Born 6 November 1962, former British model Nadine Caridi is the ex-wife of infamous American stock market mogul Jordan Belfort, who somewhat became a persona non-grata for his shady business, lifestyle and substance abuse. Nadine was married to Belfort for over a decade before they went their separate ways.
Nadine began her career as a model and had considerable success. She became the poster girl of beer brand Miller Lite. In the course of her reign, she featured in various national campaigns that included ads of Monday Night Football. However, it was her relationship with Belfort that brought her to the limelight.
Nadine and Belfort first under what you could call an interesting circumstance. She was introduced to him during one of his customary lavish parties by her then-boyfriend, Alan Wilzig. They soon started a relationship that went on for years before they could get married, as Belfort was also married at the time.
Following Belfort’s divorce from his wife, he got married to Nadine. The couple had two children together in the course of their 14-year marriage. Belfort’s substance abuse and extramarital affairs led to their separation in 2005, after which Nadine married John Macaluso, a former entrepreneur from New York and CEO of Wizard World.
She has remained with him ever since, forming a large family of five children (two from Nadine’s marriage to Belfort and three from John’s previous marriage). Want to know more about Nadine Caridi? Keep reading. We will dive right in after sharing the following ten facts about her.
10 interesting facts about Nadine Caridi
- Renowned as the Duchess of Bay Ridge, Nadine was born in London, England, and holds British and American citizenship. She moved to Brooklyn, New York, with her parents when she was just a kid.
- Nadine had a yacht named after her. As a romantic gesture to his wife, her husband bought a yacht from Coco Chanel and named it Nadine. The yacht eventually sank in the sea near Sardinia’s east coast due to bad weather.
- Nadine started her career as a model. She was the poster girl of Miller Lite beer, and her beauty earned her contracts from television stations. Her modelling career ended after her marriage to Belfort.
- Nadine loves Italian cuisine. She also enjoys reading and watching movies in her spare time. She particularly loves Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock.
- Asides from Jordan being a drug user and philanderer, he also physically assaulted Nadine. This was part of the reasons she decided to leave him.
- Nadine went back to school in the early 2010s. She completed her PhD in Somatic and Depth Psychology in 2015.
- Her failed marriage to Belfort didn’t discourage her. She found love again and married John Macaluso, an ex-CEO of Wizard Global.
- She is an active member of the P.S. I Love You Foundation, which provides enrichment, social and emotional learning programs.
- Nadine is a dog lover. She owns two poodles, and one of them is named Coco. She regularly shares photos of herself and her dogs on her social media.
- Nadine Caridi currently has a net worth of $5 million. She puts her money to good use through her philanthropic work.
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Early life, education and family
Nadine was born on 6 November 1962 in London, United Kingdom. Her parents were very young when she was born. Her mother, Suzanne Caridi, was 19 while her father was 20. Nadine’s parents’ union didn’t last long, and her mother had to raise her and her siblings by herself.
Although she is England-born, no information about her early life in England is available. When she was very young, her parents migrated to the US for better opportunities. As can be deduced from an Instagram post she made, her mother is late.
Upon arrival in the US, the family started living in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, New York. Nadine spent almost all her childhood and youth in New York. People recognise her as the “Duchess of Bay Ridge,” which Jordan used to call her.
Nadine Caridi had an interest in sports and fashion. She attended John Dewey High School in Southern Brooklyn and pursued her modelling career after then, as college education wasn’t quite her priority. She, however, returned to school in the early 2010s and completed her PhD in Somatic and Depth Psychology in 2015. Caridi also completed her Postdoctoral Training in the NeuroAffective Relational Model.
Nadine has a brother, Anthony Caridi, who loves baseball, and he is a big fan of The Brooklyn Dodgers. He currently owns a pizza restaurant in Brooklyn named AJ’s Brooklyn Pizza Joint. He resides in Vancouver BC, and is married to Morgan Caridi Gill, with two daughters.
As Jordan Belfort wife
Belfort was famous for throwing lavish parties with girls, alcohol and drugs. It was in one of such parties that Nadine first met him. Her then-boyfriend, Alan Wilzig, an American entrepreneur, semi-professional race car driver, restaurateur, and philanthropist, introduced them. Although Belfort was married to Denise Lombardo at the time, it didn’t stop them from getting attracted to each other and starting a relationship.
In 1991, not long after Belfort’s separation from his then-wife, he and Nadine exchanged their vows. Following their wedding, Nadine stopped modelling. She became a full-time housewife who would socialise from time to time. She went on to have two children with Belfort — a daughter, Chandler, and a son, Carter.
Belfort bought a luxury yacht that was originally built in 1961 for famous French fashion designer and businesswoman Coco Chanel, founder of the brand Chanel. He named the Yacht Nadine after his beloved wife. It, unfortunately, sank off the east coast of Sardinia in June 1996.
In the early 2000s, Belfort’s fast and shady life caught up with him, and he was sentenced to 4 years in prison. Already, there had been issues on the home front due to his lifestyle or drug abuse and philandering, coupled with domestic abuse. Eventually, Nadine left him in 2005.
Naomi Lapaglia — Naomi Wolf of Wall Street
In 2007, Belfort released a memoir titled The Wolf of Wall Street, which Bantam Books published. The book was adapted into an American biographical black comedy crime film bearing the same title. The film, which Martin Scorsese directed, was released in December 2013. It had Leonardo DiCaprio in the role of Belfort while Australian actress Margot Robbie portrayed Nadine. Her name was, however, changed to Naomi Lapaglia in the film.
Nadine Caridi second husband
Following her divorce from Belfort, Nadine married a former entrepreneur from New York, John Macaluso, in Manhattan Beach. Macaluso, who was reported to be around 22 years older than Nadine, served as CEO of Wizard World. If what several reports claimed are anything to go by, she is living happily with her husband now. Their large family consists of three daughters of Macaluso from his first marriage, namely Frankie, Allie and Nicky, and two children of Nadine with Belfort.
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Jordan Belfort (Wiki)
Born Jordan Ross Belfort on 9 July 1962, Belfort is an American author, motivational speaker, a former stockbroker and convicted felon. He operated a sea-food and meat business in the 80s. When the company had to be closed down, as it lost money, Belfort started selling stocks in the year 1987. He put his selling expertise to use in a different field altogether when he commenced his work in a brokerage firm in 1987. Less than three years later, he started running his own investment company called Stratton Oakmont. Jordan and his partner Danny Porush became rich after using the infamous pump and dump scheme.
In 1999, he pled guilty to fraud and related crimes in connection with stock-market manipulation and running a boiler room as part of a penny-stock scam. Belfort spent 22 months in prison as part of an agreement under which he gave testimony against numerous partners and subordinates in his fraud scheme. He published the memoir The Wolf of Wall Street in 2007, which was adapted into a film with the same name released in 2013.
Belfort’s restitution agreement required him to pay 50% of his income towards restitution to the 1,513 clients he defrauded until 2009, with a total of $110 million in restitution further mandated. About $10 million of the $110 million that had been recovered by Belfort’s victims as of 2013 was the result of the sale of forfeited properties.
Jordan Belfort first wife
Belfort married his first wife, Denise Lombardo, in 1985. They got divorced in 1991 but were already separated during his time running the Stratton Oakmont business. Denise Lombardo was born in the mid-1960s in Ohio. After completing high school, she enrolled at Towson University in 1987, where she studied Business Administration. She graduated in 1992.
She became popular due to her marriage to Belfort and even more so following their separation. After her divorce from Belfort, Lombardo worked in the sales department of Modern Medical Systems Company from 1993 till 2000. From 2000 to 2010, she worked in The Home Depot Company as a Flooring Specialist.
In 2010, Lombardo tried her hand at Real Estate. She earned her Real Estate license and became a Real Estate agent for the Prudential Douglas Elliman Company. Her career in Real Estate has been a successful one, but she is still always talked about in relation to Jordan Belfort. Denise is a very private person, so it is hard to tell if she has been involved in any other relationships or marriage after her first one.
Jordan Belfort net worth now
According to Celebrity Networth, Jordan’s current net worth is – $100 million. He had to pay back $110 million of the $200 million that he stole from more than 1,500 clients. To date, he has only paid back around $10 million of the $110 million.
Nadine Caridi net worth
As of 2020, Nadine has an estimated net worth of around $5 Million. It is said that she uses a lot of her wealth for charity. There are no details of the divorce settlement between her and Belfort. One can however expect that she was handsomely rewarded.
Conclusion
The Duchess of Bay Ridge as she is now popularly called has had an eventful life. Despite her success as a model, her fame has come largely from her relationship with Jordan Belfort. Luckily, as messy as that story was, she has been able to forge a different life and she seems to have found fulfilment in it too.
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