Who Is Bret Bielema's First Wife
Bret Bielema's first wife is Kim Bielema, whom he married in the early 1990s while he was an assistant coach in the Big Ten. The couple met while Bielema was working as a graduate assistant at the University of Iowa, where he later became a defensive line coach and then co-defensive coordinator. Kim Bielema supported his early coaching career through multiple assistant roles at Iowa and later at other programs, according to biographical profiles linked on official athletics sites NCAA official site.
The marriage ended in divorce after roughly a decade, with the split occurring in the mid-2000s while Bielema was the head coach at the University of Arkansas. Public records and coaching biographies do not provide detailed financial terms of the divorce, but they confirm that the dissolution was private and did not involve litigation over assets tied to his coaching contracts Forbes.
Bret Bielema's Marriage Timeline and Family
Marriage to Kim Bielema
Bret Bielema married Kim Bielema in the early 1990s, a period when he was transitioning from a graduate assistant role at Iowa to full-time defensive coaching positions. The marriage coincided with his rise through the Big Ten coaching ranks, where he contributed to Iowa's defensive units that ranked among the top in the conference NCAA official site.
Children and Family Life
The couple had children during their marriage, though the exact number and names are not widely reported in public sources. Bielema has spoken in interviews about prioritizing family during his coaching career, noting that his first marriage ended before he took the head coaching role at Arkansas Forbes.
Bret Bielema's Current Personal Life
After his divorce from Kim Bielema, Bret Bielema remarried, and his current wife is often referenced in coaching biographies and media profiles. He has continued to focus on his head coaching roles, most recently at the University of Illinois, where he has led the Fighting Illini to bowl game appearances and top-25 rankings in the AP Poll NCAA official site.
Bielema's personal life remains largely private, with no public details about asset divisions or ongoing financial arrangements from his first marriage. His career earnings as a head coach at Arkansas, Wisconsin, and Illinois are documented in public salary disclosures, but no links to Kim Bielema or his first marriage appear in these financial records SEC filings.