tight, squeezing pain” he felt in his chest. Jean insisted he see a doctor — something that Alex resisted until he saw the tears in her eyes. “I didn’t want to upset her more than I had already so I went — and she was right,” he says.
In December 2017, he underwent surgery for a blood clot in his brain after a fall at home, but Alex, who will be 80 in 2020, when he says he’ll most likely retire from
Jeopardy!, insists he’s being more careful these days. “It’s shaken him up a bit, but he’s feeling good now,” says the friend. The host recently admitted that he had himself tested for Alzheimer’s disease when he found himself occasionally transposing numbers, but he passed with flying colors. “Alex likes to say peace of mind, a quiet mind, little drama, that’s what keeps him young,” says the friend.
He admits that the choice for his replacement on Jeopardy! is “out of my hands,” but Alex is already making plans to fill the time following his retirement. “He wants to travel with Jean and the kids,” says the friend. “He loves Italy and wants to spend more time in Tuscany.”
The TV host hopes to end his last episode of Jeopardy! the way Johnny Carson said fare“Then well on The Tonight Show - with gratitude. "All I want on my last show is 30 seconds [to say], 'Hey, folks, thank you. Been a good run and all good things must come to an end,' Alex says. I’ll move on.”
“To be trusted by the general populace, to me that’s important.”
— Alex