Jennifer Ryan
| Jennifer Ryan | |
|---|---|
| Duchess of Moselle (more) | |
 Ryan in 2021. | |
| Born | Jennifer Emily Dunham October 24, 1988 Portland, Oregon, United States |
| Spouse | Trent Dominguez [a](m. 2018; ann. 2018) William Sloan (m. 2018; div. 2021) Prince Leonardo, Duke of Moselle (m. 2022) |
| Issue | 3; including Prince Julius of Moselle |
| House | Vega-Hayes (by birth) Ryan (by marriage) |
| Father | Joseph Dunham |
| Mother | Celina Hayes |
| Occupation | Businesswoman |
Jennifer Emily Ryan (née Dunham; born October 24, 1988), also known as the Duchess of Moselle, is an American–Cordonian businesswoman and philanthropist. She is the heiress to the fortune of her late maternal grandmother Amelia Vega Hayes. The fortune a secret, Ryan and her siblings discovered Hayes' secret $500.12 million in the summer of 2018 and has since used her share for her husband's business interests and their nonprofit organization the Sloan Foundation. She and her ex-husband William Sloan have been recognized for their philanthropy which includes receiving the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom and becoming a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.
Life and career
Family, education and early career
Ryan was born as Jennifer Emily Dunham on October 24, 1988 at Oregon Health & Science University Hospital in Portland, Oregon, United States, to Celina née Hayes, an educator, and Joseph Dunham, a mechanic. Her mother is of Filipino-American descent and her father an immigrant from the United Kingdom. Her maternal grandmother, Amelia née Vega, was Filipino and her maternal grandfather, Philip Hayes, was a Seattle native. In an interview, Ryan described herself as a "proud Filipino-American woman" and said that her maternal grandmother made sure to share her Filipino culture and Catholic faith. Though regarding her ancestry, Ryan has said she has "mixed feelings about my ethnic status and how I should identify" because of her light skin and not speaking Filipino.
She has an older brother, Jacob and two younger identical twin sisters, Josephine and Jessica. She and her siblings were raised as Catholic but did not attend Catholic school nor were raised with a strict Catholic upbringing. Their father was an electrician and their mother was a schoolteacher. From a young age, Ryan was interested in being a teacher like her mother, and often helped her younger sisters with homework and school activities. Ryan's family originally lived Northeast Portland and later moved to Vancouver, Washington, in the summer of 1995 to allow Jacob to finish elementary school in Portland and to be closer to her maternal grandparents. On September 2, 1998, Ryan's parents died in a traffic collision while traveling on Interstate 205 to pick her and her siblings up from school.
After her parent's death she and her siblings immediately moved in with Amelia and Philip. Amelia got legal guardianship of the children the next year and Ryan started attending Fort Vancouver High School in 2003. Ryan's grandfather later passed away in 2005 during her junior year from a heart attack. During high school she was interested in English and was active in the yearbook and photography clubs and graduated in 2007 with honors. She subsequently attended the University of Washington in Seattle, moving in summer 2007 to live in campus housing. Her brother Jacob was also studying at the same university. During her sophomore year, their grandmother died in her sleep from natural causes on November 26, 2008.
Ryan and Jacob immediately left Seattle to get their two minor sisters and subsequently took time off from school heal from the tragedy. The siblings initially lived in their grandmother's house right after her death in order to get guardianship of the siblings and to deal with their grandmother's house and estate while Jacob's wife Candace stayed in Seattle. At that time, they did not know about their grandmother's secret fortune. They sold the house in spring 2009 and Jacob used the funds to buy a modest house in Seattle for his wife and siblings, leaving Vancouver at the end of Josephine and Jessica's sophomore year. Ryan then went back to school while taking on a maternal role, graduating from the university in 2011 with a bachelor's degree in marketing. She worked at Microsoft as an associate marketing director and director of social media. Josephine and Jessica graduated in 2010 and Ryan moved out of Jacob and Candace's house into her own apartment with Josephine. Jessica would relocate to Eugene, Oregon, to live on campus at the University of Oregon.
Ember of the Sea
Since the family moved from Vancouver, they faced personal struggles. Ryan began a relationship with Microsoft employee Trent Dominguez in 2012 in an on-again, off-again relationship which took a toll on Ryan. Though her romantic relationship improved, her siblings also faced personal struggles. This cumulated in a vacation of the Ember of the Sea cruise ship sailing from Miami, Florida to Europe in June 2018. Ryan went with her siblings, along with her boyfriend Dominguez. During the first week of the trip, Ryan caught Dominguez's infidelity and ended the relationship. Ryan's maternal grandmother's former attorney, Dinesh Singh, arrived on board to reveal to them Amelia's secret fortune. He previously was her personal attorney when she filed for guardianship for her grandchildren and built a friendship with Singh. After Amelia discovered the secret fortune in 2005, she named Singh her executor.
Singh revealed the will to Ryan and her siblings and were reportedly shocked with Jessica fainting. Ryan later said in her memoir that it was "a bizarre will" because their grandmother required them to complete certain tasks before getting their part of the estate. Ryan's requirement was to be married by the end of the summer. With her recent break up, Ryan didn't think she could meet the requirement. The fortune was revealed to be $US500 million and split among them and their cousin, Victoria Hampton-Chavez. Due to the nature of the will and the large amount of money that was kept secret for so long, news broke in August 2018 and became an international story. It was named the largest news story of the year by Time magazine. During the voyage, Ryan met several bachelors, including American businessman William Sloan, Prince Leonardo from Cordonia and a bartender on the ship.
Notability and marriages
After the news broke of the Hayes inheritance, the press started covering the lives of the Dunham family and they became famous for being famous. In August it was discovered that William proposed to Jennifer and she accepted. They married in a private ceremony on the port of Southampton, UK on September 1, 2018. Jennifer took William's surname and announced that she would become his business partner and chief marketing officer of Sloan Enterprises. The marriage was report positively and attended by several celebrities including Prince Leonardo, Duke of Moselle, Liam, Prince of Cordonia, Lisa Guerrero from Inside Edition, Kerry Washington, Matt McGorry and Emily VanCamp. The couple bought a house in Marin County, California. Ryan has two identical twin sons: William Sloan II and Judah Sloan. The couple divorced in late 2021, though a friend of the couple reported Jennifer "was devastated" and still in love William, though the divorce was a mutal seperation.
Ryan went on to marry Cordonian Prince Leonardo, Duke of Moselle, who she briefly courted on Ember of the Sea. The Cordonian royal family announced the marriage took place January 1, 2022 and addressed her as The Duchess of Moselle.[b] Ryan gave birth to a son, Prince Julius of Moselle, on October 29, 2022. Ryan gained Cordonian citizenship one year after her marriage on 1 January 2023.
Business interests and philanthropy
Awards and recognition
Titles and styles
- 24 October 1988 – June 2018: Miss Jennifer Dunham
- July 2018 – August 2018: Mrs Trent Dominguez[c]
- August 2018 – 1 September 2018: Ms Jennifer Dunham
- 1 September 2019 – November 2021: Mrs William Sloan
- November 2021 – 1 January 2022: Mrs Jennifer Sloan
- 1 January 2022 – present:[d]
- In the United States: Mrs Leonardo Ryan
- In Cordonia: Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Moselle
Bibliography
Notes
- ↑ The marriage was annulled as Ryan was deceived into signing the marriage license under the impression it was a loan contract modification with her ex-finance. The court of Lythikos annulled the marriage.
- ↑ Ryan stated on Twitter that her legal name has remained the same after marriage to the Duke of Moselle and that she does not use the title Duchess of Moselle. The title is only used in Cordonia. She later changed her surname from Sloan to Ryan on her American documents.[1]
- ↑ Title was acquired by mistake due to a fraudulent marriage; Ryan later had it annulled.
- ↑ Upon marriage Jennifer became known in Cordonia as Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Moselle, assuming the same rank and title as her husband, Leonardo. The couple have chosen not to use the style HRH in Cordonia and go by Prince Leonardo, The Duke of Moselle, and Jennifer, The Duchess of Moselle. As an American citizen, royal titles are not recognized in the United States and she kept using the legal name Jennifer Emily Sloan after their marriage. Ryan changed her American legal name to Jennifer Emily Ryan in September 2022 and prefers the style Mrs Leonardo Ryan.
References
- ↑ "The Duke and Duchess of Moselle announced pregnancy". Cordonian Royal Press. 15 January 2022.
Their Royal Highnesses The Duke of Moselle and The Duchess of Moselle has with great news announced that they are expecting a child at the end of 2022.
External links
- Jennifer Ryan (@jenniferryan) on Twitter
| Order of precedence | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by The Duchess of Lythikos |
Ladies The Duchess of Moselle |
Followed by Princess Lena-Marie, The Lady Westinghouse |