Jake Harris, a former Deadliest Catch cast member, lost his wife, Shawna Brinkly, in mid-August 2023. Shawna’s death announcement on Captain Phil Forever’s Facebook page reads: “We here at Captain Phil Harris Forever are sending condolences out to Jake Harris for the loss of his wife Shawna. Our thoughts and prayers are with you.”
Shawna Brinkly’s cause of death is a mystery
Shawna Brinkly’s family hasn’t shared her cause of death. The death announcement explicitly prohibits people from enquiring about Shawna’s death. “Please respect the family’s privacy and DO NOT ASK HOW OR WHAT HAPPENED,” it reads.
Shawna helped Jake stem his downward spiral, which began after the sudden death of his father, Phil Harris, in February 2010. Jake’s drug and alcohol abuse led to his departure from Deadliest Catch. His brother, Josh, told TV Show Ace in April 2021 that Shawna had transformed Jake’s life:
“[Jake’s] in a new relationship. His girl has a couple of kids, and he loves being a dad, and he’s really good at it. He’s really good with kids. That keeps him really busy. He’s been hanging out with my kid a lot too. He’s the awesome uncle, and whenever he’s over at my house, my daughter doesn’t even talk to me.”
Jake admitted as much via a Facebook post quoted by TV Show Ace. “She treated me with respect and with encouragement, didn’t tell me what to do, and reminded me that the only true accountability that I had was to myself,” the post reads. “She told me I deserved better from myself.”
Shawna had two kids from a previous relationship and one daughter, Tru Harris, with Jake. On 14th January 2022, a month after Tru’s birth, Jake wrote on Facebook that she was the glue that brought the family together. “She [Tru] is the cherry on top this family needed to really connect us and bring us together as one big family unit,” Jake wrote.
“I gotta hand it to Shawna for having a vision of this and setting things into motion for it to become reality and for helping me set goals and pushing me to take steps and not letting up even when I pushed back,” Jake praised his wife. Little is known about Shawna’s professional life. However, her Facebook profile shows she ran a OnlyFans account.