Jenna Brandt has gone from Brock Purdy’s college girlfriend to his wife to the mother of his first child in the span of about three years, a timeline that has moved considerably faster than most coverage of her has kept up with.
She met Purdy at Iowa State University, where she played volleyball. At the same time, he played for the football team and comes from a large, tightly knit farming family in rural Iowa.
Jenna Brandt Biography
She was born October 26, 1999, in Sumner, Iowa, a rural town with a population of just over 2,000. Jenna Brandt is the daughter of Kevin and Amy Brandt.
Her father runs a farm, an occupation hinted at by his own Instagram handle, farmer.kevin.brandt, and one directly tied to a family farm Jenna has referenced in her own posts.
Both of her parents have kept an almost entirely private online presence, with no public posts or interviews from either of them despite their daughter’s rising profile.
Jenna has three siblings: an older sister, Kaylyn, who played volleyball as a setter at UMKC from 2013 to 2016, an older brother, Isiah, and a younger sister, Morgan, who also played volleyball.
In 2016, Jenna posted a family photo on Instagram marking her parents’ anniversary, captioning it that she was thankful for the parents who brought them into the world. Jenna has spoken directly about how central family is to her identity.
Introducing herself in a video for Iowa State’s volleyball program, she said family time was big to her, that she loved hanging out with her family, and that she also liked volunteering around the community.
She attended Sumner-Fredericksburg High School, graduating with the class of 2018. She was a four-year letter winner, three-year starter and two-time team captain at setter for the school’s volleyball team.
A three-time Iowa Girls’ Coaches Association Class 2A All-State honoree, earning First Team honors in each of her final two seasons and Second Team as a sophomore.
She helped lead the Sumner-Fredericksburg Cougars to three consecutive state volleyball tournament appearances.
Career
Jenna Brandt played two seasons for the Iowa State Cyclones, appearing in 28 matches with seven starts. As a freshman in 2018, she recorded 142 total assists, including a career high 46 assists against Wichita State and 37 against Montana.
As a sophomore, she posted 41 assists in a match against Texas and a season-high performance against Kansas that included 31 assists, six digs and four blocks.
In 2019, she tried out for both the U.S. Collegiate National Team and the USA Women’s Volleyball team. During her time at Iowa State, she also traveled to South America to compete against international teams.
She spoke candidly at the time about the pressure of the setter position, saying her biggest goal was to become a leader even though she found the transition intimidating and knew the role demanded real confidence.
In January 2021, Brandt transferred to the University of Northern Iowa to continue her volleyball career and finish her degree, writing on Instagram that she was thankful for her time at Iowa State but pumped to join the Panther family for the next chapter of her academic and athletic journey.
She graduated from Northern Iowa in 2022 with a degree in movement and exercise science.
Her husband, Brock Purdy, played college football at Iowa State from 2018 to 2021, emerging as the starter as a true freshman after injuries opened the job, leading the Cyclones to a 7-2 record that season with 16 touchdowns and a career-best 169.9 passer rating.
He finished his college career holding numerous Iowa State passing records. The San Francisco 49ers selected him with the final pick of the 2022 NFL Draft, 262nd overall, earning him the nickname Mr. Irrelevant.
He made his professional debut a winning one, beating Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and went on to post the second-highest rookie passer rating since Otto Graham in 1946.
He led the 49ers to the NFC Championship game and, the following season, to Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas, where San Francisco fell to Kansas City 25-22 in overtime.
Brock Purdy’s Wife
Jenna Brandt and Purdy first crossed paths as fellow student-athletes at Iowa State starting in 2018, overlapping on campus for two years before her transfer to Northern Iowa.
Exactly when they began dating has never been shared publicly, though a November 2023 Instagram post from Brandt captioned back where it all started, taken at Iowa State’s Jack Trice Stadium, points back to their shared college years.
The relationship became Instagram official in November 2022, when Brandt posted photos from her family’s farm captioned my roots and my boy, and Purdy responded in the comments calling her his girl.
She has remained a visible and consistent presence at his games since, posting supportive captions like love cheering you on and always cheering you on, babes, across multiple seasons.
Purdy proposed in July 2023 on a boat dock in Saint Cloud, Florida, in front of close family and friends. He shared the moment on Instagram, writing that he couldn’t wait to be her husband and grow together in their shared Christian faith.
Brandt posted her own tribute, writing that they got to do life together forever and that she loved everything about him and his faith.
The two married on March 9, 2024, in Des Moines, Iowa, a little more than a month after Purdy and the 49ers lost Super Bowl LVIII to the Kansas City Chiefs in overtime, with Brandt in the stands cheering him on throughout that postseason run.
She is active on Instagram under the handle jennapurdyy, with a following that has grown past 100,000. Reports on the couple’s first child differ in the details.
Brandt and Purdy welcomed a daughter named Millie in July 2025, announced through a joint Instagram post showing the family of three together for the first time, followed by a maternity-themed photo set Brandt shared that August.
