Jean Christensen: Model, WWE PR Pro & Andre’s Partner

Fans of wrestling who want to know about Andre the Giant’s personal life always come across the name Jean Christensen.

Jean was born in Minnesota on August 15, 1949. She was more than just the partner of a famous fighter.

She was a successful model, a leading public relations expert for WWE, and a strong single mother who raised her daughter mostly by herself.

If you want to learn about Jean Christensen, this book has it all: her early life, modeling career, groundbreaking work in WWE PR, relationship with Andre the Giant, the legal fight over her daughter Robin, and her life after the spotlight went away.

Jean Christensen Quick Facts

Who Was Jean Christensen? A Quick Overview

Jean Christensen was a Danish-American model and public relations worker from the United States.

Her full birth name was Jean Christensen Gantriis. The last name “Gantriis” is Danish and means “knowledge, leadership, and fairness.” These were traits that would define her throughout her life, both personally and professionally.

They were together for a long time. She is best known for her relationship with Andre the Giant, the famous French actress and professional wrestler.

The girl they had together was named Robin Christensen-Roussimoff and was born in 1979. She died in 2008, but he left a quiet but lasting mark on the history of professional wrestling.

Jean Christensen Early Life and Danish Roots

Jean grew up in a neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her parents worked hard and taught her to be independent and ambitious.

A lot of Jean’s childhood is still kept secret. She was never really famous, and she was very protective of personal information all her life.

Her Danish background was a big part of what made her who she is. From a cultural point of view, the Gantriis family name meant fairness and leadership, traits that would show in the way she worked in a tough business.

Jean has always been interested in modeling. She liked the artistic and social parts of the fashion world. Because she was taller than average and had beautiful features, she had an advantage in the business.

By the early 1970s, she had started a modeling job that set the stage for her later move into wrestling PR.

From the Runway to the Ring: Jean’s Modeling Career

In the early 1970s, Jean Christensen started working as a model in both the fashion and business industries.

Even though she wasn’t a famous supermodel, her modeling job gave her two very useful skills: a better understanding of public image and the confidence to talk to people in the media.

When she stopped modeling to become a professional wrestler, these skills helped her get from one world to the other.

The change wasn’t so much a job change as it was a natural progression. At the time, WWE (then WWF) was growing quickly as a media and entertainment product, and it needed polished, media-savvy professionals to handle its public image.

Jean took over that job, taking her experience with public speaking and writing right into the wrestling industry’s PR machine.

Jean Christensen Role in WWE Public Relations

A Pioneering Woman Behind the Scenes

Jean Christensen joined WWE’s (then WWF) public relations team at a very important time in wrestling history.

At that time, the company was changing from an American regional show to a global entertainment powerhouse.

In the 1970s and 1980s, WWE became very popular, and good public relations were important for keeping the sport’s image in check.

As a public relations representative for WWE, Jean was in charge of handling contacts with the media on behalf of wrestlers, planning events for fans to get involved, setting up press releases and promotional appearances, and keeping WWE’s public image professional and easy to reach.

During that time, she was one of the few women in wrestling who had a job like this with a senior.

Her success was a quiet milestone: at a time when men mostly ran professional wrestling, both in front of and behind the cameras, Jean’s efficiency earned her respect for a long time.

Her Impact on WWE’s Global Growth

Jean didn’t just handle the details; she also had a hand in shaping how people learned about wrestling.

Some sources say that she helped set up early tactics for engaging fans and improving the way the company dealt with the media, which helped it grow its audience during its most important years of growth.

Because she had worked as both a model and in public relations, she was perfectly able to balance the entertainment needs of the business with the operational needs of a professional media company.

She knew how to present wrestlers as personalities, not just athletes, which fit in nicely with WWE’s larger goals for entertainment.

Jean Christensen and Andre the Giant: Their Relationship

How They Met

It was through her job as a wrestling PR person that Jean Christensen met Andre the Giant in 1972 or 1973.

Some sources say the friendship got stronger after a 1974 WWE show. The first time they met, it was for work.

Jean was in charge of wrestling’s media, and Andre was becoming one of the biggest stars in the company.

Respect for each other at work turned into a personal friendship over time. What made their relationship special was how different they were from each other.

Jean was a poised, professionally sophisticated woman who worked in a noisy, physical business with quiet competence.

Andre, on the other hand, was a huge, strong, and surprisingly warm celebrity who was loved all over the world.

Were They Married?

Many people think that Jean Christensen and Andre the Giant were formally married, which is not true.

Several reliable sources, including the Wikipedia page on Andre the Giant, say that they were never legally married in the United States.

Even though it was important and lasted a long time, their relationship was still just a friendship.

Andre was very private about his personal life, and even though he was famous all over the world, details of their relationship were kept from the public on purpose. Jean, on the other hand, respected that privacy all her life.

The Challenges They Faced

Because of his job, Andre had to move almost all the time. During the 1970s and 1980s, he was one of the biggest stars in wrestling and performed all over the world.

He rarely stayed at home for long periods of time. Jean took care of their home life mostly by herself, which put a lot of stress on the relationship over time.

Andre also had acromegaly, a chemical disorder that causes abnormal growth, which made his health worse as he got older. In later years of his career, his health got a lot worse, which made their relationship more personal than just the public show of his wrestling image.

Robin Christensen-Roussimoff: Jean’s Daughter

Robin Christensen-Roussimoff is the only child of Jean Christensen and Andre the Giant. October 17, 1979 was the date of his birth. The birth of her caused one of the most famous legal battles between Jean and Andre.

At first, Andre denied being the father of the child. He allegedly did this because he thought that his acromegaly made it impossible for him to have children.

Jean took his father’s identity to court, and DNA tests proved that he was the father. The court then told Andre that he had to pay child support.

Even though the formal matter was settled, Andre and Robin didn’t get along right away. His busy job and constant travel made it hard for him to be a dad.

But it is said that they worked on getting closer in his later years before he died in January 1993.

Since then, Robin has kept a low image in public, but he has been active in the wrestling world.

In 2016, she helped plan the making of a movie based on the graphic book biography of her father, and after he died, Andre’s estate was mostly given to her.

Andre the Giant: A Brief Portrait of Jean’s Partner

For people who don’t know about the wrestling star Jean was linked to, André René Roussimoff was born in Coulommiers, France, on May 19, 1946.

The fact that he was over 7 feet tall and weighed more than 500 pounds gave him the name “The Eighth Wonder of the World.”

His huge size was caused by a disease called acromegaly, which is caused by too much human growth hormone.

Even though it hurt his health, Andre used the fact that he was physically different to make a great business for himself.

He was signed by the WWF in the early 1970s and became one of the most famous wrestlers in the world.

In addition to wrestling, Andre became well-known in pop culture for his part as Fezzik in the 1987 movie The Princess Bride.

This role made people like him outside of wrestling. Andre died on January 27, 1993, in Paris.

He was 46 years old and had congestive heart failure. He was the first person to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 1993.

Jean Christensen Later Life and Legacy

After the death of Andre the Giant in January 1993, Jean Christensen stopped being in public. She decided to live a quiet life, away from wrestling and the media, so she could focus on taking care of herself and her daughter Robin.

In 2008, Jean Christensen died. They never told the public the exact cause of her death because she always wanted to keep things private. The time of her death, she was 58 or 59 years old.

At the time of her death, her estimated net worth was a small amount, between $100,000 and $500,000.

This was the result of her work as a model and WWE publicist. On the other hand, Andre’s fortune, which was worth about $10 million, went to their daughter Robin.

What Jean Christensen Means to Wrestling History

Jean Christensen left behind two things. She was a quiet but real leader in her field, and she was one of the few women working behind the scenes for WWE during a time of great change.

At a time when wrestling was trying to become a legitimate popular form of entertainment, her work helped the promotion’s public image become more professional.

As a person, she stands for the untold stories behind sports legends the people who give players whose public lives require them to be on the move all the time stability, support, and continuity.

Jean raised her daughter mostly by herself, fought for her daughter’s civil rights, and kept her privacy and honor throughout a life full of unusual events.

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Conclusion

The story of Jean Christensen is one of quiet strength, career success, and personal strength. She broke rules because she was one of only a few women working in WWE’s PR department during a very important time in the history of the sport.

After a tough court fight to prove paternity, she raised her daughter on her own. Plus, she did all of this without any cameras around and without wanting fame or attention.

To understand Jean Christensen, you have to know that behind every giant, both real and imagined, there are people whose work is overlooked but whose effects are felt for generations.

Jean’s legacy goes on through her daughter Robin, the memories of the people who worked with her, and the parts of wrestling history she helped write.