Lisa Pemberton: Paul Anka’s Ex-Wife, Marriage, Divorce and Life Today

David Hoffman
28 Min Read
Lisa Pemberton: Paul Anka’s Ex-Wife, Marriage, Divorce and Life Today

Lisa Pemberton is best known as the third wife and now former wife of Canadian-American singer-songwriter Paul Anka. The couple married on October 22, 2016, after dating for about six years, and their marriage ended in 2020. Since then, Pemberton has largely stayed out of major entertainment coverage.

Strong contemporary reporting documents that basic timeline. Much of the rest of her online biography is not.

Several websites confuse Paul Anka’s former wife with another woman named Lisa Pemberton who works in film makeup, prosthetics and special effects. Other sites publish conflicting birth dates, education histories and occupations without reliable sourcing.

For that reason, an accurate Lisa Pemberton biography is less about filling every blank and more about separating verified facts from identity mix-ups.

Who Is Lisa Pemberton?

Her long-term relationship with Paul Anka brought Lisa Pemberton into public view.

Anka is the singer and songwriter behind classics such as “Diana,” “Put Your Head on My Shoulder” and “Lonely Boy.” He also wrote the English lyrics that became Frank Sinatra’s “My Way.”

By contrast, Lisa did not build a comparable entertainment career in the public eye.

Instead, contemporary relationship coverage focused mainly on the couple’s appearances, wedding and Anka’s family.

That difference matters because modern biography sites often try to give Lisa an independent résumé by merging her with another professional who happens to share the same name.

More importantly, the strongest evidence does not support that approach.

Lisa’s verified public profile centers on her relationship with Anka and the comparatively private life she maintained around it.

Lisa Pemberton and Paul Anka

Lisa and Paul Anka were together for several years before marrying.

A contemporary Entertainment Tonight report said they had dated for six years by the time of their wedding in October 2016.

That places the beginning of the relationship around 2010.

Anka was already one of the most established pop performers of his generation.

Lisa entered a life that included decades of touring, songwriting, public appearances and a large family from previous marriages.

Their relationship attracted attention, but they did not turn it into a constant public media narrative. In practice, the pair appeared selectively rather than building a joint media brand.

Eventually, the couple attended selected events together and married in Los Angeles.

Lisa Pemberton and Paul Anka
Lisa Pemberton and Paul Anka

The First Publicly Documented Chapter

Paul Anka said he met Lisa at a friend’s wedding.

Contemporary wedding coverage reported that detail, and later profiles repeated it.

However, strong sources do not firmly document the exact date or location of that first meeting.

Therefore, the safest timeline starts with the fact that they knew each other for roughly six years before their own wedding.

In other words, that long courtship distinguishes the relationship from a brief celebrity romance.

They had already spent years together before making the marriage official.

A Long Courtship Before 2016

By October 2016, Paul and Lisa had been together for about six years.

During that period, she occasionally joined him at public events.

The supplied UPI competitor, for example, contains a photo record of the pair attending the MusiCares Person of the Year gala in Los Angeles in February 2016.

Notably, that public appearance came months before their wedding.

However, Lisa did not use those events to build a separate celebrity brand.

There is little evidence of major interviews, television projects or public business ventures under her own name during the relationship.

Her public visibility came mainly through appearances beside Anka.

Lisa Pemberton Wedding to Paul Anka

Lisa married Paul Anka on October 22, 2016.

The ceremony took place at the Four Seasons in Los Angeles.

Entertainment Tonight described it as a sunset ceremony attended by family and friends.

A Yahoo Entertainment report also documented the wedding and quoted Anka describing the gathering as small and meaningful.

Meanwhile, the marriage was Anka’s third.

For Lisa, the ceremony represented the public culmination of a relationship that had already lasted several years.

Even so, celebrity outlets covered the event, but the couple kept the ceremony more intimate than a large public spectacle.

The Most Personal Wedding Detail

One of the most widely reported wedding details involved Ethan Anka.

For context, Ethan is Paul’s son from his second marriage.

He was 11 at the time of the 2016 wedding.

Entertainment Tonight reported that Ethan walked Lisa down the aisle.

Anka said he wanted his son to be part of the ceremony.

That moment became the emotional centerpiece of much of the wedding coverage.

It also illustrates that Lisa was marrying into an established family rather than beginning a first-family chapter with Paul.

Joining an Established Family

Lisa became Paul Anka’s third wife.

His first wife was Anne de Zogheb, with whom he had five daughters.

His second marriage was to Anna Åberg, the mother of his son Ethan.

By the time Lisa married him, Paul had six children.

As a result, that family history shaped the marriage context.

However, Lisa and Paul did not have a biological child together.

Some sites describe her as stepmother to all six children.

That term makes sense in a family context, but most of Paul’s daughters had already reached adulthood by the wedding.

Therefore, the article should not imply that Lisa raised all six children.

Did Lisa Pemberton Have Children With Paul Anka?

No reliable source reports that Lisa Pemberton and Paul Anka had biological children together.

Paul already had six children from his first two marriages.

For context, his five daughters are Alexandra, Amanda, Alicia, Anthea and Amelia.

His son is Ethan.

Ethan’s participation in the wedding shows that he had a visible role in the family event.

However, a responsible biography should not invent details about Lisa’s private relationships with individual children.

The safe conclusion is simply that Lisa married into an existing six-child family and did not have a publicly documented child with Paul.

The Family Context Around the Marriage

Paul Anka had already built a large family before Lisa entered it.

Five daughters came from his long first marriage to Anne de Zogheb.

His son Ethan came from his second marriage to Anna Åberg.

Amanda Anka later became especially familiar to entertainment audiences through her marriage to actor Jason Bateman and her own work in film and television.

The other children have followed a mix of public and private careers.

Still, this family history should remain background.

Lisa Pemberton’s biography should not become a complete account of Paul Anka’s children.

Why the 2016 Wedding Coverage Is So Useful

The 2016 wedding coverage is unusually valuable because reporters published it at the time rather than reconstructing the story years later.

Entertainment Tonight reported the relationship length, wedding date, venue and Ethan’s role in the ceremony while the event was current news. Yahoo Entertainment carried similar details from contemporaneous reporting.

That gives the relationship timeline a stronger foundation than later biography pages that bundle marriage facts together with unsupported birth dates and career claims.

Contemporary reporting also helps separate what Paul Anka himself said from what later writers inferred. He described Lisa warmly and emphasized that Ethan’s participation mattered to him.

What those reports do not provide is equally important. They do not identify Lisa as a film makeup artist, counselor, graduate of specific universities or owner of a business.

That silence does not disprove every later claim, but it means those details need independent evidence before they belong in a reliable biography.

Lisa Pemberton and the 2020 Divorce

Ultimately, the couple ended the marriage in 2020.

Today, current Paul Anka biographies list Lisa as a former spouse rather than his current wife.

That is an important correction because many older webpages remain frozen in 2016 and still describe the couple as married.

At the same time, the divorce itself appears to have remained relatively private.

Strong current sources do not document a highly public legal fight or a prolonged tabloid dispute.

That lack of detail should not invite speculation.

The most accurate statement is that Paul Anka and Lisa Pemberton divorced in 2020 after roughly four years of marriage.

What the Public Record Does Not Explain

However, strong public sources do not firmly establish the exact reason for the divorce.

Recent derivative articles sometimes attach explanations to the breakup.

However, those versions often rely on recycled quotes, vague attribution or later commentary by Anka about relationships generally.

Without direct, well-sourced statements from both parties, a biography should not declare a specific cause.

In short, there is no need to create an infidelity story, money dispute or dramatic personality conflict.

The couple’s marriage ended in 2020.

Beyond that, the private details remain largely private.

That is a stronger answer than a speculative one.

Is Lisa Pemberton Still Paul Anka’s Wife?

No.

Lisa Pemberton is Paul Anka’s former wife.

The couple married in 2016 and divorced in 2020.

For that reason, this point matters because many old wedding stories still rank prominently in search results.

A person reading only those pages could easily assume the marriage continues.

More recent interviews with Anka describe him as single.

In 2026, he publicly discussed enjoying solitude and having no desire to marry again.

Therefore, current articles should use “ex-wife” or “former wife” when describing Lisa.

A Return to a Lower Public Profile

Afterward, Lisa’s public profile became even quieter.

Likewise, major entertainment outlets have not documented a new marriage, major business launch or regular television role.

That does not prove she left work or moved to a particular place.

It simply means public sources do not document those parts of her life.

Many former spouses of celebrities return to private life after a divorce.

Lisa appears to fit that pattern.

A biography should resist the temptation to turn absence of coverage into a dramatic disappearance narrative.

The simplest explanation is that she has maintained a low profile.

Lisa Pemberton Career: What Is Actually Verified?

This is where online biographies become especially unreliable.

For example, some sites describe Lisa as a counselor.

Others call her a film makeup artist, prosthetics technician or special-effects professional.

Still others describe business ventures without strong evidence.

More importantly, the main problem is identity.

Another professional named Lisa Pemberton has real film credits.

IMDb lists that woman in makeup and special-effects departments.

However, the evidence does not securely connect that professional to Paul Anka’s former wife.

Therefore, this article does not assign those credits to her.

The Most Important Online Identity Error

The supplied IMDb profile is a major source of confusion.

It describes a Lisa Pemberton born in England who has worked on major film productions.

Credits include Kingsman: The Secret Service, Criminal, The Legend of Tarzan, Jupiter Ascending and other projects.

IMDb also uses the alternative name Lisa Pemberton Goldberg.

Nothing in the strongest relationship coverage identifies Paul Anka’s former wife as this film-crew professional.

Likewise, the name match alone is not enough.

This is a classic identity collision: two people share a name, then derivative websites combine their biographies.

Why a Matching Name Is Not Enough

A professional film résumé needs more than a matching name.

To connect the IMDb makeup artist to Anka’s ex-wife, a reliable source would need to establish the relationship directly.

That connection is missing.

The problem becomes obvious when biography sites start combining:

  • England as birthplace;
  • film makeup credits;
  • Canadian childhood claims;
  • counseling education;
  • marriage to Paul Anka.

Those pieces come from incompatible records.

Therefore, the safer editorial choice is separation.

Until a strong source explicitly identifies the film professional as Anka’s former wife, those credits should remain with the other Lisa Pemberton.

Why the Name Collision Changes the Whole Biography

The identity problem is not a minor footnote.

If a writer incorrectly merges the IMDb makeup professional with Paul Anka’s former wife, the error spreads into almost every other section of the biography.

A birthplace in England can suddenly sit beside claims of an Ottawa childhood. A September birthday can appear next to a July birthday. A careless profile can add film credits to counseling claims even though no reliable source connects the two careers.

Once those details appear together on one website, another site may copy the combined profile and make the mistake look established.

That is why chronology and source matching matter more than repetition.

The verified Paul Anka relationship record gives us a known individual in public photographs and wedding reporting. The film professional has her own legitimate credits, but a name match alone does not prove the two records belong to one person.

Separating them produces a shorter biography, but it also produces a more accurate one.

Lisa Pemberton Age and Birthday

Strong public sources do not securely verify Lisa Pemberton’s exact age.

Entertainment Tonight’s wedding story does not give her age.

Recent Paul Anka profiles also do not provide a reliable birth date for her.

Online biography sites disagree sharply.

Some claim July 15, 1953.

Others claim July 15, 1968.

The IMDb film professional lists a September 22 birthday.

Therefore, those conflicts strongly suggest that websites have merged multiple identities.

Therefore, this article does not calculate Lisa’s age in 2026.

An unsupported exact age would look precise while being unreliable.

Why the Birthday Data Cannot Be Reconciled

In fact, the conflicting birth dates are not minor.

A 1953 birth year and a 1968 birth year create a 15-year difference.

That is too large to dismiss as a simple typo.

The September 22 birthday attached to the film professional creates a third profile.

Strong wedding coverage does not resolve the conflict.

Therefore, a trustworthy biography should say that public sources do not verify the birthday.

This is preferable to choosing whichever date appears most frequently on low-quality sites.

Repetition is not the same as confirmation.

Claims That Remain Unsupported

In addition, several biography sites say Lisa attended Carleton University and later studied public health at UC Berkeley.

Some also claim she studied psychology and human relations.

Many sites repeat these claims alongside the same disputed birth details and film-industry identity mix-ups.

So far, strong primary or institutional sources do not establish this education history for Paul Anka’s former wife.

Therefore, writers should not present those degrees as facts.

The same applies to claims that she worked as an adolescent counselor.

Without a clear professional record tied to the correct Lisa Pemberton, the career remains unverified.

What Can Be Said About Her Personality?

Celebrity wedding coverage gives only a small amount of first-hand description.

Paul Anka called Lisa a great woman and said they shared a love of animals. He also framed the wedding as a meaningful family event rather than a publicity spectacle.

Those comments offer a limited glimpse, not a complete personality profile.

Writers should be cautious with later claims that describe Lisa as exceptionally private, philanthropic, career-driven or devoted to a particular profession unless the claim comes from a direct source.

Her low media presence certainly suggests she did not pursue a high-profile celebrity career.

However, writers should not convert privacy into a list of personality traits she never publicly claimed.

The safest conclusion is that she kept a comparatively low public profile even while married to a famous performer.

Where Is Lisa Pemberton Now?

Reliable public sources do not clearly establish Lisa’s current residence in 2026.

They also do not identify a current employer or public business.

Meanwhile, her media visibility dropped substantially after the 2020 divorce.

That is the most defensible current-life observation.

She has not remained a regular part of Paul Anka’s public appearances.

Likewise, recent coverage of Anka describes him as single.

Therefore, a current profile should describe Lisa’s present-day life as private rather than fill it with guesses about location, work or relationships.

Does Lisa Pemberton Have a Verified Net Worth?

Similarly, no reliable source establishes Lisa Pemberton’s personal net worth.

Nevertheless, biography sites sometimes publish estimates ranging into the millions.

Those figures usually lack:

  • financial filings;
  • disclosed assets;
  • settlement documents;
  • debt information;
  • business ownership records.

Writers cannot simply transfer Paul Anka’s wealth to his former wife.

Likewise, the existence of a celebrity marriage does not reveal what either spouse retained after divorce.

Therefore, the responsible answer is that Lisa Pemberton does not have a verified public net-worth figure.

What Event Photos Actually Prove

Before the wedding, Lisa did appear with Paul at selected public events.

The supplied UPI photo archive documents the couple attending the MusiCares Person of the Year gala honoring Lionel Richie in Los Angeles in February 2016.

Therefore, that appearance helps confirm that Lisa was publicly part of Anka’s life before the wedding.

However, writers should not stretch event photography beyond what it proves.

A red-carpet image confirms attendance.

It does not establish occupation, education, nationality or private family history.

That distinction is especially important in a biography with so much identity confusion.

Why the Relationship Drew Attention

Lisa’s public recognition comes largely from Anka’s extraordinary longevity in music.

His official website continues to document a career stretching back to the 1950s.

Anka became a teenage star with “Diana” and later built a long songwriting, recording and live-performance career. His place in the broader history of Canadian music helps explain the scale of public attention surrounding his personal life.

He also wrote the English lyrics for “My Way.”

That level of fame explains why a comparatively private spouse became a searchable public figure.

For broader context, Britannica’s Paul Anka biography provides an overview of his career.

Still, Lisa’s biography should not simply repeat his achievements.

The Limits of a Public Biography

Overall, Overall, Lisa did not appear to pursue celebrity as a profession.

That is important when judging the gaps in her biography.

After all, a person can marry a famous entertainer without becoming a fully documented public figure.

In Lisa’s case, reliable coverage gives us a relationship timeline, selected public appearances and a wedding.

It does not give us a verified childhood, education history, full career résumé or current-life profile.

The absence of those details does not create a problem that guesses need to fix.

Privacy is itself part of the available record.

The Limits of a Public Biography
The Limits of a Public Biography

Selected Timeline

YearPublicly supported event
Around 2010Lisa and Paul Anka begin a relationship, based on reports that they dated about six years before marrying.
February 2016The couple attends the MusiCares Person of the Year gala in Los Angeles.
October 22, 2016Lisa and Paul marry at the Four Seasons in Los Angeles.
October 2016Ethan Anka walks Lisa down the aisle during the wedding ceremony.
2016–2020Lisa is Paul Anka’s third wife.
2020Their marriage ends in divorce.
2021 onwardCurrent biographies refer to Lisa as Anka’s former wife.
2026Recent Anka interviews describe him as single; Lisa remains outside regular media coverage.

Ultimately, the timeline is short because strong sources document only a limited part of Lisa’s life.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Who is Lisa Pemberton?

Lisa Pemberton is best known as the third wife and now former wife of singer-songwriter Paul Anka.

They married in 2016 after roughly six years together and divorced in 2020.

2. Was Lisa Pemberton married to Paul Anka?

Yes.

Lisa was Paul Anka’s third wife.

Their marriage lasted from October 2016 until 2020.

3. When did Lisa Pemberton marry Paul Anka?

Lisa and Paul married on October 22, 2016.

The ceremony took place at the Four Seasons in Los Angeles.

4. Did Lisa Pemberton and Paul Anka divorce?

Yes.

Current biographical sources identify the marriage as ending in 2020.

5. Why did Lisa Pemberton and Paul Anka divorce?

Strong public sources do not provide a definitive, detailed reason for the divorce.

Accordingly, the couple kept the breakup relatively private, so this article does not invent a cause.

6. Does Lisa Pemberton have children with Paul Anka?

No publicly documented biological children were born from their marriage.

Paul already had five daughters and one son from his previous marriages.

7. Is Lisa Pemberton a makeup artist?

There is a film makeup and special-effects professional named Lisa Pemberton, but reliable sources do not establish that she is Paul Anka’s former wife.

Therefore, writers should not automatically assign the film credits to Anka’s ex-wife.

8. What is Lisa Pemberton age?

Reliable sources do not verify Lisa Pemberton’s exact age.

Online sites publish conflicting birth years and appear to merge multiple women with the same name.

9. Where is Lisa Pemberton now?

Lisa has maintained a low public profile since her 2020 divorce from Paul Anka.

Reliable current sources do not establish her exact residence, employer or relationship status.

10. What is Lisa Pemberton net worth?

Lisa Pemberton does not have a verified public net-worth figure.

Online estimates lack the financial records required to calculate personal wealth accurately.

Conclusion: A Private Life After a Public Marriage

Lisa Pemberton became a public name because of her relationship with one of pop music’s longest-running stars.

She and Paul Anka dated for about six years before marrying on October 22, 2016.

Their wedding received substantial entertainment coverage, especially because Anka’s young son Ethan escorted Lisa down the aisle.

Ultimately, the couple ended the marriage in 2020.

Since then, Lisa has largely returned to private life.

The more difficult part of her biography is everything the internet added afterward.

Conflicting birth dates, counseling credentials, university degrees and film makeup credits appear across biography sites, but the evidence often points to identity merging rather than one coherent person.

The most accurate Lisa Pemberton profile therefore remains deliberately limited: Paul Anka’s former wife, a relationship lasting roughly a decade from dating through marriage, a private divorce, and a present-day life that she has not chosen to document publicly.

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