Who is Jamie Dimon’s wife, Judith Kent? The JP Morgan Chase & Co. CEO’s partner of 41 years donated US$250,000 to Kamala Harris and the Democrats, but her husband refuses to endorse the vice-president
The pair met at Harvard Business School where she paid for drinks on their first date, but on the couple’s 15th wedding anniversary, Dimon gifted her a stock certificate worth a third of his net worth
Ever since JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s CEO Jamie Dimon wrote an opinion piece for The Washington Post in August calling for a president who will unite America rather than divide it, politicos have speculated that he might be on Kamala Harris’ side.
Now The New York Times has published an article claiming that the 68-year-old does indeed support the vice-president but is reluctant to say so for fear of retribution if Donald Trump wins in November. He also admitted that if Kamala Harris asked him to be part of her administration, he “probably” wouldn’t accept but “reserves the right” to change his mind, per Reuters.
For another clue that Dimon is leaning Democrat in the upcoming election, look no further than his wife, Judith Kent, who has already donated US$250,000 to supporting the party so far this year, including to the Harris Action Fund and the Democratic National Committee, according to Axios.
So, who is Jamie Dimon’s wife of 41 years, and how else has she supported him since they first met in the early 80s? Here’s what you need to know.
How did Jamie Dimon meet his wife, Judith Kent?
Judith Kent went to university in New Orleans before doing a masters in organisation psychology in Washington. But it was while studying at Harvard Business School that she was persuaded by a friend to go on a date with a young James Dimon.
Spotting him in the campus bar for the first time wearing all black and sunglasses, she reportedly thought of him as “sphinxlike” and invited him to play tennis with her. After their game, Dimon suggested they go for a drink before realising he didn’t have any money, according to Duff McDonald’s Dimon biography Last Man Standing – and Kent ended up paying.
Jamie Dimon refused to convert to Judaism before their wedding
According to Last Man Standing, Kent is Jewish and her family had hoped Dimon would convert before marrying her, but Dimon was stubborn. “I am who I am,” he reportedly told his fiancée, who had stopped speaking to him she was “so mad”. As a compromise, he allowed the Kent family’s rabbi to marry them in May 1983, provided they could write their own vows and that the ceremony was over within 10 minutes.