Who Is Tom Selleck’s First Wife Jacqueline Ray and Where Is She Now?

Tom Selleck’s first wife is Jacqueline Ray, a former American model and actress. Her current whereabouts are unknown following her extended leave from her acting career. 

Tom Selleck and Jacqueline Ray were married from 1971 to 1982. During this period, they appeared in a handful of movies and TV series together. They also built a lovely family dynamic for Ray’s son, Kevin Shepard, from her first marriage. The coupe sadly split up in 1982, and Ray’s acting career subsequently dried up. It is hard to tell where she is nowadays, but she did play the minor role of a dancer in an episode of the Nickelodeon series Unfabulous in 2007.

Biography and Profile Summary

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

Jacqueline Ray was born on July 17th, 1952. She is of Native American ethnicity, and her place of birth is listed as Burbank, California, USA. But despite having a place under the spotlight as a result of her showbiz career, not much is known about her early days and family background. As a result of this, her educational background has also remained a mystery, but we can confirm that she started modeling as a teenager.

In her mid-teens, Jacqueline landed her first acting role as Denise in the action film In Like Flint. After an uncredited role in The Gnome-Mobile, she was cast in Frasier, the Sensuous Lion in 1973, a role she followed up with by working as a model in an episode of Marcus Welby, M.D.

The next time Jacqueline Ray was seen on screen was in 1980, when she played her first lead role in The Killings At Outpost Zeta. The next year, she appeared in another science fiction movie titled Beyond the Universe. She then played two characters in Magnum P.I., first as Lisa in season one and then as Ms. Roebuck in the third season.

After some guest appearances in a few shows, Jacqueline’s next remarkable appearances were recorded in Nickelodeon’s Unfabulous (2006) and Unfabulous: The Best Trip Ever (2007).

Jacqueline Ray’s Relationship With Tom Selleck

According to several sources, Jacqueline Ray first met Tom Selleck in 1970. They had a whirlwind romance that lasted for a year before they ended up getting married in May 1971. Side by side with each other, the duo made several public appearances together and looked like a match made in heaven. They further appeared together in a number of projects that included the very successful Magnum, P.I. television series, where Tom featured as the titular character Magnum and Jacqueline appeared in 2 episodes in 1981 and 1983.

The couple managed to stay together for eleven years before things went south, and they went their separate ways in 1982. During the course of their marriage, however, Selleck adopted Jacqueline’s son, Kevin Shepard, who was born in 1966 from her first marriage. Tom loved Kevin like he was his own biological son and was the major father figure in Kevin’s life while he was growing up.

Despite his divorce from Jacqueline, the actor maintained and cultivated his relationship with his adopted son, who went on to have a flourishing acting career.

Why Did Jacqueline Ray and Tom Selleck Separate

While the couple has refused to share the facts surrounding their divorce, Tom Selleck himself has at least been sincere enough to admit that he did not handle things well during the marriage and divorce.

The media has since speculated that a reason could be that Jacqueline grew jealous of her husband’s newfound success during their marriage. Some quarters, on the other hand, believe that as Tom began to rise to take more prominent roles, it appeared that he paid less attention to things on the home front, which allowed his relationship and marriage to deteriorate.

The latter reason has since proven to be more accurate, as Selleck admitted in a number of interviews that one of the reasons his first marriage failed was his inability to cope with the intense pressure of stardom. He seems to have learned from his mistakes as he has gone ahead to have a fulfilling marriage with his second wife.

What Is Jacqueline Ray Doing Now Since Divorcing Her Husband?

Jacqueline Ray has been out of the spotlight since her divorce from Tom Selleck. Her acting career has also dried up. Her most recent acting credit came in 2007 in Season 3 Episode 13 of Unfabulous, the Nickelodeon TV series. In it, she played the role of a dancer. Jacqueline Ray most likely lives in Los Angeles, though it is possible she may be living in another place. She may have also delved into another career in order to make a living for herself. Some sources say that Jacqueline Ray remarried a man named Clarence Barry Whitmer in 1992 but that they also split.

Meanwhile, some reports wrongly claim that Jacqueline Ray has been in prison since 2014 because of a murder conviction, but this is likely a case of mistaken identity. There is a Washinton woman named Jacqueline Ray who was sentenced to 18 years in jail for hiring a hit man to kill her daughter, Umeko’s husband. Many have taken this woman to be Tom Selleck’s first wife, but there is no concrete evidence to back it up.

The convicted Jacqueline Ray is described as a respiratory therapist. She landed herself in jail in 2014. She was accused and found guilty of hiring a hitman named Luis Barker to kill her daughter’s husband, Leon Baucham. After Luis had tortured and killed Leon, investigations carried out by the police led to the discovery of the hitman and Jacqueline’s involvement.

The lady confessed that she paid the hitman $12,000 to get rid of her son-in-law because she was afraid for her daughter and grandchildren, who continually endured physical abuse from him. After her trial, she was found guilty and pleaded with the judge to temper justice with mercy.

Her daughter, pastor as well as her husband also pleaded in a similar vein, pointing out all the good work she had been doing in the local community. Their pleas didn’t sway the judge, though, and Jacqueline Ray was sentenced to eighteen years in prison while the hitman she hired was sentenced to twenty-nine years.