Candi Fisher Biography

Candi Fisher came to public attention following her marriage to Jimbo Fisher in 1989. However, she started to appear on news articles and photographs regularly after her then-husband became the head football coach at Florida State University following the retirement of former WVU coach Bobby Bowden, Florida State's head coach of 34 years, in January 2010. She has also remained in media coverage due to her appearances at various conferences regarding Fanconi Anemia awareness and research. After her separation from Jimbo was announced on June 11, 2015 after 22 years of marriage, there has been a renewed interest in her.

Candi Fisher's divorce from Jimbo was hastily finalized on December 10, 2015, following accusations from her estranged husband that she was involved in extramarital affairs. It has been speculated that Candi Fisher's alleged relationships cost her millions in alimony and also put her in a tight spot regarding the divorce negotiations. Tabloids have identified two men, former football player Taylor Jacobs and former FSU tennis star Owen Long, whose names came up during the legal proceedings. She was reportedly asked by the court to produce details of her communications with them via emails or text messages by December 9, 2010. However, that did not happen as the divorce papers were signed hours later, and she got only about $3.4 million and $4,500-a-month in child support—much less than she had originally asked for.

Candi Fisher was born as Candace Leigh Coogler in 1969 in Auburn, Alabama. She had two brothers, Cale and Craig. Craig died in a motorcycle accident in 2011, at the age of 37. Her parents, Franklin Coogler and Suzanne Ballard, are divorced. Both of her parents remarried; her father is married to Pam Coogler, while her mother is married to Monty Ballard. She currently lives in Tallahassee, Florida.

Candi Fisher met quarterback, Jimbo Fisher, while he was at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama in 1987. That year, he was named the 'Division III National Player of the Year'. They married on July 22, 1989 and have two young children, Trey and Ethan.

In 2010, Candi Fisher's youngest son, Ethan Fisher, was diagnosed with Fanconi Anemia, a rare, inherited blood disorder that leads to bone marrow failure and an increased risk of cancer. While life expectancy in this disease was about 35 years before, it is becoming more common for people surviving into their 40s and 50s. Ethan, who was diagnosed with the disease early, six weeks before his sixth birthday, has a better chance at proper treatment. While he has grown up to be an athletic child, he is now prohibited from playing contact sports. His parents, who are aware that he needs a breakthrough in the field of research, created 'Kidz1stFund', a non-profit organization, to raise awareness about FA, as well as to raise fund to help in the research. The couple delivered the first cheque to University of Minnesota for Fanconi Anemia research in June 2014.

The couple had decided against mentioning the term 'disease' around their children. However, the Fisher family, along with Ethan, featured in a 2012 College Game Day video titled 'Will to Fight', seeing which, Ethan's friends at school broke the news to him. He turned to his parents for answers, who told him about his 'condition' without going into the details. Even after divorce, the couple takes care of their ailing child together, often accompanying him to the hospital whenever the doctors need to runs tests on him, which usually takes days to complete.

Interestingly, Shannon O’Neil, an FSU grad student, who was writing a murder-mystery novel in which the protagonist had a child affected with FA, had reached out to Candi to request her to review her descriptions of the disease. She not only helped her on some of the paragraphs, but also wrote an introduction to the novel, 'Killer Shine'.