If you’re a follower of “The Deadliest Catch” on Discovery Channel, you’ve likely observed Mandy Hansen, Sig Hansen’s youngest daughter, getting ready to eventually assume control of the F/V Northwestern. She’s been groomed as Hansen’s designated heir for the fishing vessel, alongside her husband Clark Pederson. However, it remains uncertain when the main figure of the reality show intends to step down.
Mandy Hansen made her debut on the show in 2009, initially featuring on “After the Catch,” a roundtable talk show mini-series by Discovery alongside the captains of “The Deadliest Catch.” At 18, she started her journey on the Northwestern alongside her father. Contrarily, her sister Nina remains enigmatic, avoiding attention and making just a single appearance on an episode of “The Deadliest Catch.”
Nina is the daughter of June Hansen
Nina Hansen made a single appearance in a Season 12 episode of “The Deadliest Catch,” where the episode begins with a producer conversing with Sig while he’s experiencing symptoms that later turn out to be a heart attack. The narrative follows Sig as he gets airlifted to Anchorage, Alaska for treatment in “The Widowmaker, Part 2,” with the narrator mentioning the arrival of his wife and daughters from the continental 48 states to be by his side.
Mandy Hansen has appeared in around 63 episodes of the main series, and she’s also been involved in other “The Deadliest Catch” projects like the spinoff “The Bait” (2014-2019) and the ongoing series “The Viking Returns.” June, Sig’s wife, has featured in approximately eight episodes of the main series. She, too, has participated in other projects related to “The Deadliest Catch,” such as “The Viking Returns.”
According to The Seattle Times, Sig Hansen adopted June’s two daughters upon their marriage in 2002. In 2019, June faced a type of cancer, as reported by Country Living, but has since been well enough to care for baby Sailor while Sig and their daughter Mandy were away fishing in Norway for the “The Viking Returns” spinoff, as per Entertainment Weekly.
The article mentioned that Hansen has a daughter from a past marriage with whom he is estranged, and in 2017, she filed a lawsuit.
Melissa, at 28, alleges that her father sexually abused her at the age of 2 following Sig and Lisa’s divorce. This trauma led to her struggling with eating disorders, depression, and thoughts of suicide.
Additionally, Melissa shared a drawing from a counseling session that depicted ‘mommy’ and ‘daddy’ with arrows pointing to various areas, including one labeled ‘potty pot.’
However, Sig Hansen denied the accusation and said,
“The allegations are completely false, rehashed lies my ex-wife Lisa Eckstrom used nearly 30 years ago to take away my daughter and has continued to try to use to extort money from me,”
“This is the third time the Eckstrom family has threatened to publicly rehash lies about me unless I pay them a pile of money, and I finally said enough is enough. If you’ve got something, bring it, because it was BS then, and it is BS now,”
The prosecuting attorney’s office concluded that Sig was not responsible for the abuse, stating that the likelihood of Sig sexually abusing Melissa is highly improbable.
Nina is living a normal suburban family life
Digging into Nina’s life offers insights. She maintains a private Instagram profile under @niiinaeliiisa, using the full name Nina Elisa Wheeler. Recent appearances on her sister’s Instagram, featuring her son Jaxsen and partner as of October 2020, showcase her close ties with her parents and sister, disproving any estrangement and revealing her commitment to her own family.
Her Facebook account provides more visibility into her life, revealing her residence as Shoreline, Washington. Nina’s LinkedIn profile suggests she holds a managerial position at Revive Low T Clinic in Kirkland, Washington, a clinic specializing in low testosterone levels in men. Her husband, Barry Wheeler, also works at the clinic as a doctor and medical director, focusing on men’s health. Barry, an Oregon State University graduate from 2005 and a National University of Natural Medicine graduate from 2009, married Nina in June 2014, with their family present.
Nina’s Facebook profile features her two young children and their Pomeranian, Kita. Information on the page indicates that Jaxsen was born around June 2017, making him approximately five years old. The younger child seems to have been born in April 2020, possibly a girl, making her about a year and a half older than Sailor Marie, Mandy’s daughter, whose birth was publicized on November 10, 2021, according to People. Interestingly, Nina’s pictures sometimes receive comments from stars of “Deadliest Catch.”
Evidently, Nina has chosen a safer, more conventional lifestyle as the wife of a doctor and a mother in the suburbs, diverging from the adventurous and risky endeavors her sister and father undertake each year during the crab-fishing season.
