Jane was born to George and Beryl Wilde (). She grew up in
St Albans, Hertfordshire. She was raised in the
Church of England and is an active
Christian. She studied languages at the University of London's
Westfield College. Jane and Stephen Hawking met through mutual college friends at a party in 1962. Hawking was diagnosed with
motor neuron disease (also known as
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS) in 1963. Though aware of his consequent shortened life expectancy and limitations, the couple became engaged in 1964 and married in 1965 in their shared hometown of St Albans. They had three children: Robert, born in 1967,
Lucy, born in 1970, and Timothy, born in 1979. After years of working on her
doctoral thesis through
Westfield College, Jane received her
PhD in
medieval Spanish poetry in April 1981. She felt compelled to obtain a PhD to have her own academic identity within the
University of Cambridge. Jane and Stephen Hawking separated in 1990, and divorced five years later. In 1997, she married musician Jonathan Hellyer Jones. However, she continued to support Hawking through his health problems as he continued to work. In the
postlude to her 2007 memoir
Travelling to Infinity, she writes about Hawking after his second divorce (from nurse Elaine Mason): "We are able to associate freely again and enjoy many a family occasion together. It has been quite like old times..." During her marriage to Hawking, while dealing with the progression of his illness, Jane experienced
depression. In a 2004 interview, she cited her
Christian faith as giving her hope during her marriage and the depression she experienced as a result of being his then-caregiver. In that interview, she noted the irony in her faith-based strength to support him in light of Hawking's well-known
atheism. ==Later life==