Kimberlea Cloughley: What Happened to Tommy Lee Jones’ Ex-Wife

Kimberlea Cloughley spent fifteen years married to one of the most respected actors in Hollywood, raised two children with him on a Texas ranch, and then, after their divorce in 1996, stepped almost entirely out of public view. She was never an actress chasing the spotlight. She was a photographer from a well known San Antonio family who happened to marry Tommy Lee Jones just as his career was about to take off.

Because both she and Jones guard their privacy fiercely, the public record of her life is short. But the outline is clear: a Texas upbringing, a quick romance and marriage in 1981, years of ranch life away from Hollywood, two children, a divorce she filed for in 1995, and a private life ever since.

This article explains what is known about Kimberlea Cloughley, what happened during and after the marriage, and where the reliable record ends. Where details appear only on low quality biography sites, this article labels them as unconfirmed rather than presenting them as fact.

Quick Facts

Early Life in a San Antonio Family

Kimberlea Cloughley grew up in San Antonio, Texas, in a family with deep roots in the city’s legal and civic life. Her father, Phil Hardberger, was a respected lawyer and judge who much later, in 2005, was elected mayor of San Antonio. Her mother, Linda Hardberger, has been described as a journalist. The family name appears in Jones’s own biographies, which confirm that Kimberlea was Phil Hardberger’s daughter.

Details of her childhood and schooling are thin. Biography websites say she was born in 1958 and raised with a strong focus on education and creativity, but these claims come from weak sources and are not confirmed by records or interviews. What is better supported is her chosen work: photography. Multiple accounts describe her as a photographer, and some call her a photojournalist, a person who tells stories with a camera rather than in front of one.

That career choice matters to her story. Kimberlea did not meet Jones as a fan or a socialite. She was a working creative professional in Texas, and their lives came together on her home ground, not on a Hollywood set.

A Fast Romance and a Texas Wedding

Tommy Lee Jones was born in San Saba, Texas, in 1946, studied English at Harvard, and built his acting career through the 1970s in films and television. His first marriage, to Katherine Lardner, had ended in 1978. As the 1980s began, he was a respected working actor on the edge of stardom, with roles such as his turn in Coal Miner’s Daughter drawing wide praise.

By several accounts, Jones and Cloughley dated for only about two months before marrying in 1981. Wikipedia and most reference sources give the marriage simply as 1981, and reports place the wedding in Texas. It was a quick decision, and for a long time it looked like a good one. The couple settled into a life that mixed his filming schedule with long stretches at home in Texas, far from the Hollywood social scene that neither of them seemed to enjoy.

Ranch Life and Two Children

The couple’s first child, a son named Austin Leonard Jones, was born in 1982, within about a year of the wedding. Their daughter, Victoria Kafka Jones, followed nine years later, in 1991. Between those two births, Jones’s career climbed steeply, through Lonesome Dove on television and then a run of major films. In 1993 he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for The Fugitive, the role that made him a global star.

Through it all, the family base stayed Texan. Reports describe the couple spending much of their time at their ranch in San Saba County, the same part of Texas where Jones was born and where he has kept cattle ranches for much of his life. Both children grew up largely out of the press, though Victoria later appeared in small roles connected to her father’s films, including a minor part in Men in Black II as a child.

By the family’s public image, these were settled years. There were no scandals attached to the marriage, and Kimberlea was rarely photographed at premieres or parties. She kept her own work and her own name, and the marriage stayed, as much as a star’s marriage can, a private one.

The Divorce in 1995 and 1996

The marriage ended in the mid 1990s. In August 1995, Kimberlea filed for divorce in Texas. Court papers quoted in news reports gave the reason in formal legal language: the marriage had become insupportable because of discord or conflict of personalities, with no reasonable expectation of reconciliation. She was reported at the time to have asked for sole custody of the children, who were then about fourteen and five years old, though the final custody arrangement was never widely publicised.

The divorce was finalised in 1996, with some reports giving March of that year. After fifteen years, the second of Jones’s marriages was over. He later married photographer Dawn Laurel in 2001, a marriage that has now lasted more than two decades.

Neither Jones nor Cloughley has discussed the split in detail in public. There were no tell all interviews and no public feud. In keeping with the way they had lived the marriage, they ended it quietly.

What Happened to Kimberlea After the Divorce

This is the question readers ask most, and the honest answer is that Kimberlea Cloughley chose privacy and kept it. There is no confirmed public record of a new career move, a second marriage, or any life in the public eye after 1996. Reports generally place her in Texas, close to the world she grew up in, but even that is described in soft terms by the sources that mention it.

Her children, meanwhile, stayed connected to their father. Austin and Victoria were both seen with Jones over the years, and Victoria in particular appeared with him at public events as she grew up. That ongoing family contact suggests an arrangement that, whatever its legal details, kept the parents’ shared focus on their children.

Some recent online stories about the family rely on low quality sources and repeat claims that stronger outlets have not verified. Readers should treat dramatic recent headlines about Kimberlea herself with care: no reliable report describes her seeking attention, and her long silence remains the most consistent fact of her life after divorce.

FAQs

Who is Kimberlea Cloughley?

Kimberlea Cloughley is a Texas photographer best known as the second wife of actor Tommy Lee Jones. They were married from 1981 to 1996 and have two children together, Austin Leonard Jones and Victoria Kafka Jones.

Why did Kimberlea Cloughley and Tommy Lee Jones divorce?

Cloughley filed for divorce in Texas in August 1995. Court papers said the marriage had become insupportable because of discord or conflict of personalities. Neither of them has given detailed public reasons, and the divorce was finalised in 1996.

Who are Kimberlea Cloughley’s parents?

Her father is Phil Hardberger, a lawyer and judge who later served as mayor of San Antonio from 2005. Her connection to the Hardberger family is confirmed in standard biographies of Tommy Lee Jones.

Where is Kimberlea Cloughley now?

She lives a private life and her exact current situation is not confirmed by strong sources. She has stayed out of the media since the 1990s, and reports generally place her in Texas.

You may also read: Elaine Starchuk: What Happened to Tommy Lee’s Ex-Wife

Final Thoughts

Kimberlea Cloughley’s story is defined by two choices: marrying a rising star on her own Texas terms, and leaving the story behind when the marriage ended. She was never a celebrity in her own right and never tried to become one, even when a famous divorce could have given her a platform.

What remains is a simple, respectable outline: a photographer’s career, fifteen years of marriage, two children raised largely away from cameras, and three decades of privacy since. For readers asking what happened to her, the truest answer is that she went back to her own life, and she has kept it.

Featured photo: Tommy Lee Jones – photo by Dick Thomas Johnson, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons