Joy Gardner was born Joy Burke in Long Bay Beach, Jamaica, in May 1953. Her mother, Myrna Simpson, emigrated to the United Kingdom from Jamaica – then still a British colony – in 1961, with the intention of sending for her child once she had achieved some financial stability, a common and accepted practice at the time. Simpson subsequently became a British citizen. Prior to 1981, Gardner would have had the right to British citizenship through her mother, but changes to immigration legislation in the British Nationality Act 1981 meant this was no longer possible. As well as her mother, Gardner's half-brother, three uncles and two aunts were also living in England at the time.