Dilbert creator Scott Adams’ ex-wife Shelly Miles shocked fans tuning in to his web show “Real Coffee With Scott Adams” on January 13, 2026, by announcing the cartoonist’s death.
A tearful Shelly broke the news to viewers that Scott was “not with us anymore” before reading a statement that the author penned before his death from prostate cancer.
“If you are reading this, things did not go well for me,” Scott wrote. “I have a few things to say before I go. My body failed before my brain. I am of sound mind as I write this January 1, 2026. If you wonder about any of my choices for my estate or anything else, please know that I am free of any inappropriate influence of any sort, I promise.”
He added, “I had an amazing life, I gave it everything I had. … Be useful and please know that I loved you all to the very end.”
Throughout his career, Adams turned his workplace cartoon Dilbert into a pop culture phenomenon and topped the New York Times bestseller list with his 1996 book The Dilbert Principle. However, Adams was also a controversial figure whose comic was dropped by newspapers in 2023 after suggesting white people “get the f*** away” from Black people.
Keep scrolling for more information on Adams’ life.
Who Was ‘Dilbert’ Creator Scott Adams?
After receiving a Master of Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1986, Scott Adams worked a series of corporate jobs. He started spoofing workplace culture with the comic strip Dilbert while working at Pacific Bell.
The comic — which was first published in 1989 — parodied white-collar culture through the eyes of frazzled engineer Dilbert, his hapless corporate manager Pointy-Haired Boss and his pet Dogbert, who was constantly devising plots to take over the world.
“Dilbert’s look is based on a real person, who doesn’t know it. I worked with him but didn’t know him well,” Adams told Publishers’ Weekly in 2008. “He just had an interesting potato-shaped body that was fun to draw. He started as a doodle at my day job at a bank. Dilbert’s lack of social skills is modeled on my own personality; his professional skills are a composite of engineers I have known. And Dogbert is partly based on a family dog who never once came when I called, and partly on my own evil side.”
“Dilbert” TV Show Everett Collection
Adams eventually became a cartoonist full time when he was laid off by Pacific Bell in the 1990s. At the height of Dilbert’s popularity, the comic strip was read in approximately 2,000 newspapers worldwide.
Dilbert was spun off into a series of products and projects of varying degrees of success, including video games, toys and an animated TV series that ran on UPN for two seasons between 1999 and 2000. (Home Alone’s Daniel Stern voiced Dilbert in the TV show, while comedians Chris Elliott and Larry Miller played Dogbert and Pointy-Haired Boss, respectively.)
In later years, he authored books on self-improvement and religious fantasy.
Was ‘Dilbert’ Creator Scott Adams Married?
Scott Adams married his first wife, Shelly Miles, on board a yacht in San Francisco Bay in July 2006. He became a stepfather to Shelly’s two young children, Savannah and Justin, from a prior relationship.
“I hate to say stepdad because I hate the ‘step’ word. I’m a bonus dad,” he told the East Bay Times at the time.
Scott and Shelly divorced in 2014 on amicable terms. In October 2018, Scott announced that Shelly’s son, Justin, had died at age 18 from a fentanyl overdose, per The Mercury News. (According to the Mayo Clinic, fentanyl is an “injection used to relieve severe pain during and after surgery,” which should only be administered under care of a doctor.)
The cartoonist explained to viewers on his webshow that “the little boy I raised from the age of 2” had been trying to “score Xanax” but was given a deadly cocktail of fentanyl instead. Scott recalled the horror of seeing “my dead, blue, bloated son taken out on a stretcher in front of his mother and biological father.”
Just over a year later, Scott revealed on his podcast in December 2019 that he was engaged to Kristina Basham. They tied the knot July 11, 2020.
The Dilbert creator’s second marriage was short-lived, as he confirmed on his podcast in March 2022 that he and Basham were getting divorced.
“I am separated, slash going through a divorce,” he told podcast listeners. “[The] only reason I’m telling you that is if you see my ex-wife on a date or me, don’t worry about it. Because it’s a process that’s been going on for some time.”
Why Was ‘Dilbert’ Creator Scott Adams Controversial?
Scott Adams made a series of provocative statements over the years and became known for his right-wing political views. He was accused of sexism for a since-deleted 2011 blog post where he wrote about the perceived differences between men and women.
“The reality is that women are treated differently by society for exactly the same reason that children and the mentally handicapped are treated differently. It’s just easier this way for everyone,” he claimed. “You don’t argue with a 4-year old about why he shouldn’t eat candy for dinner. You don’t punch a mentally handicapped guy even if he punches you first. And you don’t argue when a woman tells you she’s only making 80 cents to your dollar. It’s the path of least resistance. You save your energy for more important battles.”
On a 2023 episode of his web series “Real Coffee With Scott Adams,” the cartoonist was discussing racial issues when he told viewers that “the best advice I would give to white people is to get the hell away from Black people.”
UPDATE: 5/28/25 at 10:54 a.m. ET — The WNBA completed its investigation into alleged racist comments made at the Indiana Fever vs. Chicago Sky game on May 17 and was not able to substantiate the claims. “We have investigated the report of racist fan behavior in the vicinity of the court during the May 17, […]
Adams doubled down on those comments by suggesting that “if nearly half of all Blacks are not OK with white people,” then they should be designated as a “hate group.”
More than 1,000 newspapers reportedly dropped Dilbert in the wake of Adams’ racist remarks. Adams told NewsNation’s Cuomo in March 2023 that he would not publicly apologize.
“I did it intentionally,” he said of his racial remarks. “I offended people so that they’d be drawn to the solution.”
The Washington Post reported around the same time that Adams lost nearly 80 percent of his income due to the racism scandal.
What Health Issues Did ‘Dilbert’ Creator Scott Adams Face?
Following former president Joe Biden’s May 2025 announcement of his prostate cancer diagnosis, Scott Adams announced on his YouTube show that he had terminal prostate cancer.
“I have the same cancer that Joe Biden has. I also have prostate cancer that has also spread to my bones,” Adams told viewers. “So, my life expectancy is, maybe this summer. I expect to be checking out from this domain sometime this summer.”
Adams explained that the cancer was “already intolerable” and that he was “always in pain.”
“I can tell you that I don’t have good days. If you’re wondering, ‘Hey Scott, do you have any good days?’ Nope. Every day is a nightmare and evening is even worse,” he confessed.
In November 2025, Adams publicly appealed to President Donald Trump to help him get on Pluvicto, a targeted radioligand therapy that can be effective in treating some forms of prostate cancer. Trump and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. both offered to help but Adams confirmed in December 2025 that he’d yet to receive the drug.
“I don’t know if I will ever get the Pluvicto or not,” he announced to viewers in December. “If I don’t, I will be unhappy.”
Adams later told viewers that he was “paralyzed below the waist” in the final weeks of his life.
“I can’t move any muscles,” he said in December 2025. “I do have feeling, I just can’t move any muscles. And the solution as of today is we’re gonna ambulance me over to a facility to get radiated and they’re gonna try to radiate that pesky tumor that’s around my spine if all goes well, and it gets more tumor than it gets good stuff, I might get my, at least ability to get to get some strength back in my lower body.”
Adams died on January 13, 2026. In his final letter to fans, the noted religious skeptic said he would “accept Jesus Christ as [his] Lord and savior.”
“Many of my Christian friends have asked me to find Jesus before I go,” Scott’s ex-wife Shelly Miles read in a letter to his fans. “I’m not a believer, but I have to admit the risk-reward calculation for doing so looks so attractive to me, so here I go. I accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and savior, and look forward to spending an eternity with Him.”
He then joked, “The part about me not being a believer should be quickly resolved if I wake up in heaven. I won’t need any more convincing than that. I hope I’m still qualified for entry.”
