Summary
- Jewel's career in music includes hits like "You Were Meant For Me" and "Foolish Games," earning her prestigious awards and recognition.
- Despite a difficult upbringing in a Mormon household with an abusive father, Jewel is a survivor who has moved on from her past trauma.
- She has navigated relationships in the public eye, including a discreet romance with actor Sean Penn, choosing to prioritize her own fulfillment over fame.
Jewel has had an interesting career in the music industry and is responsible for some great tracks like You Were Meant For Me and Foolish Games. She has been nominated for prestigious awards and recognized for her talent. Although she has stepped away from the limelight in recent years, she has used this time wisely, working on herself and moving on from her past. However, fans of the singer will be excited to learn that she recently attended the exhibit, The Portal: An Art Experience by Jewel, at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
Kevin Costner Reveals He’s Dating Jewel With Flirty Photos Months After Winning Divorce
Kevin and Jewel travelled to the Caribbean together last month and appeared not to be hiding their new relationship status.
Before the event, she discussed her life and her upbringing with People, noting how she was raised in a Mormon household in Alaska. Her father was abusive, and she would leave home as a teenager. Her story is both heartbreaking and inspirational because Jewel is a survivor.
Jewel Reflects On Her Traditional Childhood
Jewel grew up with her brothers in Alaska, and in her recent interview, she discussed her upbringing and the impact her mother leaving the family had on her. She was eight years old at the time. "I grew up in a very traditional Mormon family. But everything changed when my mom left. My dad started drinking and being physically abusive, so like hitting us, and that's what caused me to move out," she said of her father, Atz Kilcher. "He was in a lot of rage and a lot of yelling."
This is not her first time discussing her relationship with her father. In a 2023 interview on the Verywell Mind podcast (via Daily Mail), Jewel spoke about Atz's treatment of her. "My dad was this volatile alcoholic that hit me, very easy to identify 'bad guy,'" she said. "My mom seemed like the opposite. She was calm, she was soft, she never yelled, obviously never hit me. And I didn't realize I was being abused in another way at the time."
Her home life was problematic, but she also experienced sexual harassment as a child, with grown men making inappropriate comments. "Call me when you're 16. You're going to be a great f***," she told the publication of some of the vulgar things that had been said to her as a literal child. The harassment continued throughout much of her life. As the publication notes, she was fired from work in 1993 by her inappropriate boss, and when she started to become famous, this behavior did not stop.
Jewel Reflects On Her Relationships
Jewel had to overcome many challenges both in her childhood and at the beginning of her career. As her star was rising, she encountered another issue: having a relationship in the public eye. She was in a relationship with actor Sean Penn, whom she met in 1995. It was a coupling that the singer wanted to protect from the public's gaze (she may still be doing that, as it's rumored she's dating Kevin Costner).
Sean Penn's Relationship With Scarlett Johansson Was Brief, And It Was Because Of Commitment Issues
Sean Penn and Scarlett Johansson had a brief relationship, with limited information about their time together.
"Even when I was dating Sean really early on, nobody knew I was dating him. I wouldn't do a red carpet with him. I was just very prideful," she told People. "I wasn't famous, and my album was flopping, like failing spectacularly. I remember going to the Venice Film Festival with him, and I could have done the red carpet and received a lot of media attention." She realized she could have used Penn's fame to further her career but opted not to because she wanted to make it on her own. "I don't need fame that badly. I need to be fulfilled. I need to be happy. I need to be a songwriter. I wasn't thirsty in that way," she said.
