Valerie Nettles was born in the UK and grew up in the Isle of Wight before her family immigrated to the US when she was fifteen. She married her American husband, Ed, a manager with an international freight company, after meeting him at University of New Orleans. They would go on to have four children, including Damien, who was born in Singapore in 1980. The family lived between the UK and the US, following Ed's work, but settled in the Isle of Wight in 1990 to raise their four children. Five years after Damien's disappearance, due to job commitments, the family made the heart-wrenching decision to move. Valerie and Ed returned to the US, and currently live in Texas.