Arrow star Stephen Amell and model Cassandra Jean Whitehead have been together for over a decade, meeting in 2011 after the CW alum’s divorce from his first wife, Carolyn Lawrence. The new couple got married in a secret ceremony in December 2012 and renewed their vows a year later.
Neither member of the famous pair makes many public comments about their relationship, but they remain committed and have welcomed two children. Here’s everything to know about Cassandra Jean and her connection to Amell so far.
Who is Cassandra Jean?
Whitehead was raised in Houston, where she developed a career in acting and modeling. She had considerable success as a beauty pageant contestant and competed in the Miss Texas Teen USA pageant between 2002 to 2004.
In 2005, when she was only 19 years old, she was tapped to join the fifth season of America’s Next Top Model with Tyra Banks. But Whitehead famously quit the show in episode four after being given a dramatic pixie cut and then threatened with an even shorter trim, all while being pressured to adopt an “edgier” persona.
“It wasn’t just cutting an inch and a half of hair for me, it was the last straw in them completely trying to change who I was,” she said at the time.
Whitehead has gone on to have a successful career as a model and actor, with credits in Hannah Montana, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, NCIS: Los Angeles, Mad Men, One Tree Hill, Heart of Dixie, and Arrow.
The star loves to travel, especially with her family, and often posts Instagram Stories, Reels, and photos from her adventures with Amell, spanning Canada and the U.S. to Europe and Mexico.
Whitehead and Amell also get playful at home, and have a history of pretty excellent couple’s costumes.
How long have they been together?
It’s unclear how long the couple dated before tying the knot on Dec. 25, 2012, in the Caribbean. Their second wedding took place in May 2013.
Do they have any children?
In June 2013, Amell confirmed they were expecting their first child in an interview with ET Canada.
“I’m excited—no, I’m not excited, I’m very excited!” the actor shared at the time. “I’m sure that nervous energy will accompany that eventually but only in a positive way.”
Their daughter Maverick Alexandra, nicknamed Mavi, arrived in October 2013.
The couple welcomed their second child, a son named Bowen Auguste, on May 13, 2022. They shared pics of the family enjoying London in July 2023, writing, “First trip as a family of four has been a success. This boy is an adventure. Comes by it naturally.”
What else have they said about one another?
The couple has been very open about their relationship, especially in regards to an incident that took place in in June 2022, when Amell and Whitehead were escorted off a plane from Austin to Los Angeles. Amell had raised his voice and was asked to leave. Amell offered a statement shortly after, before later sharing that the event caused him to reconsider his relationship with alcohol.
“My wife and I got into an argument Monday afternoon on a Delta flight from Austin to L.A. I was asked to lower my voice, and I did. Approximately 10 minutes later I was asked to leave the flight,” he wrote via X, formerly known as Twitter, at the time. “And I did so immediately. I was not forcibly removed.”
In September 2022, on the Inside of You With Michael Rosenbaum podcast, Amell admitted, “I had too many drinks in a public place, and I got on a plane. I was pissed off about something else that had nothing to do with Cass, my wife, and I picked a fight. Just I picked a fight because I wanted to be loud and upset.”
Since then, the actor has changed his drinking habits.
“Our relationship when there’s no alcohol involved is considerably better,” he explained. “We have more fun together…I love nothing more right now than getting a good night’s sleep and waking up at 6 A.M. for an hour by myself before I make my kids’ breakfast and take my daughter to school.”
Amell continued, “I think that it definitely could have [gone] in that direction [of unhealthy drinking] if I didn’t sort myself out. But you lose the ability—if you are constantly dealing with a hangover—to feel genuine happiness. You miss it emotionally, you’re not present, and you’re not available in the way that you should be as a partner, as a friend, or as a father. It’s just dulling you.”
He concluded, “My wife said one thing the entire time. ‘If you don’t lower your voice, they’re going to ask you to get off the plane.’ I referred to it as an argument between my wife and I. It was not an argument. This is 100 percent my fault. I feel like I went the better part of 10 years without being an ass in public. I was an ass in public. [Cassandra] was frankly even more pissed when I said ‘argument’ as opposed to ‘pick a fight.’”
