Jean's first rejection comes as a child from her harsh and disapproving father Phillip DeWolff, an officer of the NYPD, who resents having a daughter rather than another son. Her mother Celia gets divorced from Phillip six months after Jean's birth, taking her older brother Brian DeWolff with her. Jean and Brian develop a close and loving relationship over the years despite their parents' separation. Four years after the divorce, Celia marries police patrolman Carl Weatherby, who gives Jean the love she never got from her real father. Inspired by Carl, Jean joins the police academy as an adult, but this breaks Celia's heart, as she views the police force as a source of stress and danger. It also angers her father, who is now the New York police commissioner; he dismisses Jean and other women as unfit for police duty while showering praise on Brian for joining the NYPD after graduating top of his class at the academy. Just before Jean graduates from the academy, witnesses see Brian shot in the line of duty, but the body disappears before police or rescue services arrive. Phillip retires as police commissioner soon afterward.