Who Is Harry Connick Jr.'s Wife? All About Jill Goodacre
Harry Connick Jr.'s first encounter with his wife, Jill Goodacre, left an impression on him
Singer and actor Harry Connick Jr. was starring in the 1990 film Memphis Belle when he met his future wife, model Jill Goodacre.
Their chance encounter became the start of a long and romantic love story for the two, who are now married with three children.
In a 2015 conversation with PEOPLE, the Australian Idol judge said, "She's a mystery to me. I genuinely want to know what she thinks. I want to know what she's doing and there's a lot about her that I still don't know."
While her mystique may be part of why they're still going strong for more than 30 years, Harry also gave credit to their similar outlooks on life.
"I think one of the reasons we've lasted this long is that we're so aligned in every way. We have the same morals, the same goals," Harry shared in an interview with PEOPLE in October 2017.
"Everything that he values, I value so much too," Jill added. "And our family has always been the most important."
Beyond everything else, they have a foundation of friendship. "She's my best friend, and I really don't know what I would do without her," Harry told PEOPLE.
So who is Harry Connick Jr.'s wife? Here's everything to know about Jill Goodacre and her relationship with the actor.
She was a Victoria's Secret model
Before there was a Victoria's Secret fashion show, the brand's "angels" only existed on the pages of their catalogs.
In the 1980s, Jill was one of the first catalog models for Victoria's Secret, and she became synonymous with the brand alongside other supermodels like Stephanie Seymour.
Her modeling career landed her on the front cover of Cosmopolitan magazine more than once.
She appeared as herself in Friends
In 1994, Jill had a guest role in the hit sitcom Friends. She played herself in season 1, episode 7, titled, "The One With the Blackout."
In the episode, the city experiences a power outage, which leaves Chandler (Matthew Perry) trapped in an ATM vestibule with Jill. He recognizes her instantly and spends time trying to impress her. They end up bonding after she has to give him the Heimlich maneuver when he chokes on a piece of gum.
At the end of the night, Jill gives him a kiss on the cheek, and he asks for the security camera footage, so he can prove the events of the night really happened.
She met Harry at a hotel in Los Angeles in 1990
In a 2007 interview with Carole Radziwill for Glamour, Harry told the story of how he and Jill met when he was 22.
"I was staying in L.A. Jill walked past me at the hotel pool, and I introduced myself," he said. "She had a really strong handshake. If that had been it between us, just that moment, I would've thought about it for the rest of my life."
He also revealed he wasn't the only one who was instantly smitten.
"What's really funny is that [Jill] called her mom that night and said, 'I met the guy I'm going to marry.' Of course, she didn't let me know," he said.
A year later, Harry penned the song "Jill" about his new girlfriend for his Grammy Award-nominated album Blue Light, Red Light.
They married in 1994
Shortly after meeting and dating, Harry and Jill got engaged. On April 16, 1994, the couple tied the knot at the St. Louis Cathedral in Harry's hometown of New Orleans.
In 2015, Harry marked his 21st wedding anniversary with his wife with a throwback photo of their wedding day.
"21 years with the greatest woman on earth… happy anniversary, Jill," he captioned the post of the two young lovebirds.
In a 2014 interview with YourTango, he explained the key to his long-lasting marriage, crediting his listening skills.
"I married my best friend. And I listen! Ultimately I've been very fortunate — I understand that that doesn't happen for everybody but it happened for us and we take it very seriously," he said.
They share three children
Two years after their wedding, Harry and Jill expanded their family with the birth of their first daughter, Georgia Tatum, on April 17, 1996. Over the next few years, they welcomed two more daughters: Sara Kate, who goes by Kate, on Sept. 12, 1997, and Charlotte on June 26, 2002.
Speaking to PEOPLE in 2018, Harry revealed he and Jill never went through an "embarrassing parent" phase while their children were growing up.
"You constantly hear stories about kids who get embarrassed by their parents or daughters who get embarrassed by their dads … and I'm not saying this to be cool, but we never really got into that," he said.
"It was never really that, 'Can you drop me off a block away from school because I don't want to be seen with you?' It was never like that with us. We never had that, and I don't know why, but we've always had a unique relationship and it's been pretty great," he added.
She has been open about her experience with breast cancer
In October 2012, during breast cancer awareness month, Goodacre was diagnosed with Stage 1 invasive ductal carcinoma and immediately underwent a lumpectomy, which was followed by radiation.
She's been in remission since 2017, but she and Harry have been open about how her experience with cancer affected their lives. Harry was worried about the worst outcome after losing his mother to ovarian cancer as a child.
"I was scared I was going to lose her, absolutely," he told PEOPLE in 2017. "I wasn't going to let her see that, but I was. I know from losing my mom that the worst can happen."
"I knew as soon as I met her that I wanted to grow old with her," Harry continued. "I'm so grateful that I still can."
The former model added that the medicine she had to take to keep the cancer at bay caused her to gain weight, which was difficult for her to accept.
"I've always been a pretty fit person, and so to be just rounder and heavier and not to really be able to do much about it — that's been hard. It's taken a lot out of my self-confidence," she said.
However, for Harry, Jill continued to be the "most beautiful" wife, though he understood her struggle.
"It's a part of how the cancer and the treatment impacted her, and it was a real issue, even though she will always be the most beautiful woman in the world," he added.
Her mother was a famous sculptor
Jill's mother, Glenna Goodacre, was a sculptor and artist known for designing public monuments, including an Irish famine memorial in Philadephia and the Vietnam Women's Memorial in Washington, D.C.
The latter sculpture was created in honor of the United States nurses and women who served in the Vietnam War and the sacrifices they made to provide their support to wounded soldiers.
Glenna died in 2020 at age 80 and Harry posted a tribute on behalf of himself and Jill.
"i write this with a very heavy heart. jill's mom, glenna goodacre, died last night," he wrote on Instagram. "jilly says 'i lost my mother, hero and best friend today, and my heart is completely broken. she was one of the most celebrated artists of all time, and yet she always said that her greatest pieces were her two children. i will miss her love, laughter, and humor," he continued, writing on behalf of his wife.
Harry also added that Glenna was a role model to himself, as well as to his and Jill's daughters.
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