Derek Chauvin Wife: Kellie Chauvin’s Background, Divorce, and Life After the Case
The name most people mean when they say Derek Chauvin wife is Kellie Chauvin (also known as Kellie Thao, her maiden name). She was married to Derek Chauvin for more than a decade before filing for divorce shortly after George Floyd’s death in 2020. Since then, Kellie has largely stayed out of the spotlight, but public records and reporting have outlined key details about their marriage, their divorce, and the legal issues that followed.
Quick Facts
- Derek Chauvin (full name): Derek Michael Chauvin
- Kellie Chauvin (also known as): Kellie May Chauvin; Kellie Thao (maiden name)
- Married: 2010
- Divorce finalized: February 2, 2021 (widely reported)
- Children together: None
- Kellie Chauvin known for: Former beauty pageant titleholder (Mrs. Minnesota America 2018), real estate work (widely reported), public attention due to the Chauvin case
- Tax case: Kellie pleaded guilty in a Minnesota tax fraud case; sentencing included probation, community service, restitution, and a short jail term (widely reported)
- Estimated net worth (Derek Chauvin): Around $500,000 (commonly discussed estimate, difficult to verify)
- Estimated net worth (Kellie Chauvin): Around $200,000–$500,000 (commonly discussed estimate, difficult to verify)
Short bio: Derek Chauvin. Derek Chauvin is a former Minneapolis police officer who became internationally known after the May 25, 2020 killing of George Floyd. He was convicted in Minnesota state court and later sentenced in a separate federal civil rights case. Since then, his name has remained tied to legal proceedings, prison placement news, and continuing public debate about policing and accountability in the United States.
Short bio: Kellie Chauvin. Kellie Chauvin, born Kellie Thao, is widely reported to be a Hmong American woman who worked in healthcare earlier in life and later became involved in real estate. She gained additional public visibility after winning the Mrs. Minnesota America title in 2018. Her marriage to Derek Chauvin and the timing of her divorce filing placed her under intense media attention, even though she generally kept a lower profile than most people connected to a case of that magnitude.
Who Was Derek Chauvin’s Wife?
Kellie Chauvin was Derek Chauvin’s wife from 2010 until their divorce was finalized in early 2021. She became a subject of national curiosity in the days after George Floyd’s death because she made a quick and public move to separate herself from Derek, both emotionally and legally.
For a lot of readers, the question isn’t just “Who is she?” It’s also “What did she do after everything happened?” That’s where the timeline matters, because Kellie’s actions unfolded fast and in a way that suggested she wanted distance and closure as soon as possible.
The Marriage: What’s Publicly Known
Compared to many couples tied to public scandals, Derek and Kellie Chauvin did not live as public personalities during their marriage. There are no reality-show-style archives of their relationship, and much of what people “know” comes from basic biographical reporting and court filings.
Here are the broad points that have been widely reported over the years:
- They married in 2010.
- They did not have children together.
- Kellie had her own public identity at times, including her Mrs. Minnesota America 2018 title.
Because their day-to-day life wasn’t broadcast publicly, most outside attention arrived only after George Floyd’s death, when media outlets and the public started looking for anything connected to Derek’s personal life.
The Divorce Filing After George Floyd’s Death
Kellie filed for divorce in 2020, within days of the incident that would lead to Derek Chauvin’s firing, arrest, and eventual convictions. Many reports noted that she also requested to revert to her maiden name, a detail that stood out because it signaled a clear desire to separate her identity from his as quickly as possible.
That move became part of the story because it happened in real time, while the country was processing the video, the protests, and the rapidly escalating legal case. For better or worse, it put Kellie into a spotlight she never asked for, and it led to widespread speculation about what she knew, what she believed, and what their marriage was like behind closed doors.
Publicly, she positioned the divorce as a step to protect herself and to distance herself from what had happened. Whatever people think of that decision, it’s hard to deny that her filing was immediate and definitive.
When the Divorce Was Finalized
The divorce between Derek and Kellie Chauvin was granted on February 2, 2021, months after early paperwork was questioned and revised in court. Once it was finalized, she was no longer legally connected to him as a spouse, though her name still appeared in headlines for obvious reasons.
Divorce details often include financial terms, but most readers should keep expectations realistic: not every detail is fully public, and what circulates online can be incomplete or exaggerated. The clearest point is the legal outcome—by early 2021, the marriage was officially over.
Kellie Chauvin’s Pageant and Professional Background
One reason Kellie drew so much attention is that she wasn’t completely unknown in her community before 2020. She had been involved in pageants and was reported to have won Mrs. Minnesota America in 2018. That pageant connection made her feel more “visible” than many spouses of police officers, and it also meant there were pre-existing interviews and public references to her life.
She has also been widely described as someone who worked in healthcare earlier on and later became involved in real estate. Those details matter because they paint a picture of someone with her own career path, not someone who was purely defined by her spouse.
The Tax Fraud Case and Why It Continued to Follow Her
Even after the divorce, Kellie’s name returned to the news because of a Minnesota tax case involving income reporting and alleged underpayment across multiple years. She ultimately pleaded guilty, and reporting on her sentencing described penalties that included probation, community service, restitution, and a short jail term (often reported as 20 days) connected to the tax matter.
This part of the story can be confusing because it sits in the shadow of the much larger criminal case involving Derek. But it’s a separate legal issue that became public and, for many people, reinforced how the consequences of one high-profile moment can spread into other areas of a person’s life.
Life After the Divorce: Why She’s Hard to Track Publicly
After the divorce and the tax case attention, Kellie Chauvin has kept a relatively low public footprint. That doesn’t necessarily mean she “disappeared” so much as it means she appears to have chosen privacy, which is common for people pulled into national news through association rather than through their own public career.
In the years after 2020, many people were still asking about her for different reasons:
- Some were curious about how she responded personally after the case began.
- Some wanted to know if she spoke out beyond early reports of the divorce filing.
- Others were simply trying to understand the human side of a story that was already overwhelming.
What’s consistent is that she has not maintained an ongoing public-facing role in the way many internet personalities do. Most updates about her have come through legal reporting rather than lifestyle posts, interviews, or public appearances.
Putting the “Wife” Question in the Right Time Frame
It’s easy for the internet to freeze someone in a label—“wife,” “ex-wife,” “partner”—without paying attention to dates. In this case, the time frame matters a lot:
- Kellie was Derek Chauvin’s wife during the period leading up to 2020.
- She filed for divorce in 2020, shortly after George Floyd’s death.
- The divorce was finalized in early 2021.
So, if you’re reading older headlines, the word “wife” may appear because it reflects what she was at that moment in time. In today’s terms, she is most accurately described as Derek Chauvin’s ex-wife.
image source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ag-barr-quashed-plea-deal-fired-officer-derek-chauvin-george-n1257457
