Judith Giuliani
Template:Short description Template:Infobox person Judi Ann Stish Ross Nathan Giuliani<ref name="vf0907">Judy Bachrach, "Giuliani's Princess Bride", Vanity Fair, September 2007. Accessed August 15, 2007.</ref><ref>As her father, Donald Stish, told Vanity Fair, "Judi is what she was born. I don't think we called her Judith ever."Template:Citation needed</ref> (born December 16, 1954)<ref name="nyt090207">Jodi Kantor, "Judi, Jeri and the Rest", in "Hurtling Toward a Nomination, 2008", The New York Times, 2007-09-02.</ref> is an American registered nurse, former medical sales executive, charity fundraiser, and ex-wife of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. She was a managing director of philanthropic consulting firm Changing Our World and a founding board member of the Twin Towers Fund.<ref name="nymag">Lloyd Grove, "The Thunderbolt", New York, May 13, 2007. Accessed May 16, 2007.</ref><ref name="harper">Nancy Collins, "Rudy’s First Lady" Template:Webarchive, Harper’s Bazaar, February 28, 2007.</ref>
Early life and educationEdit
Judi Ann Stish<ref>She is listed in her high school yearbook as "Judi Ann Stish", according to Kent Jackson's article "Notable Natives: Giuliani, Maddon in Same Class", The Standard-Speaker, 12 August 2007 (standardspeaker.com, registration required)</ref> was born and raised in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, a town known for its coal mining history.<ref name="nyp040107">Jim Fanelli, Susan Edelman, "Judi'S Ex No. 1 A Huffy Hubby" Template:Webarchive, New York Post, April 1, 2007. Accessed April 3, 2007.</ref><ref name="nydn042907">Heidi Evans, " Eager Judi left coal town in dust" Template:Webarchive, New York Daily News, April 29, 2007. Accessed May 6, 2007.</ref> Her family is Roman Catholic<ref name="nymag"/> of Italian descent on her father's side and Polish descent on her mother's side. The surname Stish was previously modified from Sticia.<ref name="nyp040107"/><ref>Rudy!: An Investigative Biography of Rudolph Giuliani, Basic Books, 2000, Template:ISBN, pp. 430-434.</ref> Her father, Donald Stish Sr., was a circulation manager for The Philadelphia Inquirer, and her mother, Joan Ann (Ososki), is a homemaker.<ref name="nymag"/><ref name="TimesStunned">Sarah Kershaw, "One Woman's Year In the Spotlight's Heat; Friends Call Judith Nathan Stunned By the Media Circus of New York", The New York Times, June 16, 2001, page B8. Accessed February 14, 2007. </ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> She had an older brother, Donald Jr., who died in 2004, and has a younger sister, Cyndy.<ref name="vf0907"/><ref name="nymag"/> As of 2007, her parents still resided in the same home where she grew up in Hazleton.<ref name="TimesStunned"/>
Stish graduated from Hazleton High School in 1972,<ref name="nydn042907"/> where she participated in the Future Nurses Association, the Literary Society, the tennis and ski clubs, and the Diggers Club, a volunteer service organization.<ref name="nymag"/><ref name="hometown">Kris Wernowsky, "Giuliani’s wife tabbed liability" Template:Webarchive, Times Leader, January 9, 2007. Accessed February 15, 2007.</ref> Interested in both the human and scientific aspects of the field,<ref name="bw2020">20/20 interview with Barbara Walters, March 30, 2007.</ref> she attended a two-year nursing program, affiliated with Pennsylvania State University, at St. Luke's Hospital in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and graduated with a registered nurse diploma on September 1, 1974.<ref name="nydn042907"/><ref name="nydn032307">David Saltonstall, Heidi Evans, "How 20-year-old Judith tied the knot in Chapel of the Bells, Las Vegas", New York Daily News, March 23, 2007. Accessed March 24, 2007.</ref> She credits her decision to become a registered nurse as "one of the most practical, wonderful ones I ever made…because, aside from the science, you learn crisis management, decision making, prioritizing…"<ref name="harper"/>
First marriages, medical sales career, motherhoodEdit
After graduation, Stish worked for a few months<ref name="nydn042907"/> as a nurse<ref name="bw2020"/><ref name="nydn032207">David Saltonstall, Heidi Evans, "How 20-year-old Judith married in Las Vegas' Chapel of The Bells", New York Daily News, March 22, 2007. Accessed March 23, 2007.</ref> at Sacred Heart Hospital in Allentown, Pennsylvania.<ref name="nyp040107"/> On December 8, 1974, she and Jeffrey Ross, a medical supply salesman, eloped to Las Vegas and were married at the Chapel of the Bells.<ref name="nydn042907"/><ref name="nydn032207"/> The couple soon relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina, where they both<ref name="nydn042907"/> took jobs with U.S. Surgical Corporation<ref name="barrett">Wayne Barrett, Rudy!: An Investigative Biography of Rudolph Giuliani, Basic Books, 2000, Template:ISBN, pp. 430-434.</ref> in 1975<ref name="nyp040107"/> selling medical supplies in the Southeast;<ref name="nydn032207"/> Judi Ross specialized in showing doctors in operating rooms a new surgical stapling method.<ref name="nyp040107"/><ref name="nydn032307side">David Saltonstall, "Silence struck ex as odd", New York Daily News, March 23, 2007. Accessed March 24, 2007.</ref> She and Ross separated amicably<ref name="nydn040207">Chris Echegarray, " Judith gets a First Lady thumbs up from her ex" Template:Webarchive, New York Daily News, April 2, 2007. Accessed April 3, 2007.</ref> after four years, and their marriage ended in divorce<ref name="nyp">Andrea Peyser, Maggie Haberman, "Judi Giuliani's Secret Husband Revealed" Template:Webarchive, New York Post, March 22, 2007. Accessed March 23, 2007.</ref> which was finalized on November 14, 1979.<ref name="nydn032307"/> The couple had no children.<ref name="nydn032307side"/>
On November 19, 1979, Judi Stish Ross married wallpaper salesman Bruce Nathan, whom she had met during her separation from her first husband.<ref name="vf0907"/> Judi Nathan stopped working around that time; the couple lived in Charlotte for two years,<ref name="vf0907"/> then moved to Atlanta, Georgia.<ref name="barrett"/><ref name="TimesStunned"/> The Nathans adopted a daughter, Whitney, in March 1985.<ref name="nymag"/><ref name="barrett"/><ref name="cbs">"The Women In Giuliani's Life", CBS News, May 11, 2000. Accessed February 14, 2007.</ref> The family moved to Manhattan in 1987 and Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles in 1991.<ref name="nymag"/><ref name="barrett"/> During these years, she briefly worked for DynaMed Surgical in California.<ref name="vf0907"/> She also converted from Roman Catholicism to Presbyterianism.<ref name="nymag"/>
The Nathans' marriage fell apart during the early 1990s and led to a contested divorce case and custody battle, which included accusations of abuse from both parties.<ref name="vf0907"/><ref name="nymag"/><ref name="nydn042907"/><ref name="TimesStunned"/> The Nathans' divorce was finalized in 1992 and she won primary custody of their child.<ref name="barrett"/><ref>Craig Gordon, "Giuliani's wife reveals she, too, is twice divorced", Newsday, March 23, 2007. Accessed April 4, 2007.</ref> Nathan, who came to prefer the name "Judith" around this time,<ref name="vf0907"/> moved back to New York in March 1992.<ref name="nymag"/> Now a single mother, she worked part-time in a dentist's office<ref name="vf0907"/><ref name="nymag"/> and attended New York University computer and business classes at night and on weekends.<ref name="bw2020"/><ref name="nyt080507"/> Nathan received a New York nursing license<ref name="barrett"/> and began working in 1993<ref name="nydn042907"/> as a pharmaceutical sales representative with the hospital sales division of Bristol-Myers Squibb,<ref name="nydn032307"/><ref name="nyt080507"/> selling surgical supplies, anti-depressants, and antibiotics in the tough Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn;<ref name="nydn042907"/><ref name="TimesStunned"/> one of her specialties was infectious diseases.<ref name="Hamptons">"First Lady of the Hamptons Judith Giuliani", Hampton Style, July 4, 2006. Accessed February 14, 2007.</ref> Around this time Judith became romantically involved with Woodhull Hospital clinical psychologist Manos Zacharioudakis;<ref name="nydn041607">Heidi Evans, "Old flame's just wild about Judi", New York Daily News, April 16, 2007. Accessed April 19, 2007. Archived on December 10, 2018.</ref> she and her daughter lived with him for four years, until early 1999.<ref name="nydn041607"/> By 1997, she became one of Bristol-Myers' top sales managers, <ref name="TimesStunned"/><ref name="Time">Eric Pooley, "Person of the Year 2001 Rudy Giuliani", Time, December 24, 2001. Accessed February 14, 2007</ref> managing a 12-person sales team.<ref name="nydn042907"/>
Relationship with and marriage to GiulianiEdit
Judith Nathan met Mayor Giuliani in May 1999 at Club Macanudo, an Upper East Side cigar bar;<ref name="nyt080507">Eric Konigsberg, "Drawing Fire, Judith Giuliani Gives Her Side", The New York Times, August 5, 2007. Accessed August 14, 2007.</ref> they have said they were introduced by a doctor who is a mutual friend.<ref name="nyt080507"/> Giuliani took the initiative in forming an ongoing relationship.<ref name="nyt080507"/> The mayor was still married to and living with his second wife, Donna Hanover, although they had been publicly distant since 1996,<ref>Margaret Carlson, "In Rudy's Playground", Time, July 11, 1999. Accessed February 15, 2007.</ref> and Nathan was still living with Zacharioudakis although the couple had separated a few months earlier.<ref name="vf0907"/><ref name="nydn041607"/> For most of a year, the relationship was kept secret,<ref name="nydn042907"/> and in early 2000 Giuliani arranged for New York Police Department security and chauffeuring for her.<ref name="nydn120707">Template:Cite news</ref> By March 2000, Giuliani and Nathan were appearing together at public events;<ref name="nyt050400">Template:Cite news</ref> in May 2000, Giuliani publicly acknowledged her as his "very good friend"<ref name="nyt050400"/> and, amidst a flurry of press scrutiny about Nathan, announced he was separating from Hanover.<ref name="nyt051100">Template:Cite news</ref> Nathan endeared herself to the mayor's powerful inner circle of friends and advisers.<ref name="TimesStunned"/> Later in 2000, Giuliani credited Nathan's nursing background in helping him through his treatment for prostate cancer.<ref name="Time"/> Nathan aggressively researched treatment options and Giuliani was quoted as saying, "I felt so fortunate to have not only someone who loved me and cared about me, but also someone who was an expert with an enormous amount of knowledge of medicine and science — she was the single biggest support that I had."<ref name="Caregiver">Price, Diana. "Judith Giuliani: A Caregiver's Perspective", Women and Cancer, Winter 2006, pp. 69–72.</ref>
Judith and Rudy Giuliani became engaged in Paris in November 2002<ref name="about">"Rudy Giuliani and Judith Nathan Marriage Profile" Template:Webarchive, About.com. Accessed April 19, 2007.</ref> and married on May 24, 2003.<ref name="nyt052503">Ruth La Ferla, "Vows: Judith Nathan and Rudolph W. Giuliani", The New York Times, May 25, 2003. Accessed April 19, 2007.</ref> The wedding was held at Gracie Mansion and was one of only two performed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The reception for 400 guests included figures from the political, entertainment, and fashion worlds.<ref name="nyt080507"/><ref name="nyt052503"/> The couple had a $5 million apartment off Madison Avenue on the Upper East Side in Manhattan<ref name="vf0907"/><ref name="nydn042907"/> and a $4 million summer home in The Hamptons.<ref name="nydn042907"/>
Rudy Giuliani frequently cited his wife as his "closest adviser",<ref name="nymag"/> saying in 2007 that she remained "an expert we rely on" at his company, Giuliani Partners, where he has served as chairman and chief executive officer. "She gives us a lot of advice and a lot of help in areas where she's got a lot of expertise – biological and chemical. Since we do security work, that's an area of great concern – you know, another anthrax attack, a smallpox attack, chemical agents. She knows all of that."<ref name="nymag"/> From shortly before their marriage until his presidential campaign began, Rudy Giuliani paid her an average of $125,000 per year for her professional value as a speechwriter.<ref name="nydn051807">David Saltonstall, "Earning $125,000 a year", New York Daily News, May 18, 2007. Accessed May 21, 2007.</ref><ref>Sarah Wheaton, "Spouses and Race", The New York Times, May 18, 2007. Accessed March 22, 2011.</ref>
Role in Giuliani presidential campaignEdit
As Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign began in earnest in 2007, Judith Giuliani served as an advisor and fundraiser, but also came in for a new round of intense and often unflattering media attention.<ref name="gamechange">Template:Cite book</ref> Her first marriage to Jeffrey Ross was revealed in the press for the first time,<ref name="nydn032307"/> her educational background was clarified,<ref name="nydn032307"/> and she appeared in a Barbara Walters interview on 20/20.<ref name="bw2020"/> During the interview, the Giulianis stated that she would sit in on Cabinet meetings were he elected,<ref name="bw2020"/> a plan that attracted criticism and that they later backed away from.<ref name="nyt080507"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> There was controversy about her travel requirements and conflicts with Rudy Giuliani's aides.<ref name="vf0907"/> Media outlets portrayed her as someone aspiring to social status and given to extravagant shopping.<ref name="fn100207">Template:Cite news</ref> An attempt by the campaign over summer 2007 to rehabilitate her image fell victim to internal tensions,<ref name="gamechange"/> and instead her public appearances were scaled back.<ref name="fn100207"/> Rudy Giuliani said that Judith Giuliani proved a capable fund-raiser who provided meaningful input on his policies, particularly those pertaining to health care, since she holds a two-year nursing degree and once sold pharmaceuticals.<ref name="nyt080507"/>
On April 4, 2018, it was announced that Judith Giuliani had filed for divorce from her husband, Rudy Giuliani. The divorce was settled on December 10, 2019. On August 2, 2022, it was announced that Judith Giuliani had hired attorney Dror Bikel and filed a lawsuit against former husband for non-compliance regarding the divorce settlement.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Fundraising and charitable workEdit
In March 2001, desiring less travel and reduced public visibility, Nathan left Bristol-Myers and became a fund-raiser and later the managing director of Changing Our World,<ref name="TimesStunned"/> an international fundraising and philanthropic services company headquartered in New York that helps not-for-profit groups raise money for causes such as juvenile blindness and HIV/AIDS in Africa. She left the organization in 2006.<ref name="nydn042907"/>
After the September 11 attacks, Giuliani credited Nathan with coordinating the efforts of the Family Assistance Center at Pier 94, a claim disputed by the first director of New York City's Office of Emergency Management, Jerry Hauer,<ref name="nymag"/> but supported by others who say she played a valuable role there that lasted for four months.<ref name="vf0907"/> Rudy Giuliani wrote of this period in his 2002 book, Leadership, explaining that she capably served as a solid mayoral adviser after September 11 because she "had been a nurse for many years, and afterward a pharmaceutical executive; she had managed a team of people and had many organizational skills. Further, she had wide-ranging scientific knowledge and research expertise."<ref name="nymag"/> In addition, he said that he "put her to work helping me organize the hospitals" to assist those injured in the attacks.<ref name="nymag"/>
She became a founding board member of the Twin Towers Fund, appointed by Giuliani,<ref name="nymag"/> which raised and distributed $216 million to over 1,150 families and individuals.<ref name="harper"/> Contributions to the fund also created the TTF Scholarship Fund and America’s Camp for victims' children.
Judith Giuliani also acted as the national spokesperson for Women's Heart Advantage, which seeks to raise awareness among women and their doctors about preventing heart-related health conditions.<ref name="Heart">Rhoades, Liz. "NYHQ HeartAdvantage Warns Women About Cardiac Risks", Queens Chronicle, February 19, 2004, p. 3.</ref> As a spokesperson for Women's Heart Advantage, she promoted the organization as the first hospital-based program focusing on women and heart disease.<ref name="Heart"/> In the preface to the book Mapping the New World of American Philanthropy (Wiley, 2007), Judith wrote of the opportunity the Baby-Boomer generation has to define its legacy through lasting philanthropy.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Additionally, Judith Giuliani has raised funds for Southampton Hospital,<ref name="bedard">Paul Bedard, "She's No Charity Case: Rudy's Judi Dives In," CBS News, August 21, 2007.</ref> Finding a Cure for Epilepsy and Seizures (FACES), Christian Blind Mission International (CBMI), Hurricane Katrina relief in New Orleans,<ref name="Hamptons"/> St. Vincent's Hospital Level 1 Trauma Unit,<ref name="Hamptons"/><ref name="perez-pena">Richard Perez-Pena, "St. Vincent's to Expand Trauma Unit for New Age," The New York Times, September 1, 2004</ref> Cabrini High School and Cabrini Medical Center,<ref name="harper"/><ref name="Hamptons"/> and the McCarton School for autistic children.<ref name="nymag"/>
For her service, Judith has received the Community Award from the New York Junior League,<ref name="perez-pena"/> the Spirit of Cabrini Service Award from the Cabrini Mission Foundation,<ref>"7th Annual Foundation Gala Celebrates Legacy and Hope" Template:Webarchive, Cabrini Mission Foundation, 2005.</ref> and in May 2006 she received the New York University Humanitarian Award. Giuliani was recognized for her role as a nurse for humanitarian and charitable endeavors, as well as for serving as a prominent voice in promoting the nursing profession.<ref>"NYU College of Nursing Holds Its 1st Commencement Exercises, May 8, 2006", New York University press release, May 1, 2006.</ref>