Years After His Late Wife Wrote "You Might Want To Marry My Husband" About Him, Jason Rosenthal Has A New Girlfriend! Meet Claire Mark
Amy Krouse Rosenthal died in 2017 after telling the world about Jason. Now he has found love again.
Getty One of the most touching essays to run in the New York Times 'Modern Love' column was called "You Might Want To Marry My Husband" by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. She was dying of ovarian cancer and her essay was a love letter about her husband Jason to his next wife, whoever that would be.
Ten days after the essay ran, Rosenthal died and her husband Jason had to navigate his life as a widower with three children. Since then, he become a speaker and writer about grief and loss. Three years after the death of his wife, he has a new memoir out and he has finally met someone new to love, who doesn't explicitly name in his book beyond calling her a 'hazel-eyed twin.'
Who is Jason Rosenthal's girlfriend?
Jason Rosenthal might be the most famous widower in America. In 2017, his wife of 26 years was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and she only survived a few months after her diagnosis. A professional writer, the last piece Amy Krouse Rosenthal published was a viral essay entitled, "You Might Want To Marry My Husband" in the New York Times 'Modern Love' column. In it, she shared the things she had loved about her life with Jason. She died ten days after it ran, leaving him alone with their three adult children.
In the essay, Amy shared her hopes and dreams for her husband's life after her life.
Amy penned a love letter to her husband that she hoped would also be the personal ad that would help him find someone to love when she was gone. Rosenthal's essay was a testament to their 26 years of marriage. At the end of the essay, she wrote, "I want more time with Jason. I want more time with my children. I want more time sipping martinis at the Green Mill Jazz Club on Thursday nights. But that is not going to happen. I probably have only a few days left being a person on this planet. So why I am doing this? I am wrapping this up on Valentine’s Day, and the most genuine, non-vase-oriented gift I can hope for is that the right person reads this, finds Jason, and another love story begins."
Jason grieved after her death.
His wife died only 10 days after her essay was published in the New York Times. In the months after, he had to negotiate his new world without his partner by his side. In an essay he wrote as a love letter back to his late wife a year later, he spoke about being grateful to his wife for her words before she died. "If I can convey a message I have learned from this bestowal, it would be this," he wrote. "Talk with your mate, your children and other loved ones about what you want for them when you are gone. By doing this, you give them liberty to live a full life and eventually find meaning again."
Did he find meaning again?
Since Amy's death in 2017, Jason Rosenthal has made a lot of changes. He stepped back from hislaw career and established a foundation in Amy’s name, funding ovarian cancer research and children’s literacy. He gave a TED Talk about grief and launched a speaking career from that. He went to Burning Man, a life-changing experience he outlines in his book. He also says he focused on his children and staying close to the people he loved. Most recently, he published a memoir called My Wife Said You May Want to Marry Me, which was released in April 2020.
Rosenthal published his memoir in April.
Did women actually want to marry him?
The essay and his talks after Amy's death opened the floodgates of offers from women. Far from being the inappropriate torrent of propositions that could be a worst-case scenario, Rosenthal said he was grateful for the lovely messages he got over the years. In 2018, he described the messages he got saying, "Many women took Amy up on her offer, sending me a range of messages — overly forward, funny, wise, moving, sincere." In recent interviews, he estimates that he heard from over 300 women offering to marry him.
Now he has found love again.
In his memoir, Rosenthal reveals that there is someone new in his life. In the book, he only says that she is a "hazel-eyed identical twin" but since then, he has explained that he is involved with Claire Mark, a 46-year-old yoga instructor from Chicago. “After we’d spent some time together, I knew there was something special about this woman. The companionship, her companionship, felt so good,” he writes in the book.
Claire Mark in 2020.
Who is Claire Mark?
According to her website, Claire Mark is a yoga instructor and founder of Chill Chicago, a meditation center in the River North Neighborhood. She has taught in New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, and Los Angeles, and hosts annual yoga retreats in Mexico.
Neither Rosenthal nor Mark share their dating life on their Instagram pages. Instead, she focuses on her yoga practice, sometimes bringing her son in to help her teach yoga to kids. She also includes sweet posts about her twin sister.
Mark is more likely to posts information about his work as a speaker and raising awareness about ovarian cancer.
She is one of his biggest fans, however, and even without disclosing their relationship she said a lot of nice things about his new book. " love memoirs and this one is filled with love, kindness, tragedy, resilience, grief and open hearted ness," she wrote in an Instagram post. "Right now as we are all experiencing so much loss and grief this story is important because it can help us all find a way to get through this and be closer and stronger on the other side.
Rebekah Kuschmider has been writing about celebrities, pop culture, entertainment, and politics since 2010. She is the creator of the blog FeminXer and she is a cohost of the weekly podcast The More Perfect Union.