Jean Maria Antoinette Borg née Despott was born on the first of July 1940 in Balzan. Her father was a soldier in the British Army and her mother was a housewife. She had two brothers and one sister and at the age of three, her family had relocated to Tripoli, Libya as her father had been posted there with the British forces. In 1947, she was involved in an accident which resulted in her transfer to Santo Spirito hospital in Rabat, Malta where she had stayed until she was discharged in 1951. Jean had worked as a travel agent between 1957-1959, she did secretarial work for two years between 1959 and 1961 and she lastly worked in a flower nursery in the the UK for one year in 1961. She was married and had two girls.