“I’m incredibly proud of her for everything that she did and has done and is continuing to do and supporting everyone who she has served with,” Oliver has said of his wife. “She went through a lot and I got to hear all the stories what it was like from her… She’s one of my heroes.” But though America (and the UK) may feel as though they know the TV personality well, thanks to his weekly appearances on their screens, not many can say the same for Mrs. Oliver. Here’s everything you need to know about John Oliver’s wife, Kate Norley—from how they met and when they married to what she does for a living.
Who is John Oliver’s wife?
John Oliver is married to Kate Norley, 41. While you can find Norley on IMDb—or at least, someone with her name appeared in a short film in 2009, called Tran.si.tions, as an unnamed subway passenger—she’s more well-known for her respectable work in the ranks. After 9/11, Norley went into the Army, working as a combat medic, mental health specialist and counselor to soldiers in Iraq. (More than a decade into their relationship, Oliver is sometimes spotted wearing a 1st Cavalry Division lapel pin to honor his wife’s unit in Iraq.) Once she returned to the U.S., Norley began fervently advocating for more funding for veterans, which led her appearances on FOX News and other news outlets. As for her youth, Norley was born in Arlington, Virginia, to parents Pam Mannion and Walt Norley, who divorced when she was 4. When she was just 16 years old, Norley was in a devastating car crash while on her way to a soccer game and suffered a severe head injury. Her mother nursed her back to health, a tall task, as Norley had to relearn many basic skills like reading and writing. What Last Week Tonight fans might find most shocking: Despite Oliver’s staunchly progressive (if often satirical) take on politics, Norley is Republican. While that may seem shocking to Oliver’s fans, he’s spoken admirably of his wife’s political identity, which he’s described as “very American with a capital ‘A.’” Oliver himself became American with a capital A when he was sworn in as an American citizen on Dec. 13, 2019. He told The Hollywood Reporter afterwards about the citizenship ceremony he participated in, “Everyone in that room is making a commitment… You’re vehemently endorsing the idea of America because the idea is still perfect. That’s what was so moving about the ceremony.”
How did John Oliver and Kate Norley meet?
Oliver and Norley connected in a rather unconventional meet-cute: She saved him from potentially being deported! At the 2008 Republic National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, Norley was working with the political advocacy organization Vets for Freedom, while Oliver was in attendance as the tongue-in-cheek “Senior British Correspondent” from The Daily Show. According to The Daily Beast, security actually cornered Oliver into a restricted area over a miscommunication about his temporary work visa. There, Oliver found solace in a group of veterans—among which was Norley—who hid him from security, thus allowing him to escape from the threat of deportation. Not your average rom-com, but it’s still pretty share-worthy!
When did John Oliver get married?
After Oliver and Norley met at the 2008 RNC, they apparently exchanged a few emails and started dating shortly after. Oliver proposed to his future wife in 2010 while vacationing in St. Thomas. After three years together, Oliver and Norley tied the knot in October 2011 in a very hush-hush ceremony. (Seriously, it’s virtually impossible to find any record online of the nuptials actually taking place!)
Who are John Oliver and Kate Norley’s children?
Oliver and Norley have two sons together, born in 2015 and 2018, but are notoriously private when it comes to their children. Not known to reveal many details, Oliver only confirmed the birth of his second son in 2018 after accepting an Emmy Award and telling PEOPLE later that night, “We have a three-month-old.” After dropping that baby bombshell, Oliver then reacted to others’ reactions—hilariously, of course. “The next day [after the Emmys], there was like a bunch of stories about, ‘John Oliver has Secret Baby,’” he said. “Whoa, whoa, I had a baby with my wife! She knew about it the whole time. We had another. No one’s pulling the wool over anyone’s eyes here. It was very strange.” The couple’s first son, Hudson, arrived prematurely but survived. “Kate was in the hospital, it was very difficult for months beforehand,” Oliver shared of his wife’s pregnancy. “And doing the show at the same time, it was the absolute worst… It was a surreal experience.” Oliver has gone on the record stating why he and his wife chose not to announce either child’s birth. “Yeah, well, we didn’t really announce it because it doesn’t matter,” he explained. “To me, it matters a great deal, let me just make that clear. But 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.” He added, “It’s a peasant, I have a peasant child. So it didn’t even cross my mind that we should make a public thing about it, ‘cause that seemed weird.” Oliver continued to publicly express his own feeling that announcing his son’s birth would be bizarre. He said, “I just made a judgment call that it was not high-value information for anybody. It felt arrogant to like, walk out on Pride Rock [in The Lion King] and [say], ‘I have spawned another child. I have brought another child into the world.’”
What does Kate Norley do?
Kate Norley joined the Army after the 9/11 attacks in New York City in 2001. She worked in Fallujah, Iraq as a combat medic and offered mental health counseling to soldiers on the ground. In 2004, she reportedly said, “If they told me tomorrow I could go home… I wouldn’t be satisfied [that] I’m finished with what I set out to do.” When she did return to the U.S., Norley began working as a veteran rights activist and would often make TV appearances campaigning for additional funds for veterans. Now, Norley still works for Vets for Freedom, an American political advocacy organization that was founded in 2006 by veterans of the Iraq and Afghan Wars, with close ties to Republican Party leaders at the time. “It’s the most emasculating thing I could possibly do to go out with someone who has actually done something valuable with their life,” Oliver once said of his wife’s respected career. “I can’t come home and say I had a really tough day at work today and see her roll her eyes and go, ‘Really?’ And 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.” In fact, Oliver even struggled to tell his wife when he landed the Last Week Tonight gig. After all, he was celebrating a promotion, technically, but Norley was on an emergency deployment in the Philippines as a first responder to Typhoon Haiyan. “I got to speak to her once on this spotty satellite phone and she’s saying, ‘We had to do emergency C-sections and amputations and there are dead bodies everywhere, it’s worse than people are letting on, it’s just death, death, everywhere,’” he said. “And there’s no point at which you can go, ‘I’ve got some news as well!’ It just doesn’t matter.” He also added, “Once you’ve bled for America, you definitely get to say you’re an American in a slightly louder tone of voice.” Next up, meet Clint Eastwood’s children and all of their mothers.
