Get to know Jenn Watson, Austin Watson's wife, in our second Better Halves spotlight of the season. Jenn shares powerful messages about perseverance and how past experiences don't define who you are today, in addition to speaking about being a stay-at-home mother of three.

Give us your backstory. Where you’re from, childhood, hobbies, etc.

Yeah, I was born in California. My parents divorced when I was two and I immediately went to live with my birth mom. I had a very untraditional childhood, I guess you could say. I don't know how much you want me to elaborate, but I went through a lot of things that a four and a five-year-old should never have to go through. So, I had to fend for myself a lot and kind of become an adult at a very, very young age. I think by age six, my father could see that I was being put in situations that I shouldn't be put in. So, he took me from my mom, and I went to live with him. Life's beautiful now, but it wasn't for me back then. So yeah, I mean, my childhood was rough. I was bullied severely from about age 6 to 13 and that kind of set the tone going forward. I developed these horrible core beliefs about myself that I didn't matter or wasn’t worthy of friends and of love. I would go to school and get bullied and then go home and I wouldn't be built back up. So, I was very reliant on myself as far as love and self-affirmation, and as children we rely solely on our parents to help build our self-esteem. I was always alone a lot, which was sad for a little kid. Especially seeing my children now, I can't imagine them going through what I went through. Unfortunately, that created a perfect vessel for drugs and alcohol. I started using when I was 18 and got really addicted to drugs, and it just kind of became a whatever you would give me type thing, anything to escape myself. Just because I wasn't happy with me. I managed to somehow get my cosmetology license while I was using drugs and alcohol. So, that's what I did for work when I was going through all that. That's what I did to kind of support my addiction and my habits. I was kind of just living this meaningless life, if you will, until age 29 when I went to a rehab in California and that's when I met Austin. However, I’m always reluctant to tell that story because I never recommend people go to rehab searching for love. You should go to rehab and work on yourself. Thankfully, my situation worked out very well, but it doesn’t usually end that way. 

Three girls now. How special has being a parent been? What do you love most about that experience? Do you think Watty secretly wanted a boy?

You know, to kind of piggyback off of what I just discussed, I love being able to do things differently than my parents did. You know, I have a great relationship with [my parents] now. I think today they did the best they could with what they were given at the time, but I love being able to love my children differently than I was when I was little. I also love everything that I went through because I'm able to be a safe place for [my children] to come to tell me anything. There's nothing they can tell me that I would judge or that I wouldn't understand. I know what it's like to be misunderstood and be a girl. Being a girl is hard and girls kind of suck today, too. It's really hard to make friendships with women. I think that everything that I went through, the bullying and just all of that, made me so strong today that my girls have someone that they can come to as a friend, as a mom, and someone that they can look up to. This is the complete truth, [Austin] never wanted a boy and I think his reason is kind of beautiful in a way. He says that because he is a professional athlete, he worries he would hold his son to such a high standard and he wouldn't be able to be as loving and as soft as he is with his girls. I love that he's honest about that. He's like, ‘I would probably wear my son down and I just don't want that’. You know Austin, I mean, he's a little scary, but he's a pussycat. So, I think three girls are perfect for him.

Watty is known for being a tough guy and an enforcer. But can you talk about the caring/fatherly side of him that people may not see or realize? 

My gosh, he's so not who he is on the ice at all. He's just like I said, this pussycat, this lovey-dovey. I mean, given they're his daughters, I'm sure he's not that way with everyone. He’s just so loving and such a safe place for the girls. He's a cuddler, which you would never think, and once he leaves the rink, he's just a different person. That’s work and when he comes home, he's daddy. So, when the girls see him on TV and they see him fighting, they cheer him on and stuff, but they also don't really understand like, ‘what did that guy do to make daddy want to fight him?’. I'm like, ‘that's just hockey, baby’.

How has having the kids changed your hockey life? How special is it to see the girls interact with Watty during games and in the locker room, and having tons of additional aunts and uncles in the hockey world? 

Oh, it's so special. You know, it's hard on me, obviously, moving with three kids. A lot of it is put on the wife, and I don't think a lot of people understand that. You know, the guy is just meant to focus on hockey, to provide, blah, blah, blah, and the rest is put on us. So, it's hard for me moving three children around, but it's also such a small part to this beautiful, blessed life that we live. When I take the girls to warm-ups and I see this smile on their face when daddy comes up and gives them a puck, it's just all so worth it. With other jobs, men retire in what, their 60s or 70s? But with hockey, Austin's like, what, maybe two, three more years if we're lucky. So, we're really just trying to soak it all in and just enjoy it as much as we can. On days when I really do not want to dress the girls and go to the game, especially in Grand Rapids when it's 20 degrees, I have to remember it's fleeting and this isn't forever.

With all the wives and little kids part of the team this year, how special has that been to make those relationships with other families? 

Oh, I love it. We live in the Forest Hills area in this townhome complex, and our backyard basically touches the Lagesson’s yard. It's so cool to just have that family at the rink, but to also have it [near home] because moving schools, especially for girls, is so hard. Knowing that you already have that built-in family when you go somewhere is so cool and just one of the many blessings of the hockey world.

You didn’t live in Grand Rapids last season but made the move this past summer. What led to that decision and how are you liking Grand Rapids? 

I stayed in Nashville last year just because I was pregnant with our third. And in my mind, I was like, I want to have the baby at home in my safe place. But in hindsight, raising three kids by myself almost killed me, if I'm being honest. I don't recommend it to anyone. At the end of the day, I think children need their father. It was a really long time to be without him and we made the decision [to move]. I think it's easier for kids to move when they're younger and I think they're more resilient at this age. I think the older they get, like junior high and high school, then it's hard to pull them from schools. But for now, my girls just make friends anywhere they go. 

Obviously, your relationship and family life have been in the limelight throughout the years. How difficult has that been to deal with the outside noise?

I'm sure you guys know, almost coming up on seven years, me and Austin had a very public relapse in 2018. That was very, very difficult to go through in itself, but then add in, the noise of the outside public, the team, everything. It was very hard to be able to just focus on ourselves and what we needed to get better. I felt like we were putting out fires everywhere else and not being able to just focus on us. It was just a lot at once. You know, today, it's a lot easier because we've done the work. We have almost seven years sober and are both still very active in our recovery. He has his sponsor, and I have my therapist. We both need to do what we need to do so the noise doesn't matter as much. In the beginning, I'm not going to lie, it's very hard because you're kind of fragile when you're coming out of a relapse. So, any negative thing that anybody says you really take to heart and it can break you. But now having some time, it’s just sticks and stones. If you don't like me, bye sorry. All that really matters at the end of the day is my family and our health, and the rest is just noise, like you said. People like to write stories for you and the media is cruel. So, I just tried to remind people back then, don't believe everything you read and keep an open mind.

You’ve kind of started your own brand on social media. Can you talk about that and how things are going? 

First of all, I was never really into TikTok. The only reason why I've kind of went viral is because of my cross-dressing husband. So Halloween, I don't know if you got to see it, but we hosted at our little event space. I bought a fog machine because I was like, Halloween, this will be great fog, the vibe. I set off every alarm in our entire complex, people were coming out thinking houses were burning down. Austin went to get ice in his outfit at this time. So, as he pulls back up, there's fire trucks, there's this, there's that, he's getting out of the car in this outfit. The firemen are like, ‘is this a joke?’, looking at Austin. He was like, ‘yeah, I play hockey’, and the fireman was like, ‘you're lucky I'm an Austin Powers fan’. It's a great story and it kind of blew up on my TikTok. Now, I'm doing these day-in-the-life or stay-at-home mom videos. I don't know, it’s just something to kind of fill my day because being a stay-at-home mom is hard sometimes and it doesn't necessarily fill my cup. I love my kids more than life, but I think you need something else or you just get lost in your children and I don't think that's healthy. So, I started making these videos. Austin does not like to be included in them, but I'm trying to get him in more. But yeah, that's really it. The video of him will go down in history.

What are some of your favorite things to do by yourself and with the kids while Watty is on the road? 

Honestly, GR is actually great for kids. You guys have such a good children's museum downtown, you have indoor play places, the library is great. There are so many cool places to work out. I'm still kind of just getting in my groove, so I haven't gotten to experience a lot of it yet. I love working out and I love hanging out with other sober women, especially sober women who are new in their recovery. It not only helps keep me sober, but it's also awesome to just carry the message and show them the beauties of sobriety. So, I'm really hoping to get more involved that way once I find more meetings in this area. Yeah, other than that, I'm still just kind of adapting and really happy to be here. I’ve thought about [sponsoring someone] and prayed about this so much, because I really want to. But, I don't know if it's fair because I move so much that I don't want someone to get attached and then maybe, ‘oh, I'm possibly leaving in six months’. I think you really need a face-to-face experience or you're kind of robbed.

What are you most excited about for your future? 

Oh, that's a good question. You know, if you asked him right now, he would 100% say we're retiring in Nashville. That is like his home. That is his safe place. My whole family is in California, which between politics and the cost of living, I don't know if we would end up there. Ideally, I would love to maybe be a little bit closer to family and just settle down somewhere and be able to just watch our kids grow up. When I was in Tampa, I got my drug and alcohol counseling certificate. So, I would love to be able to go work in that field eventually. I'm just excited to see what happens. I don't know if you guys know, but Austin does plan to coach. So, I think our life is just going to get even more insane. I think in a way, hockey is his identity. I think a lot of these guys, when they retire, they're like, ‘well, what do I do with myself now?’. So, I think it'll be good for him.

Any fun facts about Watty that you could share with us?

You guys are going to die when you hear this. So, he talks in his sleep. Actively talks in his sleep. Many nights, I'll roll over and I'll be like, ‘what are you talking about?’, and he’s not talking to me he’s just dreaming. So, I think that's a fun fact is every night's a new adventure because he talks every single night in his sleep. Then he'll wake up randomly throughout the night and grab a handful of Skittles. It is a lot. Just a big handful in the middle of the night, and then he'll just go right back to sleep. He has a lot going on when he sleeps.

You have planned quite a few girl gatherings and team gatherings. Is that something you found you’ve loved here or have you always loved doing that with past teams? 

When I was with the Preds, we were with them for such a long time and we were with those girls for a while and I did help with planning a little bit. It's different in the NHL as well. There's a big wives fund, and the captain's wife plans a lot of the events. I think in the minors, unfortunately, a lot of the people don't make a lot of money, so it's hard for people to do things. I want us to all to do things together and be inclusive and have that family vibe. So, I think I just try and stay really on it when it comes to celebrating holidays or birthdays or things like that. Like you don't necessarily need a lot of money. Come over to my house, let's have some drinks and just watch the game, you know, just get together. I think a lot of girls, especially some of these ones from Czechia, don’t really speak English and it can be really difficult and lonely. So, I think it's important to have someone that's like very, ‘hoorah rah, you know?'. Or even like just getting the kids together, it’s very important. Again, a lot of people don't make a lot of money, so you don't want to be like, ‘hey, let's go do this’, knowing that someone might be left out. So, it's a fine line. But to answer your question, I do love planning.