Anna Kloots’ ex-husband is Joshua Jay, the professional magician she married on August 29, 2015, and toured with as his onstage assistant. Per her own account, he was the one who asked for the divorce, finalized around 2020.
Anna Kloots ex husband story gave way to a Paris apartment building like this one, where an upstairs neighbor changed everything
What makes this split unusual among celebrity divorces is that the divorce itself became her origin story. The travel writer now called the real-life Emily in Paris built her memoir on it. So were the move to France, the career, and eventually a second marriage, every stage documented by her own hand.
The Marriage to Joshua Jay
Kloots married Jay in 2015 and worked inside his career, traveling as the onstage assistant in his magic act while writing about their journeys through more than 80 countries. IMDb’s biography entry dates the marriage from August 29, 2015, to their 2019 split, with the divorce finalized as the pandemic began.
She was blindsided by the ending, by her own telling. The excerpt from her memoir published by Katie Couric Media includes the moment: “I loved my ring and wore it every day, no matter where I was or what I was doing, until the moment my husband said divorce. That day, as my world crumbled around me, I went into the bathroom, pressed my back to the wall, and sank to the floor.”
The timing compounded it. As she told the Sundara Fund, she was finalizing the divorce in the same 2020 stretch when her brother-in-law Nick Cordero was hospitalized with COVID-19: “Our world was lighting on fire. I was in the middle of trying to finalize my divorce.”
My Own Magic: Turning the Divorce Into the Story
Kloots faced divorce at 30 and wrote her way through it. Her 2023 memoir My Own Magic covers the marriage, the split, and the rebuild. Its framing has become her calling card. “We tend to think of divorce as our greatest failure and the ‘end of our life,’ when often it can be the very thing that sparks the beginning of our greatest success, and a new, happier life,” she said of the book.
The rebuild was literal: she moved to Paris alone in 2020 and built the travel-writing and social media career she is known for now. Turning a divorce into the work itself has quiet parallels on this site; country singer Carly Pearce did it in a different medium, processing her own split across the album 29.
The Upstairs Neighbor She Married Next
In October 2020, freshly divorced and not looking, Kloots met her upstairs neighbor while carrying flowers home from a friend’s shop. Her account, retold by People, reads like a screenplay. He knocked on her door with a vase and red wine. He asked her to dance in her living room. Then he left croissants and a handwritten note on her doormat every morning for months.
They were engaged in May 2025 and married on December 27, 2025, in Paris, with a civil ceremony followed by a church wedding and a celebration at Hôtel de Crillon, their dog Miette in a tiny suit. Kloots has kept her husband’s name largely out of press coverage, and People’s wedding report leaves him unnamed.
Untangling the Kloots Family Questions
The Anna Kloots ex husband search pulls in her famous family, so the distinctions matter. Anna’s ex-husband is Joshua Jay, alive and, as far as any public record shows, unmarried since; nothing suggests he has spoken publicly about the divorce, and her memoir stands as the only inside account.
Her sister Amanda Kloots is a different story searchers often conflate. Amanda’s husband, Broadway actor Nick Cordero, died in 2020 after a long COVID-19 hospitalization, leaving her a widow with their son Elvis. One sister’s marriage ended in court papers. The other’s ended in a hospital, in the same year.
FAQ
Who was Anna Kloots’ first husband?
Joshua Jay, a professional magician, was Anna Kloots’ first husband. They married on August 29, 2015, worked together on his touring act, and divorced after he ended the marriage, with the split finalized around 2020.
What happened between Anna Kloots and Joshua Jay?
By her memoir’s account, Jay asked for the divorce and Kloots did not see it coming. She has not alleged scandal; her telling centers on losing the marriage and identity she had built inside his career.
Who is Anna Kloots’ new husband?
Anna Kloots married her Paris upstairs neighbor on December 27, 2025, at a ceremony celebrated at Hôtel de Crillon. She has kept his name mostly out of media coverage, and People’s wedding report does not identify him.
Who is Amanda Kloots’ husband?
Amanda Kloots, Anna’s sister, was married to Broadway actor Nick Cordero, who died in 2020 following a long COVID-19 hospitalization. Searches mixing up the two sisters’ husbands are common, but the stories are unrelated.
