Judith Giuliani is Rudy Giuliani’s third wife. (Getty)
Judith Giuliani, 61, is a registered nurse and the third wife of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
Giuliani was expected to play a key role in the Donald Trump administration. He is the Executive Committee as Vice Chair of his transition team and there were reports that he was a front-runner for the Secretary of State job. However, he took himself out of the running for a cabinet post on December 9, Fox News reported.
However, with controversy brewing over Trump’s faith in Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Axios is reporting that Trump is “pondering” replacing Sessions with Giuliani.
Judith and Giuliani have been married since 2003 and she was a constant presence by his side in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Here’s a look at Judith’s life and career.
1. Giuliani Is Her Third Husband, After Jeffrey Ross & Bruce Nathan
Rudy and Judith Giuliani at the 9/11 Memorial in 2015. (Getty)
Judith, who was born Judi Ann Stish in Hazelton, Pennsylvania, has also been married three times. She graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a nursing degree in 1974, The New York Times reports.
In March 2007, as Giuliani was planning his failed campaign for the White House, the New York Daily News revealed details of her marriage to Jeffrey Ross in December 1974. She just left nursing school and the two went to Las Vegas to get married at the Chapel of the Bells. Their divorce was finalized in November 1979.
Just five days after her divorce, she married Bruce Nathan, a wallpaper salesman. After first living in Charlotte, the couple moved to Atlanta and adopted a daughter, Whitney, in 1985. Accoring to friends Vanity Fair spoke to in 2007, she was always ambitious and looked to move up. So they moved to New York in 1987. Their marriage was strained in the early 1990s after moving to California. She accused Nathan of physical abuse, which Nathan, who said she took Whitney without telling him, denied. They divorced in 1992 and Judith returned to New York and worked for Bristol-Myers Squibb, selling surgical equipment in Brooklyn.
In 1994, she met Manos Zacharioudakis, who she lived with until 1999 and had only good things to say about Judith in a 2007 New York Daily News interview.
2. She Met Giuliani in 1999, When He was Still Married
Rudy Giuliani and Judith were frequently seen together long before they married. Here they are in December 2001. (Getty)
Judith met Giuliani in May 1999 at Club Macanudo in New York, when Giuliani was still married to Donna Hanover. According to the New York Times, the two were introduced by Dr. Burt Meyers, who worked as Mount Sinai Hospital when Nathan was there and also knew Giuliani.
The Giulianis told the Times that the exact nature of their meeting is a “romantic secret.” One of their other romantic secrets is what exactly Judith wrote on a piece of paper she gave him when they met.
Judith was planning to go to Hawaii, but Giuliani asked her not to go. When asked what it was like to date a married man, Judith told the Times, “I don’t discuss that in detail except to say that, you know, we love each other very much, and we have both found the person that we adore and can live with the rest of our lives. It didn’t happen for either of us young in life.”
3. Giuliani Told Barbara Walters That Judith Could Join Cabinet Meetings
In March 2007, Giuliani raised eyebrows by suggesting in a 20/20 interview with Barbara Walters that Judith would be welcome at cabinet meetings if he was elected president. Judith later told Fox News that she has “no desire” to do that.
“I’m not a political person. And I have no desire to sit in on Cabinet meetings. And I promise you, I’m not going to morph into a politician,” Judith said in October 2007.
Giuliani also said in a statement that, “Obviously, she will not be a Cabinet member or attend most Cabinet meetings — if any.”
After the kerfuffle, Judith’s appearances with Giuliani on the campaign trail were scaled back, notes USA Today.
Giuliani ended up withdrawing from the 2008 presidential race after Super Tuesday loses and endorsed Arizona Senator Jon McCain.
4. Giuliani Paid Judith $125,000 a Year for Speech Writing, Even Before They Married
Rudy and Judith Giuliani in 2009. (Getty)
One of the other revelations to come out during Giuliani’s presidential bid was that Judith was listed as a salaried employee, The New York Daily News reported. According to that report, she was paid $125,000 a year to help him with speech writing, even before they were married. The income was reported on their joint tax returns.
According to New York Magazine, Giuliani often called Judith his “closest advisor” and gives him advise on ” areas where she’s got a lot of expertise — biological and chemical.” He said she was helpful at his company, Giuliani Partners.
“And since we do security work, that’s an area of great concern—you know, another anthrax attack, a smallpox attack, chemical agents,” Giuliani said, reports New York Magazine. “She knows all of that.”
5. She Took an Active Role During the 9/11 Recovery Efforts
Rudy and Judith Giuliani at the seventh anniversary of 9/11. (Getty)
According to the 2007 Vanity Fair profile of Judith, she worked hard during the days after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, sitting in on important meetings with officials and staying by Giuliani’s side. She volunteered at the Family Assistance Center on Pier 94 and was a founding board member of the Twin Towers Fund.
“or four months she was right in there with [police commissioner] Bernie Kerik, [fire commissioner] Tommy Von Essen, and Richie Sheirer, who headed emergency management,” one witness told Vanity Fair.
She’s also been recognized in the past for her philanthropic efforts. In 2005, she picked up a community award from the Junior League of the City of New York, with Walters introducing her. In 2006, she received New York University College of Nursing‘s humanitarian award at the college’s first commencement.
