Amy Fisher’s life after prison has been eventful. After her release from prison in 1999, she found work as a columnist, author and porn star.
After spending her late teens in the media spotlight and casting herself back in the limelight following her release, Fisher is living a private life in 2019. She legally changed her name in 2016, according to the New York Post. She turned 46 August 21, 2020.
The story was reexamined on an encore episode of ABC 20/20, “Growing Up Buttafuoco,” which Friday, September 4, 2020 at 9 p.m. EST. Tonight, Amy Fisher: Kill For Me airs on Reelz at 9 p.m. Eastern time Thursday, July 15, 2021.
Fisher was released from prison at age 24. She married a former police officer, Lou Bellera. They had children and eventually divorced. Fisher spent time living in Florida with her children, but she moved back to Long Island, New York, after she was harassed and stalked in The Sunshine State, she told the New York Post.
Here’s what you need to know:
Amy Fisher Wants a Life of Privacy & Legally Changed Her Name
Amy Fisher has faced years of backlash after her crime as a teenager garnered national attention. She served about six years in prison after shooting the wife of her lover in the face. Fisher was just 17 when she knocked on the door of 35-year-old Joey Buttafuoco’s home and shot his wife, Mary Jo Buttafuoco, on May 19, 1992. The case swept up the nation and led to three films and a series of books.
She was approached for TV appearances, but turned them all down, she told the New York Post in 2017.
“It’s just not worth it,” she said. “I want a private life. My life has already been ruined.”
In 2015, she was known as Elizabeth Bellera, according to the Daily Mail. Her middle name is Elizabeth, and Bellera was her married name.
Even Fisher’s Twitter account has been inactive since 2016. In her last post, she shared an Amazon wish list for her birthday, asking for a beverage cooler, iPad case and gift cards.
Amy Fisher Was Married to a Former NYPD Cop & Has 3 Children
Amy Fisher was drawn to older men, and her ex-husband, Lou Bellera, was 24 years her senior. The couple divorced in 2015 after he served her papers, according to the Daily Mail.
She claimed Bellera got her involved with the porn industry, an allegation which he denied. He sent a video of the couple having sex in 2007, around the time when a reunion was staged between Fisher and Joey Buttafuoco. The video was called “Amy Fisher Caught on Tape.” He told the New York Post porn was her idea, and she planned the sex tape’s release with her agent.
“I was just a regular Joe when I got involved with that,” he said. “I never made a dime out of it … I was a silent, suffering person in this whole thing.”
Fisher claimed she did not want to do porn.
“I was never happy doing it, and he would just sit there and watch, even while I cried. He likes money and he likes attention,” she said. “Him and Joey were the same that way … They say you always pick the same person — scumbags.”
Bellera told the newspaper those comments were “absolutely mind-boggling.”
In 2008, she said she never made a dime from the sex tape, although she reached a six-figure lump sum settlement with the porn distributor, Red Light District, according to the New York Daily News.
“I want to make it crystal clear today that I did not, I repeat, did not, sell a sex tape of myself for money,” the article quoted her as saying. “The distributor of this tape is earning a lot of money off it. I have earned nothing but embarrassment.”
Bellera was a former police officer for the New York Police Department, and later became a wedding videographer, according to his LinkedIn account. Fisher and Bellera had three children. They had two daughters, ages 10 and 14, and a son who is 18.
Bellera appeared on VH1 Celebrity Rehab with Fisher in 2012. The same year, Bellera and Buttafuoco boxed each other as a part of Celebrity Fight Night, a charity event where subjects of scandals met in a ring.
“People can spin it any way they want, but this is an event for charity,” Bellera said, according to the Huffington Post. “I’ll turn 61 right before the fight and feel I am in top physical condition. This is about living life and meeting another challenge.”
Amy Fisher Moved Back to Long Island With Her 3 Kids After Facing Harassment in Florida
Anyway, here’s a pic http://t.co/l1KN7War
Following Fisher’s divorce from Lou Bellera, she moved from Florida back to Long Island with her three children. She moved about one hour from the scene of the crime where she shot Mary Jo Buttafuoco in the face on May 19, 1992, leading to a case that captivated the country. The victim was the wife of Joey Buttafuoco, Fisher’s 35-year-old lover. Fisher was 17 at the time.
Fisher told the New York Post in 2017 she moved back to New York for a fresh start.
“My kids were ostracized in Florida. They had no friends. All the mothers thought their kids would get the Amy Fisher gene if they hung out with them,” Fisher said. “Things got so bad for my [eldest] son, the school psychologist even suggested he drop out and get his GED.”
One incident during her time in Florida terrified her. A man who was stalking her jumped the fence in her gated community to harass her, she told the newspaper.
“I was really scared,” she said. “I want me and my children to be safe. I don’t want any lunatics coming after me.”
Her mom, Roseann Fisher, paid for the family’s four-bedroom home, two-bathroom ranch house, nestled in a suburban neighborhood and shielded with foliage, the newspaper reported. Roseann Fisher planned to spend summers with her daughter and grandchildren.
Bellera, Fisher and their three children had lived in a $575,000 house in Palm Beach, Florida, according to the Daily Mail. After the divorce and before she moved back to New York, she remained in the house and performed on webcams from her bedroom, the Daily Mail reported.
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