Jayne Posner: Neil Diamond’s first wife, and what the record actually shows

Jayne Posner was Neil Diamond’s first wife. They married in 1963, had two daughters, Marjorie and Elyn, separated in 1967 and divorced in 1969. She has never given an interview or made a public statement in the nearly sixty years since.

One correction before anything else: the better-sourced spelling of her name is Jaye, not Jayne. Playbill materials for the Broadway musical A Beautiful Noise, where she appears as a named character, use Jaye. So does People’s coverage of Diamond. The “Jayne” spelling dominates search results because biography sites copy each other.

Jaye Posner: quick facts

The marriage, 1963 to 1969

Diamond and Posner were high school sweethearts. They married in 1963, when he was a jobbing songwriter in New York writing hits for other artists rather than performing them himself. This was the period when he wrote “I’m a Believer” for The Monkees and “Red, Red Wine” before Diamond himself was a name anyone knew.

Their first daughter, Marjorie, was born in 1965. Elyn followed in 1968.

The marriage ended as his performing career took off. They separated in 1967 and the divorce was finalised in November 1969. Diamond has taken responsibility for the breakdown in interviews over the years rather than assigning it elsewhere.

Posner never commented. Not at the time, not since. She is now in her mid-eighties and has spent nearly six decades declining to participate in a story that a lot of people would have monetised.

Jaye or Jayne? Why the spelling matters

This is worth more than a footnote, because it tells you how much of the rest of the internet’s information about her to trust.

Two categories of source spell her name differently:

• Jaye appears in A Beautiful Noise cast listings and reviews in Variety, the New York Post, and regional press, and in People’s coverage of Diamond’s family.
• Jayne appears on celebrity biography aggregators, which is where most search traffic lands.

The aggregator spelling won on volume, not on evidence. A private person who has never spoken publicly has no way to correct a misspelling once it propagates, which is a decent illustration of how these pages work in general.

This article uses “Jayne” in the title because that’s what people type. Everywhere else, Jaye.

Her daughters

Both daughters have stayed largely private, like their mother, though not entirely.

Marjorie Diamond was born in 1965 and lives in New York City. She has a son, Alexander, born in 1995.

Elyn Diamond was born in 1968. She founded the Children Who Never Forget Foundation, which supports children who have experienced abuse, and held a benefit for it with her father in October 2000. She has a daughter, Avery Max, born in December 2004.

There’s also a piece of music history attached to the family. Diamond’s 1976 song and album Beautiful Noise reportedly took its title from Marjorie. As a child she looked out of a New York hotel window at the street below and called it a beautiful noise. [VERIFY: this origin story is repeated across many sources but I could not trace it to a primary interview]

Jaye Posner in A Beautiful Noise

This is the reason people are searching her name now, and almost no page about her covers it properly.

A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical opened on Broadway in late 2022, with a book by Anthony McCarten, who also wrote Bohemian Rhapsody. Jaye Posner is one of its principal characters. The show is still touring, including internationally through 2026.

Actresses who have played her include:

The show does not soften what happened. Its structure has an older Diamond in a therapist’s office working backwards through his own songs, and the first marriage’s collapse is staged as him leaving Jaye for Marcia Murphey, who became his second wife. Reviewers have described the portrayal in exactly those terms. The song assigned to Posner as the marriage falls apart is “Love on the Rocks.”

The production has publicly acknowledged her as one of the real women who shaped Diamond’s story. That’s the closest thing to a statement about Jaye Posner from anyone with authority to make one, and it did not come from her.

What isn’t verified about Jayne Posner

A lot of confident detail circulates with nothing behind it:

1. A birth year and birthplace. “1940, Brooklyn” is everywhere. No source supports it. Pages also disagree on whether that makes her 85 or 86.
2. Her education. Claims about a specific high school and a business administration degree appear with no citation.
3. The teaching career. Widely reported, plausible, but not anchored to primary documentation. Treat it as likely rather than confirmed.
4. A net worth of $500,000 to $1 million. Invented. No divorce settlement figure was ever reported.
5. “Eileen” as a daughter’s name. It’s Elyn.
6. Marjorie’s birth year given as 1966. Most sources say 1965.
7. Her current location or living situation. Unknown, and not anyone’s business.

Frequently asked questions

Who is Jayne Posner?

She’s Neil Diamond’s first wife. They were married from 1963 to 1969 and had two daughters.

Is it Jayne Posner or Jaye Posner?

Jaye is the better-sourced spelling. Jayne is the more common one online.

Why did Neil Diamond and Jaye Posner divorce?

They separated in 1967 as his performing career took off and divorced in 1969. Diamond has publicly taken responsibility for the breakup.

How many children did they have?

Two daughters, Marjorie Diamond, born in 1965, and Elyn Diamond, born in 1968.

Is Jaye Posner in the Neil Diamond musical?

Yes. She’s a named character in A Beautiful Noise, played by Jessie Fisher on Broadway and Tiffany Tatreau on the US tour.

What is Jayne Posner’s net worth?

No credible figure exists for her net worth. Numbers published online are guesses.

Has Jaye Posner ever spoken about Neil Diamond?

No. She has never given an interview or issued a public statement.

Conclusion

There’s a small irony in her name being one of the more searched terms attached to Neil Diamond. She is the one person in his story who never traded on it, and the reason anyone can look her up at all is that a Broadway show put her on stage without her.

If you want the fullest account of that marriage that exists, it isn’t on any biography page. It’s the musical, told from his side, with his songs.

Jackson Padilla

JacksonPadilla is a writer at Around Celebrities, covering celebrity families, relationships, biographies, and the stories behind the stars. With a focus on clear and engaging storytelling, Kole helps readers discover the people and connections beyond the spotlight.