Kabbah's first marriage, in 1965, was to Patricia Tucker, a devout Christian from the Sherbro ethnic group and a native of Bonthe District in Southern Sierra Leone. He and Patricia Kabbah had five children. The two were often seen together in public before his presidency. She was very influential during his presidency, focusing mainly on humanitarian issues, and was outspoken on the need to end the civil war. She died from an illness in 1998 and thus did not live to see the war's end in 2002.