Jewel’s career and rise to fame, explained: How singer Jewel overcame childhood trauma to become a star and forgive her abusive father

Jewel was one of the biggest musical stars of the 1990s, with a string of hit songs to her name before she largely walked away from the spotlight at the peak of her career.

After a period focusing on her mental health and overcoming childhood trauma and abuse while raising her only child, son Kase, she recently made a comeback of sorts after joining Olivia Rodrigo on stage to perform her hit song You Were Meant for Me.

Nowadays, Jewel, 49, is also an artist whose exhibition opened this week. After a painful divorce, she has reportedly found love with A-lister Kevin Costner.

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Jewel was born Jewel Kilcher on May 23, 1974, in the US state of Utah to father Atz and mother Nedra.

Shortly after her birth, the family relocated to the Kilcher family’s 310-hectare property in Alaska. The family featured on the Discovery Channel show Alaska: The Last Frontier.

When she was seven, her mother left, leaving Jewel and her younger brother to be raised by their father, a Vietnam veteran who had PTSD.

She first claimed in her autobiography that he was abusive and recently told People, “I grew up in a very traditional Mormon family. But everything changed when my mum left. My dad started drinking and being physically abusive, so like hitting us.”

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Her father, a musician, taught Jewel to yodel and would take her to perform with him at taverns and hotels. It was in these environments that she first became a victim of sexual harassment.

When Jewel was 15, she left home to get away from her father.

She was working at a dance studio in Anchorage when the instructor suggested she try out for an arts academy in Michigan. She received a partial scholarship to study opera and moved there after local Businesses raised $11,000 to pay the remainder of her first-year tuition.

While there, she learnt to play guitar and began writing her own songs.

After graduating, she moved to San Diego where she worked in a coffee shop and at a computer warehouse. She became homeless after she lost her job when she resisted the business owner’s advances.

In 1993, the lead singer of a local band told his manager about Jewel.

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The manager took a record label rep to watch her perform at a local coffee shop and she was signed to a contract with Atlantic Records.

Jewel’s first album, Pieces of You, was recorded in a studio on singer Neil Young’s ranch and at the cafe where she used to sing.

It was released in 1995 when Jewel was 21. It included the hits You Were Meant for Me, Who Will Save Your Soul and Foolish Games.

It sold 12 million copies in the US alone and was on Billboard’s top 200 chart for two years. It remains one of the best-selling debut albums of all time.

Among her award nominations and wins is a 1996 American Music Award for Favourite New Artist.

That year she began dating Sean Penn, who was 14 years her senior.

Her second album, Spirit, was released in 1998. She released a Christmas album in 1999. More albums followed before she split with her record label.

After signing with a new label, she released a country album in 2007.

In 2008, Jewel married her boyfriend of almost a decade, rodeo star Ty Murray. They welcomed son Kase in July 2011.

Three years later the pair divorced.

For a while, it seemed Jewel had decided to fade out of the spotlight and focus on her personal life.

“I couldn’t psychologically adjust to the amount of fame that I got to,” she told Spin.com.

“By the time I was on the cover of Time, it didn’t work for me. It was really psychologically crushing and so giving myself two years to contemplate, ‘How do I do this? Can I do this? Does this make me happy?’.”

In April 2022, seven years after her last album, Jewel released her 13th studio album, Freewheelin’ Woman, under her own label.

In 2023, Jewel accused her mother, who was her Business manager, of embezzling $100 million from her.

In recent years, Jewel became a mental health advocate. She has revealed she had to work hard to overcome her own childhood trauma.

While she no longer speaks to her mother, she reconciled with her dad after he gave up drinking at 60. She told People in 2020, “We have a really authentic, great relationship now, but it’s because he did his work, and I did my work.”

Jewel is known for her humanitarian efforts, having founded Higher Ground for Humanity. She also supports a number of other causes and helps at-risk youth through her own foundation and website.

On April 9, 2024, Jewel thrilled fans when she joined Olivia Rodrigo on stage during her concert at Madison Square Garden to perform a duet of You Were Meant for Me.

She is also an artist. Her self-curated immersive art exhibition, The Portal: An Art Experience by Jewel, opened on May 4.

She told People in 2024 she was happier than ever.

“I’m more inspired now than I’ve ever been in my life. The most since I was like 19 or 20,” she said.

However, she said it was not because of her rumoured relationship with actor Kevin Costner, 69.

“I’m so happy, irrelevant of a man. It has nothing to do with being in a relationship or not being in one,” she said. “I’m just happy. I’m good.”

If you or someone you know needs help, please call Kid’s Helpline on 1800 55 1800 or Lifeline on 13 11 14. In an emergency, dial Triple Zero.

Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).