Tragic Details About Jaime King's Life

The following article contains references to substance abuse and domestic violence.

Jaime King, once known as James King, made her mark on the modeling world at the tender age of 13 and quickly became an "it girl." The rise of the supermodel in the late '80s and early '90s was a cultural phenomenon. More than just pretty faces, these women and girls were icons who quickly became household names. Fashion is fickle, however, and the mid-90s saw the supermodels replaced by a new breed of waif-like girls who, with lanky limbs, vacant stares, and minimal makeup, were the antithesis of the glamazons who had previously ruled the runways. Infamously coined "heroin-chic," this new look was more than aesthetic. For some of the girls, like King, it was a lifestyle. 

Although it may have seemed enviable to outsiders, King's life was filled with ups and downs from an early age. Since she was a preteen, she has experienced more than her fair share of tragic circumstances.

Omaha, Nebraska, is a far cry from the New York fashion scene, but that didn't stop young Jaime King from dreaming of photo shoots and fame. While other preteens were poring over magazines and cutting out photos of the latest boy bands to hang on their walls, King was scouring the pages of Vogue and cutting out pictures of models.

In an interview with The New York Times Magazine, she recalls staying up until the wee hours of the morning creating collages of her favorites. "I knew every model, I knew who Steven Meisel was," she says. That obsession, combined with her stunning good looks, didn't endear the future star to her peers. The bullying was so bad that King penned an essay about it for Elle many years later. "I don't know if you remember your first experience, like in school where you were bullied or talked about, but, for me, I was 12 or 13. I was pretty, and I looked a certain way, but I didn't have the money and I didn't have the address," she wrote, adding that she always felt like an outcast.

King has certainly gotten the last laugh by becoming part of the coolest friend group ever — Taylor Swift's girls-only squad. However, those early years left lasting scars on the star that even fame couldn't heal. "I thought if I went into modeling, I would escape this unending feeling of not belonging," she wrote in Elle. "Then I realized that I didn't feel any different. No matter how successful I was, I still didn't feel like I fit in."

In an interview with The New York Times Magazine, Jaime King's mother, Nancy King, described her middle child as an unenthusiastic student and a bit of a handful who would sneak out of her window at night. "She was different from the start," admitted Nancy. Like many suburban teens with big dreams, Jaime enrolled in the local modeling school Nancy Bounds' Studio, where she was discovered by the owner of the modeling agency Company Management in New York, Michael Flutie, and her dream became reality.

While just a high school freshman, Jaime began traveling to New York for work, juggling her role as an up-and-coming model with her role as the not-so-model student. As she became more successful and spent more time away from home, the teen struggled with anxiety over missing out on a normal high school experience. "I started to feel really isolated," she explained to The New York Times Magazine. She decided to forgo modeling for a summer, turning down jobs to stay in Omaha, but she soon realized that if she was going to make it big, she would have to make a hard choice. "I had to choose whether I wanted to do my career or go to school," she said, adding that she and her friends had little in common anymore. Eventually, Jaime traded her high school education in Omaha for an education in life, where she learned some hard lessons about the dangers of being a young model in the Big Apple. 

New York City is big, and for a young model who suddenly is the toast of the town, that can be a big problem. Behind the velvet ropes are glamourous galas, VIP rooms, and trendy clubs where every night is a party. But as Jaime King found out, the party favors can be addicting.

At the age of 13, King was given heroin on a shoot by one of the photo assistants, and it quickly became her drug of choice. Before she was old enough to drive, King was becoming an addict and falling prey to an industry that she says is no place for a child. "I remember being naked in a bathtub for Italian Vogue when I was not even 14 years old," she told The Cut. "You're just trying to get through it, and there's this pervasive terror that if you don't participate, you'll be sent home."

King was not sent home for not participating, but she was almost sent home for letting her addictions and partying lifestyle get out of control. Ironic, considering it was the industry that exposed the teen to her new way of life in the first place. " I got myself into a little trouble," she admitted to The New York Times Magazine. "I was missing planes, I was screwing up jobs." Exhausted and depressed, King was in need of a big wake-up call to get clean.

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

The road to recovery starts with the first step. For Jaime King, that step was the tragic overdose of her boyfriend, famed photographer Davide Sorrenti. King, who was just 17 at the time of his death, suddenly found herself at the center of a firestorm around the use of heroin in the modeling world.

A photograph taken by Sorrenti that featured a frighteningly thin King sprawled out on a bed in ripped leggings in front of a poster of Kurt Cobain was pointed to as an example of everything that was wrong with the industry, and made King the face of heroin chic. In a since-deleted Instagram post, King noted that the photo got the couple into "so much trouble."  "The cruelest thing was having Bill Clinton, the president of the f***ing United States of America, talk about you and the love of your life and describing us as "heroin chic" while displaying our images and distorting them," she told The Cut.  

Following the death of Sorrenti, King says she found herself hopelessly depressed, alone, and scared. "I was like, if there's a God, tell me," she told The New York Times. "If not, take me out." At the end of her rope, King decided to tie a knot. She made the tough call to enter rehab and began her physical and spiritual journey to sobriety.

Jaime King left the modeling industry at the top of her game to pursue a career in acting, much to the surprise of those around her. She landed not only some prime roles but also a husband, director Kyle Newman, whom she met on the set of "Fanboys." The couple wed in 2007 and wanted to start a family, but it wasn't that easy. In a since-deleted Instagram post, King shared that she suffered for years from undiagnosed endometriosis and polycystic ovarian syndrome (via People). She explained how in four and a half years, she went through five miscarriages, an ectopic pregnancy, five rounds of in vitro fertilization (IVF), and 26 rounds of intrauterine insemination (IUI) in her attempts to conceive before finding herself pregnant the old-fashioned way. "When I got pregnant, it was the best thing in the whole world. I had never felt so grateful, happy and elated," she told People. 

The actor had a difficult pregnancy, laboring for 26 hours before giving birth to her son, James Knight. King then experienced postpartum depression. The experience inspired her to speak out. "I was hiding what I was going through for so long, and I hear about so many women going through what I went through. If I'm open about it, hopefully, it won't be so taboo to talk about it," she told People.

Just over a year after welcoming James, Jaime King and Kyle Newman had a second son, Leo Thames. Sadly, just 20 weeks into her second pregnancy, King received devastating news. Tests revealed that the boy she was carrying had a rare heart condition that would require him to have open-heart surgery almost immediately after his birth. In an Instagram post after the fact, King revealed that her son had been diagnosed with transposition of the great arteries (TGA). "He had a major heart surgery, that was terrifying, and traumatic for us as parents, for our family," she shared. In an interview with People, King recounted the hours leading up to her son's surgery. "I was wheel-chaired to him every three hours, so I could breastfeed him and take care of him before he went into this huge surgery," she said, explaining that Leo Thames had to be a "certain weight to survive the open-heart surgery."

The couple only told their closest friends and family members, which included Leo Thames' godmother, who is – as big fans know – Taylor Swift. Swift later made a sizeable donation to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where Leo had his surgery. When her son was out of the woods, King went public with her experience, telling People that she wanted to help other people who were going through the same thing so they wouldn't feel as alone as she did. "I've gotten thousands of letters from people and now I have a real community of people to talk to," she said.

It is said that all good artists must suffer, but how much is too much? For actor Jaime King, who throws herself into whatever role she takes on, almost found out when she sustained not one but two injuries on the set of the Netflix series "Black Summer." The show about a zombie apocalypse features King in the role of Rose, a mother searching for her daughter and doing whatever it takes to find her. In an interview with Collider, King said that as a mother, the role "hit [her] in the heart," but that wasn't the only area that took a hit. 

First, King tore three ligaments in her ankle that required daily rehabilitation exercises to properly heal. Then, during the filming of the finale, King tripped over an extra while performing a very physical scene, knocked herself out, and severely injured her hand. Ever the professional, King fought to go on, but when faced with the choice of staying on set or losing her hand, she knew what she had to do. "It's one of those things where you realize that you have to choose your body, which is my livelihood, over this thing, in this moment," she told Collider, adding that she didn't get to experience a proper goodbye with the cast and crew.

In an Instagram post, King showed off her cast and thanked the people who, quite literally, gave her a hand.

Celebrities have a lot to deal with when it comes to paparazzi, stalkers, online trolls, and overzealous fans. It's enough to make anyone paranoid, especially when children are involved. But in a strange case of none of the above, King, her young son James Knight, and her friend Judit Balogh were subjected to what appeared to be a random act of violence in Los Angeles.

In 2018, a man jumped on the actor's parked car and banged on the windshields, causing them to shatter. Glass fragments struck King's young son, and the suspect threw a can at Balogh as she tried to stop him. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured.  According to TMZ, the 47-year-old man was arrested for "felony child endangerment, felony vandalism, and misdemeanor battery." 

The incident shook King to the core, and she took to Instagram to give more details, saying original reports were "inaccurate to the level of sustained violence and intent of this act." The actor publicly thanked those who came to her aid and shamed the paparazzi for their behavior. "I'm saddened that the paparazzi chose to terrorize my son and I by shoving cameras in our face during the attack, whilst he was shaking and crying instead of trying to help," she wrote. She ended her post with an appeal to California lawmakers: "Mental health, drug addiction, and homelessness are issues that need to be addressed, and we desperately need more resources dedicated to helping the people suffering."

By all accounts, Jaime King and husband Kyle Newman appeared to have it all — thriving careers, two beautiful children, and more than a decade of marriage under their belts. Things aren't always as they seem, however, and King filed for divorce from her director husband in 2020. She also filed a domestic violence prevention petition, claiming that Newman was verbally and emotionally abusive to her during their marriage, documents obtained by People revealed.

King was granted a temporary restraining order against her spouse. According to the court documents, King claimed that Newman was spreading lies about her in an effort to ruin her career and reputation. She recounted being publicly berated and yelled at by her spouse. "I have suffered the most confusing trauma-filled experiences involving emotional manipulation and gaslighting caused by Respondent," her court filing read. "I am afraid of, and feel anxious and sick to my stomach at every encounter with Respondent."  

Newman denied ever abusing his wife, saying in his filing, "I have never laid a hand on Jaime, nor would I." He also fired back by accusing King of being "a chronic drug addict and alcoholic who refuses to acknowledge that she has a problem, let alone seek meaningful treatment for such problem." 

If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.

Kyle Newman had plenty of things to say about Jaime King after she filed for divorce. In his later filings, as shared by People, Newman claimed that his wife's addictions were putting their children in jeopardy. He accused her of going back to her old ways, drinking heavily and taking opiates, even while pregnant. At the same appointment in which the couple learned that their unborn son, Leo Thames, had a congenital heart defect, Newman claims they received the news that the baby "was also addicted due to her continued drug use."

Newman said that King often drove under the influence with the children in tow. He claimed that King didn't buckle up Leo Thames at one point and drove off without closing his door, nearly causing the child to fall out of the car. Newman alleged that he did stage an intervention, saying King checked into rehab in Utah. King's filings corroborate this, but she claimed to only attend rehab to prove that she wasn't using any substances.

The mud slinging continued, with Newman declaring that King would disappear for days, and that she admitted to having an affair. Both parties denied the other's accusations as they fought for custody of their two sons, with King's rep telling People that Newman's accusations were just one more "vicious, failed attempt of Kyle to continue his abuse of Jaime and manipulate the court system." Only time would tell. 

In the middle of an already ugly divorce, Jaime King was stunned to learn that her ex had become a father for the third time. Kyle Newman and his girlfriend, Cynthia Nabozny, welcomed a baby boy, Etienne Noel, in February 2021, about nine months after King filed for divorce.

A source close to King told E! News, "Jaime was not told about Kyle's relationship or the pregnancy until right before the holiday. She was very blindsided by this." A source close to Newman, however, said that not only was King aware of the situation, but she had spent time with her ex and his new love over the holidays. When the baby was born, the source told E! News, "They received kind congratulations from both Jaime and her long-term boyfriend."

Per usual with the estranged husband and wife, it became a case of he said, she said. Still, it couldn't have been easy for King to see her ex welcome a new child before their divorce was even close to finalized.

While exes Jaime King and Kyle Newman struggled to work through the details of a divorce settlement, King was dealt another blow when she ordered to not only pay child support but also spousal support. According to court documents obtained by E! News, King must pay her ex-husband $1,000 per month plus 10% of any earnings that surpass $175,344. She was also ordered to pay $429 for child support each month, plus 16% of her earnings above $175,344. While she is also responsible for paying for the children's health insurance, Newman and King were ordered to split "medical expenses, extracurricular activities, and private school tuition." 

This ruling went into effect as the couple continued to hammer out their divorce, which, after nearly four years, was finalized in fall 2023. The details of the final settlement were not made public, but the pair seem to have finally put all the ugliness behind them. King posted a family photo to Instagram following the proceedings, saying they achieved a "peaceful, loving and harmonious completion of our marriage." She added, "We look forward to co-parenting with grace and understanding."

Newman's attorney, Garry M. Gekht, told People that it all ended well and that the former couple grabbed a coffee together while they were waiting to seal the deal. "I am hopeful that this will be a clean beginning for them," he said. "They both understand they will be in each other's lives forever, and that their children deserve nothing but the best from both of them."