Who Is Janet Smollett? The Amazing Life Story of Joel Smollett’s Wife

Janet Smollett is the wife of the late Joel Smollett and the mother of six children, including actors Jussie Smollett and Jurnee Smollett. She met her husband during a civil rights campaign in California’s Bay Area, raised a family that moved between coasts, and kept a tradition of shared meals alive in every new home. Janet has never chased fame, so most of what the public knows about her comes from her children’s interviews, news coverage, and a family cookbook. This guide gathers the verified facts about her background, marriage, family, and public moments, and it flags the details that no reliable source confirms.

Detail	Information
Full name	Janet Smollett (née Harris)
Known as	Wife of Joel Smollett; mother of Jussie and Jurnee Smollett
Date of birth	Not confirmed by the family (one celebrity database lists November 27, 1952)
Origin	New Orleans, Louisiana
Heritage	African American; Jussie’s Wikipedia entry also lists Irish ancestry
Husband	Joel Smollett (Jewish, with Russian and Polish ancestry)
Husband’s death	January 2015, from cancer, at age 58 (per most published accounts)
Children	Six: Jojo, Jazz, Jussie, Jurnee, Jake, and Jocqui
Known for	Raising six performers; civil rights involvement; the family table tradition
Family cookbook	The Family Table (2018), written by four of her children
Notable public moment	Attended son Jussie’s 2021 trial in Chicago
Net worth	Not publicly reported

Who Is Janet Smollett?

Janet Smollett is an American mother and former civil rights campaigner, best known as the wife of Joel Smollett and the mother of the Smollett siblings. Her six children are Jurnee, Jazz, Jussie, Jake, Jojo, and Jocqui. Most of them built careers in film, television, music, or food media.

Published profiles list her maiden name as Harris. She rarely gives interviews, so her story reaches readers mostly through her children. The family cookbook also credits her with building the table at the center of their home life.

The table below lists the key facts.

Where Did Janet Smollett Grow Up?

Janet Smollett is originally from New Orleans, according to her son Jussie’s 2016 interview with The New York Times. He told the newspaper that his mother is African American and that she met his father in the Bay Area.

Beyond her hometown and maiden name, few verified details about her childhood exist. She has not published a memoir, and she rarely speaks to reporters. Several websites print detailed claims about her parents and schooling, but those pages cite no primary sources, so this article leaves them out.

Reports describe her as African American, and Jussie’s Wikipedia entry places her in Santa Rosa, California, at his birth. The same entry lists Irish ancestry alongside her African American heritage. Combined with Joel’s Jewish background, that mix gave the Smollett children a multicultural upbringing.

How Did Janet Smollett Meet Joel Smollett?

Janet met Joel in California’s Bay Area during a civil rights campaign. People, citing The New York Times, reports that the couple met during a civil rights campaign.

Joel came from a Jewish family with Russian and Polish roots. Several biographical profiles say he worked as a cable splicer to support the household. He later became known mostly through his children’s careers.

The couple married in the mid to late 1970s, according to most profiles. Their marriage crossed racial and religious lines at a time when many Americans still faced pressure over such relationships.

The publisher’s description of The Family Table says the family celebrated Christmas, Easter, Passover, and Chanukah. That detail shows how both sides of the family shaped daily life at home.

The family also moved often. Jussie was born in Santa Rosa, and the family moved to Queens, New York, when he was two and to Los Angeles when he was about seven.

Who Are Janet Smollett’s Children?

Janet and Joel Smollett had six children: Jojo, Jazz, Jussie, Jurnee, Jake, and Jocqui. Four are sons and two are daughters.

Jussie Smollett, born June 21, 1982, is an actor and singer. He is best known for playing Jamal Lyon on the Fox drama Empire. He is the third of the six children.

Jurnee Smollett was born in New York City on October 1, 1986, and is the fourth of six siblings. She has built a long career in film and television and also uses the name Jurnee Smollett-Bell.

Jake Smollett was born in New York City on July 29, 1989. He acts and works in food media. Jazz Smollett-Warwell works as an actress, writer, and producer, and she appears alongside Jake as a Food Network personality.

Jojo and Jocqui keep a lower public profile. Reliable sources share few details about their work, so this article does not speculate.

How Did Janet Smollett Shape Her Children’s Careers?

Published profiles credit Janet with guiding her children into modeling and acting while the family moved for work. People notes that the children traveled often for modeling and acting jobs.

Jurnee’s early success opened the door for her siblings. She landed her breakout role on Full House at age four, which led to the family sitcom.

That sitcom, On Our Own, aired on ABC from September 13, 1994, until April 14, 1995. The show cast the Smollett children as siblings who tried to stay together after losing their parents. ABC cancelled it after one season.

Each child later built an independent career. Jussie rose to fame on Empire, and Jurnee moved into major film and television roles. Several siblings have also worked together since, including on the 2018 cookbook.

What Is Janet Smollett’s Connection to The Family Table?

Janet appears in The Family Table as the mother who built the wooden kitchen table at the center of the family’s homes, although her four children wrote the book. The publisher’s description says she turned planks of hardwood into a varnished butcher-block table in every new home, in a ritual that took three days.

That table hosted holidays, birthdays, and family milestones. The book uses it as a symbol of a childhood spent on the move, with one constant place to gather.

William Morrow published the book on April 24, 2018, and it runs 288 pages with more than 130 recipes. The credited authors are Jazz Smollett-Warwell, Jake Smollett, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, and Jussie Smollett.

Some websites say Janet co-wrote the book, but verified publisher and retailer listings do not name her as an author. The four siblings promoted it on the TODAY show, where they cooked grilled ribs, pralines, and potatoes au gratin.

How Did Janet Smollett Support Her Son During His Legal Case?

Janet attended Jussie’s 2021 trial in Chicago and walked into the courthouse beside him. Getty Images photographed her arriving with him at the Leighton Criminal Court Building on December 6, 2021.

The case began in January 2019, when Jussie reported a racist and homophobic attack in Chicago. Prosecutors later accused him of staging it. A jury convicted him in December 2021 of five felony counts of disorderly conduct, and a judge sentenced him to 150 days in county jail. Jussie has denied staging the attack.

The Illinois Supreme Court threw out the conviction on November 21, 2024. The court ruled that a second prosecution violated his due process rights, because prosecutors had earlier dropped the original charges after he forfeited a bond and performed community service.

The ruling did not decide whether the attack was real. Special prosecutor Dan Webb said the decision had nothing to do with Jussie’s innocence. Jussie’s lawyers called the outcome a victory for fairness.

Coverage of Janet during this period mostly shows her presence at his side rather than her words. She has given few public statements about the case.

What Happened to Joel Smollett?

Joel Smollett died of cancer in January 2015 at the age of 58, according to most published accounts. Several outlets give the date as January 7, 2015. A few websites list other years, but the 2015 date appears most often, so this article uses it.

The family kept medical details private. Public reports do not name the type of cancer, and this article does not guess.

Joel left behind Janet, their six children, and a family tradition that still centers on food. The Family Table includes a recipe called Dad’s Cuban Picadillo. That recipe is one small way the children honor him.

What Is Janet Smollett Doing Today?

Janet Smollett lives a private life, and no verified source details her current work or address. She appears mostly in her children’s stories and in occasional family photos.

Readers should treat claims about her net worth, home, or health with caution. No reliable outlet reports them, and many low-quality websites repeat guesses as facts.

Her influence is easier to see than her schedule. It shows in her children’s careers, in the cookbook’s table tradition, and in the way her family stays close.

Conclusion

Janet Smollett built a family that blends African American, Jewish, and multicultural traditions, and she kept it together through frequent moves, public success, and personal loss. She chose a private life, which explains why verified details about her stay limited. What the record does show is a mother whose work at home helped shape six careers and one famous kitchen table.

Frequently Asked Questions About Janet Smollett

1. Who is Janet Smollett’s husband?

Janet Smollett married Joel Smollett, a cable splicer of Russian and Polish Jewish ancestry. The couple met in California’s Bay Area during a civil rights campaign and raised six children together. Joel died of cancer in January 2015, according to most published accounts.

2. How many children does Janet Smollett have?

Janet Smollett has six children: Jojo, Jazz, Jussie, Jurnee, Jake, and Jocqui Smollett. Four sons and two daughters make up the family. Jussie, Jurnee, Jake, and Jazz have the highest public profiles, while Jojo and Jocqui appear less often in the press.

3. Is Janet Smollett Jussie Smollett’s mother?

Yes. Jussie Smollett was born in Santa Rosa, California, in 1982 to Joel and Janet Smollett, whose maiden name was Harris. He is the third of their six children. Janet attended his 2021 Chicago trial and appeared alongside him at the courthouse.

4. Is Janet Smollett related to Jurnee Smollett?

Yes. Janet is the mother of actress Jurnee Smollett, also credited as Jurnee Smollett-Bell. Jurnee was born in New York City on October 1, 1986, as the fourth of six children. She began acting as a child and later starred in film and television.

5. Did Janet Smollett write The Family Table?

No. Jazz Smollett-Warwell, Jake Smollett, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, and Jussie Smollett wrote The Family Table, published by William Morrow in April 2018. Janet appears in the book as the mother who built the family’s wooden kitchen table in each new home. Some websites wrongly list her as a co-author.

6. What is Janet Smollett’s ethnicity?

Reports describe Janet Smollett as African American, and her son Jussie’s Wikipedia entry also lists Irish ancestry. She is originally from New Orleans. Her husband Joel came from a Jewish family with Russian and Polish roots, so her children have African American and Jewish heritage.

7. How old is Janet Smollett?

No reliable source confirms Janet Smollett’s birth date. One celebrity database lists November 27, 1952, which would make her 73 today, but the family has not verified it. Treat any exact age with caution until she or her relatives share it.

8. Where did Janet and Joel Smollett meet?

Janet and Joel met in California’s Bay Area during a civil rights campaign, according to a New York Times report cited by People. They later married and raised their children in several places, including Santa Rosa, Queens, and Los Angeles.

9. What was On Our Own, and how was Janet involved?

On Our Own was an ABC sitcom that aired from September 1994 to April 1995 and starred all six Smollett children as siblings trying to stay together. The show ran for 20 episodes. Published profiles describe Janet as the parent who guided their early careers.

10. Why is Janet Smollett famous?

Janet Smollett is famous as the mother of six children, most of them performers, including Jussie and Jurnee Smollett, and as the wife of Joel Smollett. People also know her for her civil rights background and the family table tradition described in The Family Table. She has largely stayed out of the spotlight.