Who Is Barbara Corcoran’s Husband? All About Bill Higgins

Barbara Corcoran and Bill Higgins have been married since 1988

Barbara Corcoran is married to her “partner in crime,” her husband, Bill Higgins.

The Shark Tank investor, TV personality and real estate mogul met Higgins — a retired Navy captain who, at the time, had his own real estate business — at a conference in 1981.

In a 2023 Instagram post on their anniversary, Corcoran shared photos of her and Higgins talking about their love story. She wrote that when they first met, Higgins played “hard to get,” but she eventually won him over.

The couple married on Valentine’s Day in 1988 and have two children, son Tom and daughter Kate, together. Higgins also has four children from a previous marriage.

In an Instagram post on Thanksgiving in 2020, Corcoran shared a photo of her and Higgins and a sweet message.

“What I thought I wanted when I married Bill [more than 30 years ago] was an exciting, sexy guy to travel the world with” she captioned it. “Now long into our marriage, I realize I’ve got the important stuff. A rock solid guy, a close friend, and a great father to our children.”

The fun-loving Corcoran (who has been known to show her personality on social media, from dressing up as Barbie and Martha Stewart to hosting a mock funeral for her birthday) has found her match in Higgins, who attends to her comedic whims — and has even joined in on them.

So who is Barbara Corcoran’s husband? Here’s everything to know about Bill Higgins and his relationship to the Shark Tank investor.

He’s a former Navy captain and FBI agent

Before Higgins met Barbara in the 1980s, he graduated from the U.S. Navy Academy in 1966 and became a special agent with the FBI shortly after, according to an alumni bio on his former high school’s website.

In 1975, he returned to the U.S. Naval Reserves as a captain in charge of training all personnel in the Military Sealift Command, and spent 10 years with the Combined Forces Command in Korea.

Higgins was also a navy captain in operation Desert Storm, he told the New York Post in 1999. At the time, the outlet reported, Higgins had a home office covered with awards and military citations.

Higgins also worked in real estate, operating his own company in New York, the William F. Higgins Agency, which he sold in 1997.

Corcoran often pays tribute to her husband’s time in the service on social media. On Veterans Day in 2022, she posted a throwback photo on Instagram of Higgins in uniform holding their son and a second photo of her with Higgins in a Navy hat, noting in the caption that his service as a career officer “remains his proudest achievement."

They met at a conference

Corcoran and Higgins met at a conference in New York, while Higgins was working in real estate and serving in the Navy reserves and Corcoran was already well-known in the real estate world — operating her company The Corcoran Group, which was well on its way to becoming a $6 billion business, per Forbes.

Higgins told Yahoo! News in 2018 that the day they met, Corcoran had a “a whole entourage of people with her — everybody wanted to meet her,” but he waited his turn and approached her when the crowd had dispersed. Higgins told the outlet that he approached Corcoran with “business intentions only,” but Corcoran had other plans.

Corcoran asked Higginns to spend the weekend with her, per Yahoo! News, but Higgins declined. Not one to take no for an answer, Corcoran pursued Higgins for six months before the couple started dating.

“We both have stick-to-itiveness,” Corcoran told the outlet. Higgins added, “I think tenacity keeps us happy.”

Higgins told the New York Post in 1999 that their relationship also started with some healthy competition: When Corcoran and Higgins served on the same company’s board of directors in the 1980s, they challenged each other to see who could win the most advertising trophies.

They married in 1988

Two years after their relationship became official, Higgins proposed to Corcoran in Norway, per Yahoo! News. The two married on Valentine’s Day in 1988.

Alongside an Instagram video showing photos and clips of the couple through the years in honor of their 34th wedding anniversary in 2022, Corcoran shared the story of their wedding. It turns out, the two had almost missed their own ceremony, she wrote in the caption.

“Bill and I were in the woods cross-country skiing and got lost, we didn’t expect to hit traffic coming back even though we always hit traffic coming back, and my mom, dad and the minister were about to call it a day when we we finally got there,” Corcoran wrote. “We were married 5 minutes later.”

They share two children together

Corcoran and Higgins have two kids together: their son Tom and younger daughter Kate.

They welcomed Tom when Corcoran was in her mid-40s and then Kate when she was in her mid-50s, Corcoran shared in a Mother’s Day Instagram post in 2023.

“Being a mom is the greatest gift in the world and I almost missed the boat,” she wrote, referring to having children so late in life. “ I’m grateful everyday to be a mom! My kids are my whole world.”

Corcoran has been open about how she and Higgins’ family came to be. Corcoran told Yahoo Life that because she grew up in a big family, as one of 10 children, she assumed she’d have no problem having kids. But at 41, she found out she wouldn’t be able to conceive. “For me it was like a death knell, the idea that I couldn't have children,” she told the outlet.

A few years later, Corcoran and Higgins had their son Tom in 1993, through IVF when Corcoran’s younger sister donated her eggs and carried Tom for her, according to Women’s Wear Daily and New York Magazine, and the couple adopted Kate in 2005.

Tom has followed in his mother’s career footsteps as co-founder and managing partner of real estate investment firm Terra Capital. In 2018, Tom married his wife, Lia Higgins — who works as a litigator in New York City, and they welcomed their son, Jackson West Higgins, in October 2022. The special event made Corcoran a first-time grandma.

Corcoran often shares photos of Kate on social media as well, whether they’re vacationing in places like the Cayman Islands and London or attending college info sessions.

On Kate’s 16th birthday in October 2021, Corcoran posted a slideshow of photos on Instagram of the two with the caption, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our Kate today! I never dreamed I would have a daughter until Kate walked into our lives! 16 years later, filled with her joy and unbridled love, I now know it was the least expected and luckiest day of my life.”

He supports her career

It's no secret that Corcoran is one of the most well-known investors today, but she had made a name for herself even before Shark Tank. When she met Higgins, he had no issue with taking a backseat to her career.

He told the New York Post in 1999 that he had business cards made that listed his title as “Spouse.”

“About a year ago, I first asked her to make me chairman of the board [of her company], but she said, ‘No way,’ ” Higgins told the outlet. “So I thought of an alternative. And you know what’s better than chairman? Spouse.”

Higgins said that the business card was a testament and tribute to Corcoran’s hard work.

“I’m proud of my wife, and I’m proud to call myself her spouse,” he said. “[Admitting to being proud of your powerful wife] makes you seem much more secure in who you are. It shows you’re confident but that you’re not trying to prove anything.”

Higgins was not expecting Corcoran to change her lifestyle for him, and Corcoran wouldn’t have asked him to. In 2024, Corcoran shared marriage advice with Hello!.

“You really have to take your partner as they are and not hope through the marriage they're going to change. Because they never do,” she told the outlet. “You have to be satisfied! What you see is what you get.”

They have fun together

Corcoran is known for her antics on social media, and she often involves Higgins in the fun.

In November 2023, Corcoran posted on Instagram joking about her new medical CPAP machine. “Told Bill I had a surprise tonight. This isn’t what he was hoping for. 😂,” she captioned the post of her wearing the CPAP mask.

A week after the Super Bowl in 2023, Corcoran and Higgins dressed up as Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce — Corcoran in a long blonde wig with bangs and an all-black outfit and Higgins in a makeshift #87 shirt.

Alongside a video of the two singing along to the song “Love Story” on Instagram, Corcoran captioned the post, “My ‘Love Story’ 🫶🏼❤️.”

On Higgins’ birthday in August 2023, Corcoran wished him a happy birthday on Instagram, writing “Here's to another year of laughter, love, and endless adventures together. Cheers to you, my rock and partner in crime!”

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