Hennessy was born in Edmonton, Alberta. Her father, John Hennessy, was a meat salesman and sales/marketing executive, a job that required considerable travel and resulted in frequent moves for the family. Her mother, Maxine, a secretary, left the family in 1982, leaving her daughter to be partially raised by her paternal grandmother, Eleanor, in Kitchener, Ontario.[1][2] She has a younger brother, John Paul Hennessy Jr.( also known as J.P.), and an identical twin sister, Jacqueline, who is a magazine writer - en.wikipedia.org