June Baranco is an American fine artist and milliner best known publicly as the former wife of longtime television journalist Bryant Gumbel. Their marriage lasted from 1973 until 2001 and produced two children, Bradley and Jillian. Away from the attention surrounding Gumbel’s broadcasting career and their eventual divorce, Baranco developed a creative life rooted in painting, drawing, sewing, and later professional millinery.
June Baranco is an American artist, milliner, and former wife of broadcaster Bryant Gumbel. Born in 1948 and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, she earned a fine-art degree from Louisiana State University. She and Gumbel married in 1973, had two children, Bradley and Jillian, and finalized their divorce in 2001.
| Family Profile | Details |
|---|---|
| Full Name | June Baranco, professionally also known as June Gumbel |
| Born | 1948 |
| Hometown | Baton Rouge, Louisiana |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Louisiana State University |
| Degree | Bachelor’s degree in fine art, 1971 |
| Profession | Fine artist and milliner |
| Business | Geaux Chapeaux Millinery |
| Former Husband | Bryant Gumbel |
| Marriage | December 1, 1973–August 21, 2001 |
| Children | Bradley and Jillian Gumbel |
| Known For | Art, millinery, and former marriage to Bryant Gumbel |
Who Is June Baranco?
June Baranco has often appeared in searches primarily because of her decades-long marriage to Bryant Gumbel, but reliable sources document an independent artistic career that predates and extends well beyond the couple’s divorce. The Smithsonian identifies her as a milliner born in 1948, while her professional biography describes her as an accomplished fine artist trained in painting and drawing.
Baranco grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. According to a 2014 profile originally published by The Advocate and reproduced by her Geaux Chapeaux business, she graduated from Louisiana State University in 1971 with a bachelor’s degree in fine art. Her professional biography says she has worked across oil painting, pastels, drawing, printmaking, pottery, stained glass, clothing design, and millinery.
That background matters because descriptions of her simply as “Bryant Gumbel’s ex-wife” leave out a substantial part of her public record. Art and design have been recurring parts of Baranco’s life, not careers created solely after her marriage ended.
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June Baranco’s Early Life and Education
Baranco’s official professional material connects her strongly to Baton Rouge and Southern artistic traditions. She learned to sew when she was young from her Aunt Eura, a seamstress. A 2014 interview also identifies her parents as Jeannie Baranco and the late Joseph Baranco and recounts that they gave her a sewing machine for her tenth birthday.
She later studied fine art at Louisiana State University, concentrating on painting and drawing. The degree provides a documented foundation for the visual-art work that continued throughout her adult life. Her official profile says her paintings have been exhibited in New York, California, Connecticut, Louisiana, and Great Britain.
Her Louisiana background also remained important to her creative identity. Geaux Chapeaux describes its name and aesthetic as drawing partly from her Louisiana Creole/Cajun roots and the Southern tradition of wearing distinctive hats.
How June Baranco Met Bryant Gumbel
June Baranco and Bryant Gumbel knew each other before his rise to national television fame. A biographical account preserved in Sports Illustrated says Baranco was an LSU student when she visited Chicago in 1968 and met Gumbel. It also records that she later worked as a Delta flight attendant.
A 1997 biographical reference similarly says Bryant met June while she was an LSU student visiting a friend in Chicago in 1968. Their relationship therefore began years before Gumbel became one of America’s most recognizable television personalities.
They married on December 1, 1973. At that stage, Bryant was still early in his broadcasting career. Over the following decades he became nationally known through NBC’s Today and other television work, bringing considerably more public attention to the family.
June Baranco and Bryant Gumbel’s Children
June and Bryant had two children together: a son, Bradley, and a daughter, Jillian. Contemporary coverage from the Los Angeles Times identified both children during the marriage, while Associated Press coverage of the 2001 divorce also described Bradley and Jillian as the couple’s two children.
Baranco’s later creative career has an interesting connection to Jillian. While shopping for headwear connected with her daughter’s 2011 wedding, she became dissatisfied with the styles and prices she encountered. Drawing on her art background and sewing experience, she began studying vintage hats and making her own designs.
That project eventually became much more than a one-time wedding accessory. It led to Geaux Chapeaux, the millinery studio through which Baranco developed a separate public identity as a designer.
Why June Baranco and Bryant Gumbel Divorced
The breakup of the Gumbels’ marriage became unusually public because Bryant was a major network television figure. By 2000, national outlets were reporting on the couple’s increasingly contentious divorce proceedings and competing financial claims.
ABC News reported in January 2001 that Bryant Gumbel agreed to allow adultery to serve as the legal grounds for the divorce. June’s attorney made broader allegations about repeated affairs, while Bryant’s attorney disputed those broader claims. Presenting both parts of the record is important because some later celebrity profiles repeat every allegation as established fact rather than distinguishing legal developments from claims made by opposing sides.
The divorce became final on August 21, 2001, after what contemporary reports described as a four-year dispute. The financial terms were sealed. Although newspapers subsequently published claims about property and the division of assets, the sealed agreement means those reported figures should not be treated as a complete public accounting of Baranco’s finances.
Her attorney, Barry Slotnick, told the Associated Press after the settlement that she was satisfied the chapter had ended and could move forward.
June Baranco’s Career as an Artist and Milliner
Baranco’s art career is one of the best-documented parts of her biography outside her marriage. Her professional profile describes her as a fine artist with training in painting and drawing from LSU and experience in several other visual media. It also lists involvement with organizations including the Salmagundi Club, Artist Fellowship, and art associations in New York.
Her move into professional millinery accelerated after Jillian’s 2011 wedding preparations. Baranco began taking apart vintage hats to understand their construction and collecting traditional millinery materials, tools, ribbons, fabrics, and hat blocks. By 2014, she told The Advocate that she was making hats full time while continuing to paint, particularly in pastels and oils.
Geaux Chapeaux now presents her work as individually designed handmade hats, headpieces, and bridal millinery. Her background in painting carries naturally into the craft through her use of color, texture, proportion, and composition.
Her work has also received institutional recognition. Smithsonian Gardens identifies June Gumbel as a milliner who began designing headwear in 2011 and discusses her floral and orchid-inspired designs as part of its exhibition material.
Where Is June Baranco Now?
Current reliable material shows that Baranco remains connected with art and millinery rather than the television celebrity world associated with her former husband. Her Geaux Chapeaux website continues to present her as the artist and designer behind the studio, and a Smithsonian resource dated 2025 likewise identifies June Gumbel as an active milliner.
Her public-facing identity today therefore centers much more on creative work than on her divorce. She continues to use the name June Gumbel professionally in artistic settings, while searches commonly refer to her by her maiden name, June Baranco.
Dependable recent coverage does not provide a detailed account of her private romantic life after Bryant Gumbel. Her professional work, rather than a later marriage or celebrity relationship, is the part of her post-divorce life most clearly documented in primary and institutional sources.
June Baranco’s Age, Ethnicity and Net Worth
Searches for “June Baranco age” often produce conflicting exact birthdays on celebrity biography sites. A stronger source exists for the year: the Smithsonian identifies June Gumbel as born in 1948. Because the institutional profile does not supply a full birth date, assigning her a particular birthday from weaker websites would create unnecessary false precision.
Questions about June Baranco’s ethnicity or race also require care. Her own professional biography specifically describes her as having Louisiana Creole/Cajun roots. That provides useful information about the cultural heritage she publicly associates with her work, but it should not be converted into a more specific racial identity that authoritative sources do not state.
Likewise, there is no dependable public financial record establishing a current June Baranco net worth. Contemporary reporting confirms that her divorce settlement was sealed, while her later artistic and millinery businesses do not publish the type of audited financial information necessary to calculate personal wealth. Exact figures circulated by celebrity-net-worth pages should therefore be treated cautiously.
Where to Find Photos of June Baranco
Authentic archival photographs of Baranco are available through major editorial photo agencies. Getty Images maintains an extensive June Gumbel collection that includes photographs of June Baranco with Bryant Gumbel at events such as the CFDA Awards, the New York Public Library anniversary gala, and other public appearances. These are licensed editorial photographs rather than automatically free-to-republish images.
Her current professional websites also show her creative work and public identity as a milliner. Anyone publishing archival photos should check the individual image license rather than assuming that a picture appearing in search results is copyright-free.
Conclusion
June Baranco is far more than a name attached to Bryant Gumbel’s first marriage. Reliable sources establish that she was born in 1948, grew up in Baton Rouge, studied fine art at LSU, married Gumbel in 1973, raised their two children Bradley and Jillian, and divorced him in 2001.
Her later public life has centered on painting and millinery, especially her Geaux Chapeaux designs. For readers searching for June Baranco today, that creative work provides the clearest documented picture of the life she built beyond one highly publicized marriage.
Frequently Asked Questions
How old is June Baranco?
The Smithsonian identifies June Gumbel as born in 1948. Authoritative sources reviewed for this profile do not consistently provide a full birth date, so a precise current age depends on whether her birthday has occurred in a given year.
What does June Baranco do?
She is a fine artist and milliner. She studied painting and drawing at Louisiana State University and later became the designer behind Geaux Chapeaux Millinery.
How many children do June Baranco and Bryant Gumbel have?
They have two children, a son named Bradley and a daughter named Jillian. Contemporary Associated Press and Los Angeles Times reporting documented both children.
What is June Baranco’s ethnicity?
Her professional biography describes her heritage in terms of Louisiana Creole/Cajun roots. Reliable sources located for this profile do not provide a more specific racial classification that should be substituted for her documented cultural background.
What is June Baranco’s net worth?
Dependable financial sources do not establish her current personal net worth. Her 2001 divorce settlement was sealed, so figures circulated online about the settlement or her present wealth should not be presented as established financial facts.
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