Personal Martirez was born in
Chicago,
Illinois where her parents met. She is a first generation
Filipino-American and is of mixed
Filipino and
Spanish heritage. Martirez attended the
University of Missouri, where she was a member of
Alpha Chi Omega sorority, and graduated with a
Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism. Martirez lives in
Malibu, California with her husband and two children.
Career Martirez began her broadcasting career working as a weekend anchor and reporter for
KOMU in
Columbia, Missouri. She then moved on to
WXII in
Winston-Salem,
North Carolina where she worked as a morning anchor and reporter. She was then hired as an anchor and reporter for the
Harlingen, Texas CBS-affiliate
KGBT. She then relocated to
San Antonio,
Texas where she began working for ABC-affiliate
KSAT as a morning anchor. Martirez joined KTTV in October 1995 as a general assignment reporter for the station's morning news and its
Good Day LA program. Prior to arriving at KTTV Martirez worked at the
Denver CBS-affiliate
KCNC anchoring their morning newscasts. In Denver from 1993–1995, Martirez hosted an
Emmy Award winning syndicated children's newsmagazine
News for Kids. In early October 2012, Martirez stopped appearing on the
Fox 11 Morning News. This led many people to speculate whether Martirez had been axed from Fox after seeing the departures of
Dorothy Lucey and
Jillian Reynolds. Jean quickly denied rumors by stating on Twitter that she was still with the show and just on sick leave. A few days later she finally hinted at her departure in a tweet that she had cleaned out her desk. Lucey soon confirmed Martirez's departure on her blog. ==Awards and nominations==