Scott Adams Wife: His Two Marriages, Divorce Timeline, and Life After Them

Scott Adams’ wife is a phrase that gets searched a lot because his personal life became unexpectedly public in his later years. Between two marriages, a blended family, and a very modern kind of “over-sharing” through podcasts and livestreams, people want a clear, simple answer. The short version is this: Scott Adams was married twice—first to Shelly Miles and later to Kristina Basham—and both marriages ended in divorce, though he often described the breakups as amicable.

Quick Facts

Full name: Scott Raymond Adams
Known for: Creator of the comic strip Dilbert
Born: 1957
Died: January 2026
Scott Adams wife (first): Shelly Miles (married 2006; divorced 2014)
Scott Adams wife (second): Kristina Basham (married 2020; divorced 2022)
Children: No biological children; became a stepfather during his first marriage
Estimated net worth: Around $20 million (commonly reported range varies)

Short Bio: Scott Adams

Scott Adams was an American cartoonist and author who built a cultural phenomenon out of office life. Dilbert didn’t just make people laugh at cubicle culture—it gave a voice to workers who felt trapped in corporate nonsense, bad meetings, and management buzzwords. Over time, Adams expanded beyond comics into books, speaking, and commentary, and he developed a loyal audience that followed him well past the strip’s peak. In his later years, he became a polarizing public figure, and his personal updates—especially about relationships and health—often reached people directly through his own channels rather than traditional interviews.

Short Bio: Shelly Miles

Shelly Miles is best known publicly as Scott Adams’ first wife. Their marriage is often described as a blended-family chapter in his life because Adams became a stepfather to her children during their time together. Even after their divorce, Adams spoke about her in a warm, respectful way, and their post-marriage relationship appeared to remain supportive and close. In the final period of his life, Shelly’s presence became part of the public story again because she helped communicate difficult news to his audience.

Short Bio: Kristina Basham

Kristina Basham is best known publicly as Scott Adams’ second wife. She has been described in public coverage as a former model and an accomplished professional with interests that include aviation and business. Their marriage drew attention partly because of their age difference and partly because Adams talked about the relationship in an unusually candid way for a public figure of his generation. The marriage ended after two years, and Adams characterized the split as friendly, even while acknowledging the challenges they faced.

Who Was Scott Adams’ Wife?

There isn’t just one answer to “Scott Adams wife,” because he was married twice. If someone is asking about the wife most recently connected to him, that would be Kristina Basham. If they’re asking about the wife most connected to his longer, steadier domestic chapter and blended family life, that would be Shelly Miles.

What makes his relationship history feel confusing online is that it’s often mixed with headlines about his career controversies, his health, and short viral clips. But when you strip away the noise, the timeline is straightforward: a first marriage that lasted years, a later marriage that was shorter, and then the final phase of life in which his first wife remained an important part of his support system.

Scott Adams’ First Wife: Shelly Miles

Scott Adams married Shelly Miles in 2006. Their relationship stood out because it looked, from the outside, like a calmer counterweight to a career that was anything but calm. Dilbert fame brought attention and opportunity, but it also brought pressure, expectations, and a public identity that can follow you into your own living room.

During this marriage, Adams became a stepfather. That detail matters, because it changes how you read the story. A step-parent role can be deeply meaningful, but it also comes with complications that many people don’t understand until they’re living them—learning how to show up, how to earn trust, and how to love children without trying to replace anyone. Adams spoke publicly about caring for his stepchildren, and the family’s later tragedies were mentioned in coverage about his personal life.

Why Their Marriage Ended

Adams and Miles divorced in 2014. They did not publicly play out a bitter split the way some celebrity marriages do. Instead, what came through in his public comments afterward was a tone of respect and even appreciation. In other words, it sounded like a marriage that ended, but not a relationship that turned into war.

That kind of divorce is still painful, but it often signals something important: both people decided they didn’t want their ending to destroy the years that came before it. For many readers, that’s one of the more human parts of his story, because it doesn’t fit the internet’s favorite narrative of villains and victims. It sounds like two adults choosing peace because they were exhausted by fighting.

Scott Adams’ Second Wife: Kristina Basham

Years after his first divorce, Adams married Kristina Basham in 2020. This marriage was more publicly discussed, partly because Adams was increasingly using online platforms to speak directly to his audience. When a public figure controls the microphone, they often share more than traditional media ever would have asked for—and Adams leaned into that.

From the outside, the pairing also drew interest because it looked like a fresh chapter: a new marriage, a different stage of life, and a partner with her own independent identity. But the reality of a relationship is never the highlight reel. The day-to-day matters more, and the day-to-day during those years came with unique stress.

The Pandemic Pressure Cooker

The early 2020s were a hard time for a lot of marriages, even for people who weren’t famous. The world tightened, routines collapsed, anxieties rose, and couples discovered—sometimes painfully—whether they actually enjoyed sharing the same space under pressure. Adams later suggested that the pandemic era was one of the factors that made the marriage more difficult. Even when two people care about each other, a high-stress environment can bring out every difference in habits, values, and coping styles.

The Divorce Announcement

In 2022, Adams publicly stated that he and Basham were separating and divorcing. That detail is important because it helps explain why so many searches still treat Kristina as “Scott Adams’ wife” long after the marriage ended. When a person announces something to a large audience in their own voice, that moment becomes “the official story” people remember—even more than legal filings, tabloid timelines, or secondhand summaries.

He also described the split as amicable, which matched the tone he used when speaking about his first divorce. Whatever else people think of him, his public framing of both marriages often emphasized appreciation, not scorched-earth resentment.

Did Scott Adams Have Children?

Scott Adams had no biological children. However, during his marriage to Shelly Miles, he took on a stepfather role. This distinction matters because it shapes how people interpret his “family life.” Some readers expect a typical celebrity family structure—spouse, children, holidays, and photo ops. Adams’ reality was different. It was a blended family experience, and blended families can be deeply loving while also being emotionally complex.

When a step-parent relationship is genuine, it doesn’t feel like a technicality. It feels like family. That’s why, when later coverage mentioned the loss experienced in the family, it landed with weight. It wasn’t a distant story “about someone else’s kid.” It was part of the household he had been in.

Why People Still Ask About Scott Adams’ Wife Today

The continued curiosity isn’t only about romance. It’s because his marriages intersected with the most public parts of his life: his fame, his controversies, and his health. In recent years, his audience wasn’t just reading a comic strip; they were watching him speak in real time, react to events, and update people directly on personal developments.

That kind of relationship with an audience can blur boundaries. People start to feel like they “know” the public figure, so they naturally wonder about the spouse behind the scenes. When the spouse changes—or when a divorce happens—people search for details the way they would check on a friend’s life update. The internet makes that curiosity look nosier than it feels in the moment, but the impulse is familiar.

His Later Years and the Role of His First Wife

As Scott Adams’ health declined in the final stretch of his life, public reporting indicated that Shelly Miles was the person who shared news with his audience when he died. That fact surprised some people who assumed his most recent wife would be the one connected to his last chapter. But real life isn’t always arranged in neat story arcs.

Sometimes, the person who knew you longest, and who understands your daily rhythms without effort, becomes the one who shows up when things get hardest—even if the romance ended years ago. It’s not the kind of detail that fits an internet argument, but it does fit real human relationships.

What We Can Learn From His Relationship Timeline

Scott Adams’ marriage history doesn’t read like a fairy tale, but it does read like something many people recognize: one long marriage that ended, a later marriage that didn’t last, and a complicated but lasting thread of connection with someone who remained important. For all the noise that surrounded him publicly, his relationship story has a surprisingly ordinary core—people trying, people changing, and people choosing what they can live with.

And that’s why the topic keeps coming up. It’s not only about who he married. It’s about how relationships can evolve across decades, sometimes ending on paper while still holding a real presence in someone’s life.

image source: https://www.hoover.org/research/how-fail-almost-everything-scott-adams