CNN host and political commentator Van Jones and his wife, Jana Carter, are divorcing after 13 years of marriage. The Los Angeles-based couple, who wed in 2005, have two sons together, Cabral and Mattai.
“Though we have decided to end our marriage, we still love each other very much,” Jones and Carter said in a joint statement, according to People .
“We will continue raising our kids together, running our businesses together, and supporting each other’s growth. There is no beef or drama — just evolution.”
TMZ reported that Carter filed the divorce papers in Los Angeles County Court on Friday, September 7, listing a date in May as the time of her separation from Jones. She is seeking joint legal and physical custody of their two children, and she also wants spousal support from her soon-to-be ex-husband.
On Saturday, September 8, Jones posted a photo to Instagram of himself and Carter. “#FamilyForever,” he captioned the picture, adding three purple hearts at the end.
“[Jana] used to run marathons and climb mountains,” Jones proudly said about his wife in a 2009 interview with Oakland Magazine . “She is a power tools kind of girl. [She’s] very independent… She’s not sitting there waiting for me to fix the plumbing. She’s very resourceful.”
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And, in 2013, Jones spoke lovingly about his kids, who were 5 and 9 at the time.
“We can argue back and forth about politics but, at the end of the day, I’m worrying about my boys and how they’re doing and how they’re getting along in the world,” he told CNN , adding that “80 percent of [his] brain is taken up thinking about [his] kids.”
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Born Anthony Kapel Jones, the Yale-educated attorney has been a political commentator on CNN since 2013. Earlier this year, the 49-year-old launched his very own program on the network, The Van Jones Show , which airs every other Saturday at 7 p.m. ET. Jones interviews political and cultural guests on the program like Joy Behar, Leslie Jones, Kim Kardashian West, and Bernie Sanders.
The co-founder and leader of several nonprofit organizations devoted to social and environmental justice served as President Barack Obama’s Special Advisor for Green Jobs. Jones has also written three New York Times best-selling books: 2008’s The Green Collar Economy , 2012’s Rebuild the Dream , and 2017’s Beyond the Messy Truth: How We Came Apart, How We Come Together .
Carter is also an attorney, and she serves as a producer for The Van Jones Show . She is the niece of former President Jimmy Carter.
