If you’re a fan of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, then you likely know British comedian John Oliver. From 2006 to 2013, Oliver was one of the most popular correspondents on The Daily Show for his humorously thoughtful and unapologetic observations of American political culture. He guest-hosted The Daily Show for two months in the summer of 2013 while Jon Stewart briefly took a break to focus on other ventures and was so impressive as a guest host that HBO provided him with his own show, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, in 2014.
Ever since then, Oliver has received widespread recognition for his work on the series, which has earned him 13 Emmy Awards and two Peabodies thus far. He was also listed in the 2015 Time 100 as a comedic agent of change, as his work has been considered influential in US culture, legislation, and policy making⏤also known as the “John Oliver” effect.
Six years later, Oliver is still going strong with his HBO series. Now 44 years old, Oliver he’s been successful both in terms of his career and his family life.
Who is John Oliver’s wife?
Oliver is currently married to army combat medic and veteran rights advocate Kate Norley. According to Bustle, Norley was born to an affluent family from Virginia, but just because she was well off doesn’t mean that she hasn’t experienced her fair share of challenges. According to Parade, Norley was involved in a devastating car crash while making her way to a soccer game at the age of 16. She suffered a severe head injury and was forced to relearn many basic skills including reading and writing.
After attending Episcopal Boarding School in Arlington, Virginia, Norley enlisted in the army after witnessing the destruction of the 9/11 attacks. She went on to serve in Iraq as a US Army Combat medic in Fallujah and also worked as a mental health specialist in the field, counseling soldiers who were returning from active duty. Norley has also appeared on Fox News to campaign for more funding for American troops. She is currently a member of the organization Vets For Freedom and Team Rubicon, an organization focused on providing disaster relief to those affected by domestic or international natural disasters.
How did Oliver and Norley meet?
No one can ever know when or how they will meet their soul mate. Love can blossom in the most unexpected of places, and in the case of Oliver and Norley, that sentiment couldn’t be more true. At the 2008 Republican National Convention in Minnesota, Norley was working for the political advocacy organization Vets For Freedom while Oliver was in attendance as the tongue-in-cheek senior British correspondent from The Daily Show. Apparently, security had cornered Oliver into a restricted area due to a miscommunication about his temporary work visa. On the run from the officials, Oliver blended in with a group of veterans and met Norley for the first time as she hid him from security.
After the 2008 RNC, Oliver and Norley continued to exchange emails back and forth and began dating later that year. In 2010, Oliver proposed to Norley and the couple tied the knot in a private ceremony in October of 2011. The craziest part of the story is that Oliver is a well-known Democrat while his wife Norley is a Republican. Though this may seem like a slightly odd pairing, Oliver and Norley’s political identities have not affected their relationship. In fact, despite his democratic views, Oliver stands firmly by his wife and her beliefs. “Once you’ve bled for America, you definitely get to say you’re an American in a slightly louder tone of voice,” Oliver once said in an interview. He’s even joked that his wife’s military career has humbled him considerably.
“It’s the most emasculating thing I could possibly do, to go out with someone who has actually done something valuable with their life. I can’t come home and say I had a really tough day at work and see her roll her eyes and go, ‘Really?’ She would be like, ‘I can’t imagine how difficult it was for you. You clown!’ Rightly, I have no place to whine about anything. That’s the problem with living with someone who has fought a war⏤you lose the moral high ground.
He also attributes his wife to informing his newfound American pride, as he describes her as being “very American with a capital A.”
“I’m a little more defensive of how America is perceived overseas,” Oliver said in an interview with The Globe. “America takes a lot of s***, much of it we learned, from the rest of the world. And yet when something terrible goes down, people are waiting for Americans to fall out of the sky and help them.”
The Oliver family
Currently, Oliver and Norley have two sons together that were born in 2015 and 2018. Unfortunately for us, they keep their private life tightly under wraps, so there isn’t much information available about their children.
Oliver has made it clear why he and his wife have chosen to keep their children out of the spotlight.
“Yeah well, you didn’t really announce it because it doesn’t matter,” Oliver explained when asked about their births. “To me, it matters a great deal, let me just make that clear. Just like, publicly, it just doesn’t feel like it’s worth making. This is not a royal baby, in terms of how far in line he is to the throne.”
It seems that Oliver and Norley have no intention of letting fame, fortune, or the media shape how they raise their children, which is quite admirable given Oliver’s celebrity status. It’s good to see that there are some celebrity parents who still cherish teaching their kids what it means to be “normal.”