Judy Helkenberg Helped Gary Busey Get His Career Started – Facts about the Actor's Ex-wife

Judy Helkenberg played a significant role in her ex-husband's life — from financially supporting the actor during their marriage to nursing him back to health following a life-threatening accident. However, Gary Busey's lifestyle led to the couple's marriage falling apart.

They say behind every great man is a great woman, which was the case for Gary Busey and Judy Helkenberg. The college sweethearts met in the 1960s and spent the following two decades by each other's side.

However, Gary Busey and Judy Helkenberg's twenty-year marriage was filled with numerous highs and lows and eventually ended around the same time the actor suffered a dangerous motorcycle accident.

Judy Helkenberg Forced Gary Busey to Marry Her

Helkenberg and Busey met in the early 1960s at Coffeyville Junior College in Kansas at one of his football games. In his book, the actor recalled seeing his ex-wife for the first time and revealed:

"At first glance, I was spellbound. Here was this intriguing blonde girl [...]."

The young couple dated for almost six years before Helkenberg declared that enough was enough and that Busey needed to marry her. "I didn't even have time for a girlfriend, let alone a wife," Busey wrote in his book. However, the former couple later tied the knot in 1968.

The Reason behind Judy Helkenberg and Gary Busey's Divorce

Helkenberg worked as a secretary during the early years of her marriage and financially supported Busey, who was part of a band trying to take off. And while they never did, she was still her husband's biggest fan. However, while his band never reached stardom, she helped him kickstart his acting career, and he acknowledged her effort in his book.

"To my first wife, Judy Lynn Helkenberg, who, in every way, helped me get my career started, thank you," Busey shared. Their marriage ended seventeen years after they welcomed their son, William Jacob Busey — who followed in his father's footsteps and pursued a career as an actor—on June 15, 1971.

During their marriage, Busey developed a drug addiction and fell in love with another woman. And despite her attempts to help the actor and stand by his side, Helkenberg and Busey were officially divorced by 1990.

Judy Helkenberg and Gary Busey's Relationship Following Their Divorce

Two years before their divorce was finalized, Busey suffered a severe skull injury following a motorcycle accident. And Helkenberg proved she harbored no hard feelings towards the actor as their son revealed that he and his mom had to nurse Busey back to health by teaching him how to talk, eat and walk again. Busey revealed in his book:

"Always by my side were Judy, Jake, my brother David, my sister Carol and my mom [...]."

And during a heartfelt Instagram post in 2020, Helkenberg's son revealed that she was not only a rock for Gary Busey after his accident but was also "the rock of stability" during her son's chaotic childhood.

In the Instagram post, her son added that he grew up on the road, backstage at concerts, and in hotels and bars. And if it weren't for his "amazing" mother, he would have wounded up "more of a looney toon" than he already is.