Justin Qualley is the eldest child of actress Andie MacDowell and the only son she had with her first husband, Paul Qualley, a former model and rancher. He was born on Aug. 14, 1986, which makes him 40 as of November 2026. His younger sisters, Rainey and Margaret Qualley, both act. Justin is the one who went into a different line of work: People, Hello!, InStyle and TODAY all describe him as a real estate agent in Montana. He keeps a low public profile, so most of what is known about him comes from his mother’s Instagram posts and television appearances.
Key takeaways
- Justin Qualley was born Aug. 14, 1986, the first of MacDowell and Paul Qualley’s three children, according to People’s profile of the family.
- People reports that he works as a real estate agent in the western part of Montana. TODAY described him in April 2025 as the son “who works in real estate.”
- He and Nicolette had a daughter, Cozette, in 2022, and they married in June 2023. Cozette made MacDowell a grandmother for the first time.
- The more personal details, such as the fruit trees and his habit of not checking his phone, come from MacDowell’s own posts.
Justin Qualley profile summary
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Born | Aug. 14, 1986 (People) |
| Parents | Andie MacDowell and Paul Qualley, married 1986, divorced 1999 |
| Siblings | Rainey Qualley and Margaret Qualley |
| Occupation | Real estate agent in Montana (People, Hello!, InStyle, TODAY) |
| Spouse | Nicolette, married June 2023 |
| Child | Daughter Cozette, born 2022 |
What does Justin Qualley do for a living?
Justin Qualley is a real estate agent in Montana. People places his work in the western part of the state. Hello! described him the same way in January 2024, and InStyle’s family profile from July 2026 says the same. TODAY’s April 2025 parenting story listed MacDowell’s three adult children as two actress daughters “and son Justin who works in real estate.”
None of these outlets names his brokerage or says how long he has worked in the field. That gap matters, because other people share his name. A Montana agent listing under “Justin Qualley” isn’t evidence about MacDowell’s son unless something ties the two together. A LinkedIn profile for a Justin Qualley who is a Purdue-educated electrical controls engineer in Minneapolis belongs to a different person altogether.
His occupation stands out because his mother and both sisters work in entertainment. Justin is the one member of the family whose career is outside it.
The Qualley family and Justin’s arrival
Justin’s parents married in 1986, the year he was born, and divorced in 1999 after 13 years together, according to People. His father, Paul Qualley, is a former model and rancher. People’s account of the family says that after the divorce MacDowell moved with the children to Asheville, North Carolina.
MacDowell has described her son’s birth as a turning point in her own life. For his 35th birthday in 2021, she posted a tribute on Instagram that People quoted and InStyle later reported had been deleted. “Everything changed about who I was in that moment because I no longer cared about anything like I cared about him,” she wrote. People reports that in the same post she called becoming his mother the “greatest blessing of my life.”
How Andie MacDowell describes her son
MacDowell’s fullest public description of Justin came in a June 2022 Instagram post. She used it to celebrate him and Nicolette and to announce that they were expecting a daughter. Entertainment Tonight quoted the caption when it reported the baby’s arrival in January 2023.
“My son plants fruit trees that’s how he has fun,” MacDowell wrote. She described the couple as “down to earth in every way” and said Montana suited them. Then she wrote the line most often repeated about him: Justin “never looks at his phone, he does not live a life online.”
These are a mother’s observations, not independent reporting. They are also the main reason so little else is publicly known about him. Someone who, by his mother’s account, stays off his phone and offline leaves few traces of his own. That pushes anyone curious about him back toward MacDowell’s posts and the outlets that quote them.
Is Justin Qualley married?
Yes. Justin Qualley married Nicolette in June 2023. TODAY reported the date, citing Brides, and Hello! and InStyle give the same month. InStyle, also citing Brides, said MacDowell and the couple’s daughter were at the wedding.
MacDowell shared photos from the day on Instagram. Hello! quoted her caption: “We wept heartfelt tears because we saw deep love standing in front of us.” She closed by calling it “a perfect wedding full of love.” InStyle later reported that this post, too, had been deleted.
The order of events can confuse readers, because the couple became parents before they married. The pregnancy was announced in June 2022, their daughter arrived later that year, and the wedding was the following June. That’s why Entertainment Tonight’s January 2023 report calls Nicolette Justin’s “partner” rather than his wife.
Justin Qualley’s daughter, Cozette
Justin and Nicolette’s daughter, Cozette, was born in 2022 and was MacDowell’s first grandchild. Her exact birth date hasn’t been made public. MacDowell first talked about her on TODAY in January 2023. “I just spent Christmas with her,” she said. “I’ve never had somebody look into me and see my soul like that. It was definitely a soul-to-soul connection.”
Two years later, Cozette had given her grandmother a nickname. In April 2025, TODAY reported, drawing on a People interview, that the toddler settled on “Gaga.” “She couldn’t really say anything else,” MacDowell said, “but she was adamantly calling me Gaga.” By then Cozette had a cousin. Rainey and her partner, Anthony Wilson, had a daughter, Bluebell Coyote Wilson, on Dec. 10, 2024.
A documented public appearance
Justin Qualley rarely appears at public events, but one occasion is well documented. People published a Getty Images photo of him with his mother at the National Women’s History Museum’s 8th Annual Women Making History Awards, where MacDowell was an honoree. According to the museum’s announcement, the event took place on March 8, 2020, at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.
People’s family profile puts that appearance in 2022. The museum’s own release dates the event to March 2020, so 2020 is the correct year.
Justin Qualley’s sisters
| Name | Born | Known for |
|---|---|---|
| Rainey Qualley | March 11, 1990 (People) | Actress and model who also records music as Rainsford |
| Margaret Qualley | Oct. 23, 1994, in Montana | Actress in Maid, Fosse/Verdon and The Substance |
Both of Justin’s younger sisters followed their mother into acting. That’s why family profiles single him out as the sibling whose work is in Montana real estate.
FAQ
How old is Justin Qualley?
Justin Qualley was born on Aug. 14, 1986, so he turned 40 in August 2026. Some articles give ages that don’t match that birth date.
Is Justin Qualley an actor?
He has no known acting credits. He works in real estate in Montana.
What is Justin Qualley’s net worth?
No established outlet has published an estimate. The figures on biography sites don’t say where they come from.
Are Andie MacDowell and Paul Qualley still together?
No. Justin’s parents divorced in 1999 after 13 years of marriage.
Final Thoughts
As of InStyle’s July 2026 family profile, Justin Qualley is still described as a real estate agent in Montana, married to Nicolette and father to Cozette, who named her famous grandmother “Gaga.” Nearly everything beyond those facts comes from MacDowell’s own posts and interviews. Details that can’t be traced to her or to an established outlet, such as a specific brokerage, a dollar figure for his wealth or where exactly he lives, should be treated as unconfirmed.
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