Sig Hansen mom Snefryd Hansen was his inspiration. Hansen family appears on Discovery Channel’s reality show Deadliest Catch.
Deadliest Catch Season 19 premiered on Discovery Channel on April 18, 2023, with new and returning cast members and plenty of drama on the Bering Sea.
The trailer for the newest season shows stress and tension for the captains. And, yes, Hansen and his daughter, Mandy, are on the open seas as they navigate with the F/V Northwestern.
The recent episode of the series shows personal troubles for the Hansen family. “Grandma is not doing good right now,” the captain tells his daughter while navigating the fishing vessel.
An extended clip from Season 19 shows more of the heartbreaking phone call Hansel receives while on the vessel. His wife calls him and says, “She’s in hospice. They just put her on morphine.”
The tensions and conversations clearly indicate to his beloved mother.
In the upcoming episode, viewers will witness Hansen in the most challenging stage of his life as he buries his mom, the last of his family’s pioneering generation.
So, who was his mother? When did she actually pass away? His other family members? Here is what we know!!
Sig Hansen Mother Passed Away Last Year
Sig Hansen mother Snefryd Hansen helped her family with their business. Their commercial fishing business FV Northwestern is in Alaska.
Snefryd passed away on October 20, 2022, at the age of 83. She was born in Akrehamn, Norway, and raised in Kaien with her parents, Nelly and Jorgen Jakobsen.
On November 2, 2022, the Deadliest Catch World shared a loving photo of Snefryd in her remembrance, sending their deepest sympathy and condolences to the Hansen Family on their loss.
Hansen had always considered his mom his greatest supporter. She had appeared alongside him on Deadliest Catch (2005) and Deadliest Catch: Legend of the Northwestern (2014).
Growing up in Kaien, she finished school at age 15 and moved to Bergen, where she worked in the Hotel industry.
At 25, she joined her fiance Sverre Hansen (Sig’s father), one of the pioneer’s crab industry in America. They wed just a few days after arriving in the US in January 1964 at Rock of Ages Lutheran church in Ballard.
They briefly stayed in Alaska before moving back to Ballard and settling down in Shoreline, Washington, where they welcomed their first child, Sigurd, in 1966 and later Norman (1967) and Edgar (1971).
She and many other Norwegian fishermen-wives had to rule as mother and father as their husbands would go out to sea for a long time.
During their retirement, the couple created a little piece of Norway in their cabin at Lagoon Point, Whidbey Island. They spent many weekends with friends, family, and close ones by the water.
She and her hubby loved the Northwest nature because it reminded them of Norway. They would often go for boating trips all around the San Juan Islands.
When Sverre passed away in 2001, she sold their Whidbey Island home and created a child-friendly place on Big Lake, Mount Vernon, and spent many summers with loved ones at her cabin by the lake.
She was a proud Norwegian. She often visited Norway to spend quality time in her childhood home.
Snefryd is survived by her younger brother Jorgen, her three boys and their wives, five grandchildren -Nina, Mandy, Erik, Stefanie, and Logan- and three great-grandchildren -Jaxen, Adalind, and Sailor.
Sig Hansen Has A Family Of His Own
Sig Hansen family consists of his wife, June, and three children. He has two adopted daughters, Nina and Mandy and a biological daughter, Melissa Eckstrom, from a previous marriage.
Sig and June have been married for over 2 decades
Sig Hansen wife June has been by his side for 24 years and counting. They live in Seattle with their loving family.
Following the cliffhanger at the end of the Deadliest Catch Season 15, fans were concerned about June’s health due to a life-changing diagnosis she received at the time.
The captain was devastated after learning June had cancer.
Thankfully, she is just as challenging as her sea captain hubby. After her diagnosis was revealed in S15, she was spotted at the 71st Creative Arts Emmy Award with Hansen by her side.
Moreover, a Discovery representative confirmed that she was doing well and was lucky as the cancer was detected early.
She continues to be the family’s anchor while caring for granddaughter Sailor when Mandy is out with her father in Deadliest Catch.
Melissa Eckstrom is Hansen’s only biological daughter
Sig Hansen daughter Mellisa Eckstrom is best known for being the estranged daughter of Deadlist Catch star Hansen and his ex-wife Lisa Eckstrom.
The pair were together only briefly, separating before Melissa was born. After the divorce was finalized in 1992, Sig was granted visitation with his firstborn but declined his parental rights.
“It was probably the hardest thing I’ve done in my life,” he said during the 2017 court trial. Thus Eckstrom grew up without a father.
The 34-35 years old Melissa is a law attorney based in Seattle. She studied law at the Seattle University School of Law and later worked there as a law attorney. She further has a degree of BA in English.
She runs her firm, Eckstrom Law Firm, PLLC, in Mukilteo, Washington, as a Managing Member.
She made headlines in 2017 when she filed a lawsuit against her dad in County Superior Court. She claimed to have been molested by her father in 1990 when she was just two.
The TV personality denied the claims and said to Seattle Times, “This is nothing more than an old-fashioned shakedown.”
Hansen adopted Nina after getting married to June
Nina is the eldest daughter of June, whom Hansen adopted when he married her. She is currently in her early 30s.
She appeared in one episode of The Deadliest Catch Season 12, which starts with one of the producers talking to the captain as he experiences the symptoms heart attack.
Unlike her father and younger sister, Nina has chosen an ordinary suburban family life. Her private Instagram account at @niinaeliiisa listed her full name as Nina ELisa Wheeler.
She shares two sons with her husband, Barry Wheeler. She often shares loving pictures of her kids, hubby, parents, and close ones on her Facebook account.
The happy family of four resides in Shoreline, Washington.
Mandy is the youngest daughter of the Deadliest Catch star
Born in Seattle, the youngest member of the Hansen family, Mandy, first appeared on the show at age 13. In 2014, she joined the franchise as a full-time cast member.
In a 2019 interview with Entertainment Weekly, her father hinted that he’s ready to retire and has no qualms about passing down the Northwestern to his daughter and her husband, Clark.
He said, “Mandy and her husband can take it and run.” Years after joining with her dad, the youngest Hansen member is all grown up, following in her dad’s footsteps, and has her own family.
She welcomed her first child, daughter Sailor Marie Pederson, in June 2022. Like her, her hubby, Clark, has years of experience in the king crabs industry.
The Captain Has Two Brothers
The Deadliest Catch star grew up in a household of three siblings; he is the eldest of three sons. Sig Hansen brothers are Norman and Edgar.
Norman is married to Samantha
Norman, the second child (born in 1967) of Snefryd and Sverre, comes from a long line of Norwegian fishermen.
In the summers, he and his brothers would sometime visit Norway with their father and grandfather to catch cod and mackerel.
As they got older, his big brother took over their family crabbing business and became a relief skipper on the Northwestern by 22. By 24, he was running Northwestern full-time.
Norman was the deckhand of the Northwestern. While onboard the Northwestern, he had a head injury that caused a seizure.
And while he did well after recovering, Hansen may not spend much time fishing in the dangerous Alaskan waters. He is married to Samantha.
Edgar is the youngest of three
Born in 1971, the youngest of the Hansen sibling, Edgar, is 52 years old. He is married to Louise.
He served on his brother’s boat from the show’s ninth season until the fourteenth season. He will likely never return to the show, as in July 2018, Edgar Hansen pled guilty to fourth-degree physical assault.
A 16-year-old Mountlake Terrace resident revealed the incident to her therapist in the fall of 2017. Following this, Edgar received a 364-day suspended jail sentence.