Judge Judy and Her Husband Jerry Were Divorced for a Year Before They Remarried
For the past 23 years, Judge Judy Sheindlin has had a highly successful career on daytime television as the tough-talking star of the show Judge Judy, which draws more than 10 million viewers a day. She was also the highest paid TV host in 2018, earning $147 million, according to Forbes.
What fans may not know is that Judy, 76, also has a highly successful relationship with husband and fellow judge, Jerry Sheindlin, 85. They've been married for nearly 41 years, but their long-term partnership has seen a few twists and turns.
Brooklyn native Judy married her first husband, Ronald Levy, in 1964 when she was in her early 20s. She put her budding legal career on hold to have kids Jamie, 53, and Adam, 51. But she soon wanted to return to work, something Ronald, also an attorney, did not take seriously.
“My first husband is a lovely, lovely man but he always viewed my job as a hobby and there came a time where I resented that,” Judy said on the Fox News show, OBJECTified. She and Ronald divorced in 1976.
Judy met her next husband in a bar. She was a prosecutor; he was a defense attorney. Jerry Sheindlin recalled that he was talking to a reporter when his future wife approached.
“Judy came walking in and put her finger in my face and said, ‘And who is this?’ I said, ‘Lady, get your finger out of my face.’ We've been together ever since,” he told the LA Times.
The couple married in 1977, and Judy added three more children to her family, Gregory, 55, Jonathan, 52, and Nicole, 51.
Then Judy's career took off. She first gained attention as a family court judge in New York City in the 1980s, where her no-nonsense style and policy of allowing the public and the media in her courtroom led to a profile in The Los Angeles Times, followed by a feature on 60 Minutes. Then Judy got her own TV show, and Judge Judy debuted in 1996. Her husband also became a judge and, for a time, presided on The People’s Court.
Behind the scenes, however, the Sheindlins went through a brief rough patch. They actually divorced in 1990 after 14 years of marriage, as Judy reportedly didn't feel supported by Jerry after her father's death.
“I just had to come to terms with the fact that men of that generation are different,” Judy explained. “They expect, even if they have no right, they expect to be taken care of or catered to.”
But the couple soon reconciled and remarried a year later. "I missed Jerry," she told Closer Weekly. "I like to have someone to fuss over. I like to be mated. It’s natural for me. I learned the hard way that sometimes what you think makes you happy won’t."
Today, the Sheindlins live in Florida when Judy isn’t taping Judge Judy. Despite their ups and downs, the couple still shows their affection and a playful sense of humor about their life together.
Noting to the Daily Mail in 2015 that she’s received numerous awards over the years, Judy said, “The only place I don’t have any awards out in the open is in the bedroom. Other than that, they are all over. I don't know! I sort of feel that is one place where I feel nobody should be getting awards.”
Jerry couldn’t help chiming in: "No awards? She just gave me an award last night. I just don't understand this. I’m going to have to talk to her about that.”
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