judy sheindlin yacht

Judge Judy's Yacht Name Is "Triumphant Lady" and It's Pretty Darn Appropriate

Updated Oct. 21 2020, 5:59 p.m. ET

Daytime TV is a curious beast, mostly because it hardly gets as much love and media coverage as other, prime time programming that comes on our tubes after the traditional work day is done. But on the off chance we're sick or have a day off or are just chilling at home during the week, you're going to catch a wonderful episode of The Price Is Right or maybe even some real-life courtroom drama like Judge Judy . And the thing is, daytime TV earns a lot of money — just ask Judy's yacht.

Yes, Judge Judy has a yacht with an awesome name.

While it may feel like Judy Sheindlin (born Judith Susan Blum) has been on TV since forever, she was actually only on air since 1996, aka the same year that the network television premiere of Demolition Man came on. Since her show first aired, it's been a staple of daytime courtroom television and is pretty much the first program anyone ever thinks of when it comes to daytime court TV.

And over the years, the Brooklyn-born actual judge has done pretty well for herself. And by "pretty" I mean, very, very well for herself. Judge Judy continually brought in stellar ratings and the show, with its relatively low production cost for the types of ratings it was garnering on a daily basis, meant boku bucks for its star.

Judy Sheindlin managed to score herself a pretty penny over the years, securing a reported $440 million net worth. Close to half a billion dollars obviously affords the TV personality and judge some plush accommodations, like a yacht she's appropriately named the "Triumphant Lady."

When she isn't filming and laying down the law, Judge Judy can be seen chilling on her yacht in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. The massive vessel was purchased for $16 million, has a glass-bottom spa pool, a gym, and even lodging for up to ten guests if she wanted to throw a party and everyone got a bit tipsy.

A few years back she was seen swimming with pigs in the water and generally having a great time.

@BeautyBind #caution nothing good comes from judge Judy..Except her old yacht. https://t.co/stnbKPDibH pic.twitter.com/jd14YVw9TB — SteveCwk (@SteveCwk) September 3, 2016

She's owned some swanky properties before too, like a $10.7 million Beverly Hills condo, but that'll happen when you earn a whipping $47 million a year, as surprising as that may be to some folks.

I had no idea Judge Judy was killing it at this level. https://t.co/zT4HumTvJI pic.twitter.com/pot2mNl8sr — southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) December 18, 2017

I think Barbara Walters starts an anecdote in her bio with how she was hanging out on Judge Judy's yacht — Slanket Goals (@slanketgoals) December 18, 2017

With $47 million a year coming in, one would think it would be hard to say goodbye to that cash cow — but it looks like Judy did it anyway. With Judge Judy coming to an end in 2021, though, Judy says she's still not ready to retire to her massive yacht just yet. Rumor has it, the 78-year-old is planning to release her new show, Judy Justice , a year after her hit show comes to an end. Where and when to watch Judy Justice has not yet been announced, although reportedly she may be heading to a streaming service.

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Here's How Judge Judy Sheindlin Spends Her $440 Million Net Worth

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Judge Judy made a name for herself as a television personality on her court show Judge Judy . With a sharp tongue and a keen radar for lying, she presided over the court on her show from 1996 to 2021. She has won three Daytime Emmy Awards as well as a Lifetime Achievement Emmy, and she has amassed a net worth of about $440 million , thanks in large part to the seemingly endless loop of her episodes in syndication. A staple of hotel room television and waiting room television, Judge Judy often fades into the background of our lives; it just seems to always be on.

Well, as of 2021, fans got to see a whole lot more Judy Sheindlin, and this time it is in a fresh new outfit. Her newest courtroom show, Judy Justice, did away with some of the more antiquated courtroom traditions (like the stuffy black judicial robe; Judy can now be spotted sporting a new one colored in splashy burgundy) and features longer cases, made possible by the streaming format and not having to fit the program into half an hour segments.

Related: Why Fans Just Don't Like Judge Judy's New Show As Much As Her Old One

Not that Judy needs the money. That $440 million net worth is enough to keep her sitting pretty for the rest of her life, as well as her five children's and their families'. So where does that money go? We decided to do some investigating. Here is how Judge Judy Sheindlin spends her $440 million net worth.

Updated on March 21, 2023: Judge Judy Sheindlin has been keeping busy with her work on television. Season two of her spinoff show, Judy Justice , just wrapped its second season on March 10, closing out the season with 70 episodes.

It appears as though this award-winning series will be coming back for a third season by the end of the year, giving fans more of what they want while also allowing Sheindlin a few months reprieve to travel and enjoy quality time with her family.

8 Judy Sheindlin Owns Mansions On Mansions

Judy Sheindlin has a $50 million real estate portfolio , including at least six luxury homes across the United States: one in Naples, Florida, one in Greenwich, Connecticut, another in Newport, Rhode Island, one in Manhattan, New York and the last in Los Angeles, California.

Her $13.2 million Greenwich mansion serves as her primary residence, but she can live it up in style at one of her other homes any time she's in the mood for a change of scenery.

7 Judy Sheindlin Is A Believer In Philanthropic Work

Judy Sheindlin has an alliance called the Her Honor Mentoring Program, in which she educates and equips young women to explore career options, discover passions and goals, and ultimately reach their full potential. She wears many hats in the organization, serving as the creator, director, and spokesperson.

The program was founded in 2006 by Nicole Sheindlin , one of Judy's children. The judge loved her daughter's idea and offered to back the organization, helping it to establish a firm foundation and grow over the years.

6 Judy Sheindlin Prefers To Travel By Private Jet

Needless to say, Judge Judy is not taking Southwest flights every time she needs to travel between her homes. She is living the good life in her private jet . Once or twice a month, Sheindlin flies from Greenwich to Los Angeles to film for about three days, after which she returns to the East Coast.

Between her many properties, her five kids, and her several grandchildren, the judge travels quite frequently between the East and West Coasts.

Related: The Truth About Judge Judy's Son, Adam Levy

5 Judge Judy Pays Attorney Fees For Her Many Legal Proceedings

We do not know anyone who would want to face Judy Sheindlin in the courtroom, but that is a reality for many in her sphere. Judy Sheindlin has been involved in many legal proceedings over the years.

In the summer of 2020, she was busy suing the talent agency Rebel Entertainment for $22 million in fees that they had taken from her, alleging that they were erroneous and should not have been collected from her. Of course, Judge Judy uses only the best lawyers around, and all those attorney fees rack up quite a bill.

4 Judge Judy Spoils Her Children And Grandchildren

Judy Sheindlin is the mother to two grown children from her first marriage and stepmother to three grown children from her husband Jerry Sheindlin's previous marriage. Between the five kids, she has got 13 grandchildren, whom she reportedly spoils rotten. " I spoil them ," she admitted.

"I’m trying to think of how we don’t, but the answer is we do. We don’t even think we’re doing it, but their parents are very smart. They try to put the skids on it." Now her granddaughter Sara Rose is part of Judy Justice , offering a young person's perspective on the courtroom proceedings. Judy adores her granddaughter, which makes it fun for fans to watch how their relationship continues to grow on the show.

3 Judy Sheindlin Used To Have A Gorgeous Yacht

Though Judy Sheindlin does not own it anymore, she was once the proud owner of a 152-ft yacht named Triumphant Lady, a clever nod to its mega successful owner. She sold the yacht for $6.9 million , but it is likely a comforting thought to know that she could afford to buy another one any time the whim strikes her.

Related: Below Deck Sailing Yacht: What's Different About This Spin-Off?

2 Judy Sheindlin Has Fabulous Celebrity Friends

Judy Sheindlin counts many A-listers among her friend group, including Bette Midler, Amy Poehler, Samuel L. Jackson, RuPaul, and others. And when you have celebrity friends, you have got to entertain.

Extravagant dinners are par for the course with Judy Sheindlin, and she has no problem picking up the bill. In October 2017, a photo was shared from the late Joan Rivers' official Twitter account by the media manager, saying " Happy birthday to Joan’s great friend, Judge Judy !"

1 Judge Judy Spends Hundreds On Egg McMuffins... For Real

Judy Sheindlin does not equivocate; when she takes a stance, she comes down hard, and she has taken a firm stance on what she believes is the best breakfast food . The winner? An Egg McMuffin. She reportedly picked up the habit of grabbing this McDonald's classic every morning during her time as a family judge in Manhattan, and it has stuck!

The Fabulous Life of Judge Judy: Multiple Estates, Celebrity BFFs, Yachts and More

The hot bench creator's has quite the enviable lifestyle.

All that crime and punishment has given Judge Judy ( Judith Susan "Judy" Sheindlin ) a life of luxury.

The Judge Judy host has accumulated wealth beyond comprehension over the years, thanks to her hit syndicated TV show and her latest show Hot Bench , which started in 2014. Sheindlin essentially has the monopoly on court TV, and it has given her a fabulous life, with a net worth estimated around an astounding $420 million.

When she's not telling plaintiffs or defendants to put on their listening ears or reminding them that "ummm" is not an answer, the judge is living the good life in private. As she celebrates her 77th birthday on October 21, we decided to celebrate Sheindlin's accomplishments and dig a little deeper into her life away from the courtroom. 

Sheindlin, who has been married three times (her current husband, Jerry Sheindlin , served as a New York State Supreme Court judge), has accumulated quite the real estate portfolio. She owns at least  six lux properties across the U.S., two in Naples, Florida; one in Greenwich, Connecticut; one in Newport, Rhode Island; one in Manhattan and one in Los Angeles. 

Here is her real estate portfolio breakdown (and this is just the surface of her expensive and A-list life!):

1. Naples: $11 million penthouse that features four bedrooms and an enclosed lagoon.

2. Naples: $8.6 million extended family friendly mansion less than a mile from the aforementioned penthouse.

3. Greenwich: $13.2 million manor that serves as her primary residence. It has nine bedrooms and sits on 12.5 acres.

4. Beverly Hills: When Sheindlin finds herself in Los Angeles, she says at her $10.7 million five-bedroom condo at The Montage. Not too shabby.

5. New York: When she needs a little city living, Sheindlin travels to her $8.5 million, four-bedroom duplex the Upper East Side's Sutton Place neighborhood.

6. Newport: In 2018, Sheindlin scooped up the $9 million home known as the "Bird House" that sits atop the highest point in the Rhode Island beach town. The breathtaking 9,719-square-foot property previously belonged to Dorrance "Dodo" Hamilton , the heiress to the Campbell Soup fortune who passed away in 2017.

The Hot Bench  creator flies to Los Angeles once or twice a month to film her signature Judge Judy , but she doesn't fly commercial. The honorable travels on her private jet to her Beverly Hills condo and then returns to the East Coast three days later. She also used to own a 152-foot-long yacht named Triumphant Lady , but she sold the $6.9 million vessel.

But Sheindlin's properties and amenities aren't the only reasons her life is so fabulous. The famous legal eagle also has notable celebrity friends, including Bette Midler and Samuel L. Jackson . She was also close with the late Brady Bunch star Florence Henderson and the late Fashion Police host Joan Rivers . And she counts RuPaul , Amy Poehler and Amy Schumer among her many, many fans—famous or otherwise.

Earlier this year, Sheindlin revealed in a New York Times Magazine interview just how she became the country's highest-paid TV host, making $47 million a year for just 52 days of filming. In as no-nonsense a way you could imagine, she enjoys a dinner every three years at the Grill on the Alley in Beverly Hills with the president of CBS Television Distribution to discuss her contract. "She writes down the salary she wants, seals it in an envelope and presents it at the end of the meal," the story read. "Once, a president presented her with his own envelope, which she refused to open: 'This isn't a negotiation,' she told him. She sold the rights to the show's library to CBS in 2017 for a reported $95 million."

She really is the boss, applesauce.

(Originally published Thursday, February 23, 2017 at 1:43 p.m.)

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Digging into the Secret’s of Judy Judge’s Luxury Yacht

Judge Judy’s yacht was built by Sterling Yachts back in 1985 making it one of the older luxury yachts out there owned by a celebrity. The exterior design was handled by Bannenberg & Rowell. Both the hull and superstructure are GRP or glass-reinforced plastic, which is also something you’ll rarely find in newer superyachts which usually go for steel, aluminum and in some cases composite superstructures. That said, some sources claim the superstructure is, in fact, aluminum.

The yacht underwent a refit in 2009 to upgrade much of the interior and technology on board and make it more modern overall. 

There are some rumors that Judge Judy also sold this yacht and no longer owns it but it’s hard to confirm or deny that at this point because so many of the details surrounding yacht ownership are often kept secret and the subject to guessing and conjecture.

What’s the Name of Judge Judy’s Yacht?

Judge Judy is known for being a forceful and opinionated woman both on her syndicated TV show and in real life, so it’s not surprising she gave her yacht a powerful name as well. It’s known as the Triumphant Lady. 

How Big is Judge Judy’s Yacht?

The Triumphant Lady is a good sized yacht coming in at 155′1″. Obviously that’s not the l argest yacht on the seas but it’s still large enough that most would consider it a superyacht. The vessel also has a 26.5 foot beam and a 7.5 foot draft. The gross tonnage comes in at 532 GT.

How Much Did Judge Judy’s Yacht Cost?

Word is that Judy Judy paid $16 million for her yacht. That’s definitely pricey but nowhere near the most expensive yachts in the world. That said, Judge Judy is estimated to have a net worth in the neighborhood of $440 million, so she can certainly afford a yacht of this caliber. 

How Does a New York Family Court Judge Afford a Yacht?

Judge Judy, born Judith Susan Blum, became a lawyer back in 1965. By 1972 she was working as a prosecutor in the New York family court system until then mayor Ed Koch appointed her to the criminal court in 1982. In just four more years she was promoted again to become a supervising judge in the family court system in Manhattan. This is where she started to come to prominence as a judge most people found to be a tough, no-nonsense sort of person. 

Fast forward to the early 90s and her reputation had spread well beyond New York. A writer for the Los Angeles Times profiled her from the angle of her being tough but fair and trying to fix the court system for the good of everyday people. It struck a chord with readers and 60 Minutes went on to do a feature on her, bringing her in front of television audiences for the first time. 

Within a year of her appearance on 60 Minutes she was approached about heading her own reality court TV show which she accepted. The Judge Judy series went on to become one of the most popular shows ever with Americans watching daytime TV across 25 seasons. In the early 2000s she was making $25 million per season. By 2005 that had increased to $45 million. Given that she only worked 52 days a year, she was making $900,000 every day she went to work. And that means she was more than able to afford a yacht, a private jet, and multiple homes in places like Newport, Rhode Island, Fort Lauderdale, New York and Los Angeles,

Can you Charter Judge Judy’s Yacht?

Believe it or not you can, in fact, charter Judge Judy’s yacht for use. This is not entirely uncommon since a large luxury yacht can have annual running costs that get up to $2 million to $4 million or even more. To help offset those costs owners will often make a yacht available for charter. Thus gives both tax breaks and allows the charter fees to go towards the year’s running costs. 

Judge Judy’s Triumphant Lady can be chartered for $150,000 per week plus expenses. The cost doesn’t necessarily  change based on the season like it would for many yachts but it might based on demand.

If the rumors that Judge Judy sold her yacht are true, then it was a charter firm that picked it up and now charters it under the same name. It was reported that she may have sold it for about $7 million, which is a considerable loss compared to the initial price she seems to have paid. 

How Fast is The Triumphant Lady and What Engines Does it Have?

Judge Judy’s yacht is powered by a pair of Caterpillar 3512TA diesel engines that produce 1300 hp each giving her a maximum speed of 15 knots and a cruising speed of 13 knots. The vessel has a range of 4,000  nautical miles thanks to the 51,885 liter fuel tanks.

What’s the Interior of Judge Judy’s Yacht Like?

The interior design work on the yacht was handled by Cindy Mason and Jon Bannenberg. There is room on Judge Judy’s yacht for 10 guests to stay in 5 cabins. A total of 9 crew can also be accommodated. The guest cabins consist of one master suite along with four double cabins.

The interior features soft and welcoming colors with many rooms decked out in natural wood tones, cream, gray and gold accents. There are multiple dining and lounging spaces as well as plenty of room on deck for lounging and hanging out as well.

In what qualifies as an oddly funny or maybe even ironic fact about the yacht, there is extremely limited information about any kind of standout amenities or luxury features. Given Judge Judy’s reputation for being overly harsh and serious, it’s funny to see that even her yacht seems to be overly serious. As an example, if you head to one of the website’s where you can book it for a charter the only thing listed as an amenity is air conditioning. This would normally be where things like a deck Jacuzzi, a pool, access to jet skis and so on would be listed. 

Don’t be fooled, however. A little digging and you can discover that Judge Judy does, in fact, have some luxury features on board that she and guests can enjoy.

Features and Amenities on the Judge Judy Yacht

As we said, details can be scant on what’s on board the vessel but they’re not entirely hidden. Though Judge Judy herself tends to be fairly private, the yacht is a charter so they do have to share some reasons why people might actually want to spend money renting the vessel. To that end, here are some of the features you can find on board. 

• One of the most notable features available is a glass-bottom spa pool
• To the forward part of the vessel there is a sun deck with gym access. The gym deck can be accessed via an elevator. The gym features a resistance training machine, cardio machine, free weights, exercise balls, bands and more.
• A unique design aspect not likely to be found on other yachts is the 3 story atrium with spiral staircase topped by etched glass.
• Built-in sun pads to port and starboard of the bridge
• The main salon features a lounge area for guests, a bar, and a karaoke machine.
• Towards the main aft deck you’ll find yacht tender and waverunner storage. This is where you’ll also find something of a beach club with access to a swim platform. It’s also fitted with hydraulic passerelle and barbecue

No word on how often Judy herself likes to get out on the water and play with the water toys but the yacht does have a tender garage with some items for those charter guests who like to have fun. Some of the toys available include:

• A 6.4 m (21´) Nautica tender fitted with 225 hp engines
• A 9.75 m (32´) Century FIN cabin with twin 250 hp engines outfitted for fishing/diving and more swift adventures on the water
• A pair of 2-person waverunners
• A pair of 2-person kayaks
• A large variety of towable toys that includes boards, water skis,tubes and so on.
• Full snorkel gear
• A large selection of fishing gear

The Bottom Line

The Judge Judy yacht is known as the Triumphant Lady. It was built back in 1985 but had a refit in 2009 to give it an update. The yacht is believed to have cost around $16 million. It can be chartered for the week for a cost of about $150,000 plus expenses. 

The yacht is just over 155 feet in length and it can reach a top speed of 15 knots though it cruises at around 13 knots. There is room on board to accommodate 10 guests at a time across 5 cabins, and 9 crew members at the same time.

The yacht features a variety of features and toys to help guests relax and have fun including a glass bottom pool, a variety of water toys like waverunners and water skis, and a number of sun pads and other relaxing areas to lay out on deck. 

My grandfather first took me fishing when I was too young to actually hold up a rod on my own. As an avid camper, hiker, and nature enthusiast I'm always looking for a new adventure.

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The Untold Truth Of Judge Judy

Judge Judith Sheindlin, known to most as Judge Judy, made a name for herself with her no-nonsense attitude, tough talk, and the long, belittling lectures she gives people who appear before her. But there are some other details about this legal lady and her show that she doesn't talk about much. Since she's too modest to reveal them herself, we've compiled them here for your pleasure.

The producers are essentially ambulance chasers

The defendants and plaintiffs who appear before Judge Judith Sheindlin are neither assigned to her nor do they seek her out. All that is handled by the honorable judge's producers. According to a letter obtained by Radar Online , they headhunt through small claims courts for cases that'd be fun for the rest of the country to watch on television. In the letter, producer Julie Turner entices a defendant into bringing his or her case to Judge Judy with the promise of appearing on television, because what better setting is there to have a personal matter settled than in front of millions of strangers?

Producers pay the fines

Even though the show claims all the decisions are legally binding, they really aren't. That's because the fines Judy doles out aren't paid by the cases' losers, as would happen in real-life court cases. They're actually paid by producers. In the same letter inviting the unknown defendant to appear on the show, Turner promises that even if this anonymous person loses the case, he or she won't be responsible for any fees or penalties. Any money comes from the producers, which is a sweet deal for most of the people who appear on the show, as they tend to have little money. Sheindlin herself even confirmed this little-known fact about producer-paid settlements in a wide-ranging interview with the Archive of American Television . If only real court cases worked this way! And that's not the only money to switch hands on behalf of the good judge...

Everyone gets paid

While it may not be as profitable as hitting the Powerball, appearing on Judge Judy is a financial win-win situation for both the plaintiffs and the defendants. If anything, it's probably the closest thing to an all-expenses-paid vacation that some of them will ever see. Turner's letter goes on to say that in addition to paying for the case's outcome, the show also pays appearance fees to all litigants who appear on the program, along with travel expenses for them and any witnesses they wish to bring along. Of course, those witnesses have to have something to do with the case, but still, a free trip to Los Angeles will entice anyone to say anything, which often leads to Judge Judy's next little-known fact.

Some of the cases are fake

Obviously, learning that parts—if not all—of a reality show are staged isn't much of a surprise these days. But the makers of Judge Judy can deny responsibility for some of the fakery...because some of the people who appear on the show simply fabricate entire cases for them. In 2010, Vice reported that Jonathan Coward and his friends Brian and Kate concocted an insane story involving two broken televisions and a dead cat in order to get on the show. (Coward got the idea from another friend who appeared on Judge Judy in the '90s.) Producers took the bait and flew Coward and his three friends out. After the taping, the trio celebrated by renting a convertible and drinking champagne in a hot tub for the rest of the day. How did it feel to take advantage of Judge Judy ? When asked, Coward said, "It felt awesome! It felt so good." And no, he shouldn't feel bad, because...

There are no real judgments, as she's no longer a judge

Though Sheindlin was appointed a judge by Mayor Ed Koch in 1982, she doesn't preside as a real judge on television. The set has all the accessories and details of a courtroom, but what Sheindlin does is basically arbitration. As reported by Consumerist , Judge Judy , and other television courts, operate under a contract of adhesion, meaning they "are not bound by real rules of procedure, evidence, or even behavior." So on her show, Sheindlin isn't a judge making a legal decision. She's more of a mediator trying to solve other people's problems. So at most, she's just a glorified middle school vice principal.

Bailiff Byrd wasn't supposed to be as big of a character

There is no doubt that the success of Judge Judy is largely due to the powerhouse persona that is Judith Sheindlin, but the chemistry between Sheindlin and her longtime courtroom companion, Bailiff Petri Hawkins-Byrd, is another crucial element of the show. And it wasn't originally planned that way.

During an interview on Hollywood Today Live , Byrd revealed that producers had no idea he and Sheindlin were going to banter the way they do. "The first show we ever taped, we're sitting there and she's talking to some guy and he's denying anything to do with not giving back the person the money and she looks over to me and she goes 'SODDI,' and I just look and I go, 'Yeah, some other dude done it,'" Byrd said, adding, "And so, it got a reaction, and they asked afterwards, they said, 'Are you gonna talk to her all the time?' And I said, 'Well, if she talks to me I talk to her.'" Their comedy routine was born in that moment, and Byrd even joked that it changed his status into a "principal player" and earned him more money.

And in case you didn't think it was cool enough that Byrd basically charmed his way into becoming an indispensable character on one of the most successful daytime TV shows of all time, he also revealed this amazing secret about what's really on that clipboard he's always holding: Crossword puzzles. Yep. While Sheindlin is busy hurling vicious one-liners at the poor schlubs standing before her, Byrd is off to the side playing word games.

Judge Judy and Byrd actually worked together in real courtrooms

The crackling chemistry between Sheindlin and Byrd didn't come out of nowhere. In fact, long before Sheindlin started doling out her acid-tongued judgement for a national audience, she was doing it in Manhattan Family Court with Byrd right by her side, according to The Los Angeles Times . But he actually almost soured the relationship once when he was caught impersonating her when he thought she wasn't around.

"I had on her robe and her glasses, and I was doing this really good impression of her for these lawyers and clerks and stenographers," Byrd told the Times . "Everyone was laughing. Then all eyes shifted to my left and they stopped laughing.... I said. 'I'll just resign. Please don't fire me.' But she was very cool. She had a sense of humor," he continued. Wow, that really could have gone another way, huh?

Byrd was barely getting by when he was cast on the show

It was a tumultuous time in Byrd's life when he got the unlikely opportunity to become a TV star. He'd just moved from New York to California in a last-ditch effort to save his struggling marriage and he was working as a counselor at a high school, making $30,000/year and delivering pizzas on the side, according to his interview with Sacramento Magazine . After reading in a gossip column that a TV show was being developed around his former judicial colleague, he wrote her a congratulatory letter which joked, "If you ever need a bailiff, I still look good in a uniform." Amazingly, Sheindlin replied that they were, in fact, looking for a bailiff, and the rest is history.

Oh, and this probably goes without saying, but Byrd is no longer struggling. While he's not making the kind of legendary cash Judge Judy rakes in (More on that in a minute), according to Celebrity Net Worth , he's worth around $3.5 million. That's not a bad chunk of change for doing what essentially amounts to a lot of eyebrow acting with a few snarky retorts mixed in.

Judge Judy makes bank

As we just mentioned, Judge Judy has been on the air for a record-breakingly long time. That doesn't happen without stellar ratings, and America's most ornery small claims judge has got those for days. Raking in a stunning average of 6.5 million daily viewers, Judge Judy actually beat Oprah to achieve the title of "No. 1 daytime show" in 2010.

And in exchange for her domination of daytime TV, Sheindlin has been handsomely rewarded. According to The Washington Post , Sheindlin recently renewed her contract through 2020 for an undisclosed amount. But her previous contract netted her $47 million per year, which she earned working only 52 total days out of the year. That is straight-up baller status, and it makes Sheindlin one of the highest paid, if not the highest paid women in all of television. Oh yeah, Sheindlin also owns five multi-million dollar homes , a private jet , and at one time, a 152-foot-long yacht, aptly named Triumphant Lady. As Byrd would say...well, actually, he probably wouldn't say anything. He'd just stand there looking stern with his arms folded.

She was kind of a celebrity before the show

Judge Judy went on the air in 1996. But in 1993, The Los Angeles Times did a story on Sheindlin in which they referred to her work in family court as a "highly personal crusade to bring order out of chaos," which "has assumed folkloric proportions in America's largest juvenile justice system." The story eventually led to her now-infamous 60 Minutes profile , which in turn landed Sheindlin a book deal, effectively transitioning her from public servant to celebrity author basically overnight.

That book's title, Don't Pee on my Leg and Tell Me It's Raining , sounds like the Judge Judy-est thing ever said, but it's actually a line Sheindlin borrowed from her beloved father. Sheindlin did, however, use the book to begin showcasing her own trademark zingers, like "I'll send you so far upstate your mother will need a passport to visit you!" In other words, Sheindlin was already a star before producers ever pointed a camera at her—she just didn't know it yet.

She might've taken down a school

When Tony Robb's mother sent him to Cornerstone Christian School in Clearlake, CA, she didn't think her son would be locked in a storage closet for hours a day, but that's what happened. Connie Sager, Robb's godmother and benefactor (She paid for a year of his tuition to attend Cornerstone) subsequently appeared on Judge Judy , hoping she could get her tuition money back. Sager and the Robb family never could have predicted what followed.

The defendants' testimony revealed that the majority of the staff not only lacked the necessary skills to deal with special-needs students like Robb, they even lacked Bachelor's degrees. The principal only held an Associate degree. In case you're not informed about the requirements to be a school administrator, they go far beyond attending a two-year school. Even worse: the superintendent only had a high school diploma. Following a justifiable tirade, Sheindlin awarded Sager the total of the tuition money. Sometime later, the school was apparently closed down completely .

She's inspired others to do good

Marilyn Mosby, who prosecuted the 2015 case for the wrongful death of Freddy Gray, cut her teeth on Judge Judy . Back in 2000, the then-Tuskegee University student appeared before Sheindlin, suing her neighbor for throwing a baby shower in her apartment, which destroyed the residence. That must've been one wild shower. According to The Baltimore Sun , Mosby handled herself like a pro, bringing photographic evidence of the destruction with her. She ultimately won her case, and from there, went on to study at Boston College Law School. The rest is history. Talk about stepping up in life.

The show holds a Guinness World Record

In September of 2015, Judge Judy celebrated its 20th season, which is a remarkable feat for any TV show, let alone one that features a cranky Brooklynite yelling at people for 30 straight minutes. But it was a landmark achievement nonetheless, and one recognized by the Guinness World Records, who awarded Sheindlin that same year for having the "longest career as a TV judge."

At the time of the award, Judge Judy had been on the air for just under 19 years, which amounted to 4,500 episodes and "more than 9,000 cases" heard. As of this writing, Sheindlin is still presiding over her make-believe courtroom, and with Judge Joe Brown 's 2013 cancellation after 15 seasons , it's not likely any other TV judge will ever come close the her record.

Two former producers sued the show

In 2008, two former Judge Judy staffers sued the show's production company over alleged wrongful termination. According to ABC News , Karen Needle, a former associate producer who "helped book audiences for the show" alleged that she was fired and given the vague reason that it was due to "an unspecified conflict from her audience work." But she believed it was truly related to unmet requests she had made for "a new chair" to help alleviate her back pain, as well as time off she took to "to assist her ailing 88-year-old mother."

Jonathan Sebastien, a former Senior Producer who was fired on the same day as Needle, told TMZ he believes he was fired for complaining about the "alleged whitewashing" of the litigants who got cast at the behest of show creator, Randy Douthit. "We're not doing any more black shows," and "I don't want to hear black people arguing," Sebastien claims he was told by Douthit. Sebastien also claims he was "berated and mocked," then fired after raising concerns about the casting policy.

Sheindlin wasn't named in either case, and while it's unclear what became of the two lawsuits, Judge Judy remains on the air almost a decade later.

So did show creator Randy Douthit's ex-wife

In what is probably the most bizarre behind-the-scenes fact about Judge Judy , the honorable wisecracking judge got entangled in show creator Randy Douthit's ugly divorce over—get this—a bunch of dishes and flatware. According to TMZ , Sheindlin paid Douthit $50,000 dollars for some Christofle tableware, which Douthit's ex-wife, Patric Jones, claimed he had no right to sell, as it was community property. Furthermore, Patric alleged that Sheindlin and Douthit colluded to bilk her out of the valuable flatware, as well as schemed to "reduce [Douthit's] profit participation in the Judge Judy show so he wouldn't have to fork over as much money in the divorce settlement."

As you can guess, Sheindlin didn't take kindly to Jones' accusations. Not only did Sheindlin return the dishes and silverware to Douthit without requesting her money back , but she also issued the following statement regarding Ms. Jones: "This very unpleasant lady doesn't give a hoot about dishes. She cares about pressuring her ex-husband and the way to do that is to attempt to embarrass me."

Douthit publicly apologized for ensnaring Sheindlin in his mess, saying, in part, "I am truly sorry that Judge Judy Sheindlin was brought into this domestic dispute. She relied on my statement to her that the court had authorized the sale." He then brilliantly turned the whole thing around on his ex, who, according to TMZ , was claiming the dinnerware was worth north of half a million dollars. Since Jones' claim hinged on the fact that it was "community property," Douthit made her the following offer: "When I get the cashier's check for $250,000, I will deliver them to her." Well played, sir. Sounds like someone learned a thing or two from his boss over the years.

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Judge Judy Swims with Pigs in the Bahamas for 70th Birthday Yacht Celebration

Her yacht, which she often uses to cruise around Fort Lauderdale and was bought for $16 million, boasts an amazing glass-bottom spa pool, a gym and accommodation for 10 guests!

Judy (real name Judith Sheimdlin) showed off a bikini-bod to rival today’s youth as she met the famous pigs that live on the beaches here.

Being the number one choice for Americans watching daytime TV definitely has its perks!

You go Judy!

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Judge Judy's wildest money moments from over the years

Judge Judith Sheindlin turned 80 this week. To mark the occasion, Wonderwall.com is taking a look back at Judge Judy's biggest money moments over the years — from massive deals to insane splurges and everything in between. Let's start with this stat that's sure to make your jaw drop… As of October 2022, Judge Judy is worth an estimated $440M! According to some estimates, she's been worth as much as $470M in recent years.

Now keep reading for more of Judge Judy's biggest money moments…

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In early 2017, reports indicated that Judge Judith Sheindlin was shopping the rights to "Judge Judy" reruns for a cool $200M . She ultimately sold the catalogue to CBS for just under $100M.

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In July 2018, Judge Judith Sheindlin ranked fourth (behind Floyd Mayweather, George Clooney and Kylie Jenner) on Forbes's list of the world's 100 highest-paid entertainers. She reportedly raked in $147M before taxes the previous year (nearly $100M for selling her catalogue of "Judge Judy" reruns to CBS, plus her annual salary of $47M per season of the hit TV show). She also came in No. 1 on Forbes's list of the highest-paid television hosts that year.

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In its final years, Judge Judith Sheindlin's hit TV show "Judge Judy" reportedly raked in an estimated $160M to $170M in licensing fees and advertising per year for CBS. The series ran for 25 seasons between 1996 and 2021.

In the summer of 2018, Judge Judith Sheindlin snapped up the most expensive home sold in Rhode Island that year . According to the Providence Journal, Judge Judy dropped $9 million on the Bird House: a 9,700-square-foot, six-bedroom, eight-bathroom property on 3.67 acres in Newport, Rhode Island, that once belonged to the heir to the Campbell Soup fortune. The mansion, which was built in 2012, features geothermal heating and cooling, radiant heated floors, a three-floor elevator and more luxury amenities.

Judge Judith Sheindlin — who lives primarily on the East Coast — reportedly owns a Cessna 750 Citation X private jet worth $24M. It's an essential part of the equation considering Judge Judy works primarily in the Los Angeles area.

According to Dirt, Judge Judith Sheindlin dropped $13.2M on a 12.54-acre property in Greenwich, Connecticut, in 2007. Judge Judy reportedly demolished the existing 11,623-square-foot, nine-bedroom mansion and built a 20,000-square-foot home in its place.

In early 2021, Judge Judith Sheindlin dropped a $22M lawsuit against her former talent agent — the man who negotiated her initial deal with CBS for "Judge Judy" — when she realized the lawsuit would negatively affect CBS. "I have been in business with CBS for 20 years. I'm not suing them when they are not the wrongdoer," she told Deadline of her costly decision. (She accused the former agent of unjust enrichment and of employing unlawful and unfair business practices.)

In 2015, Judge Judith Sheindlin listed her four-bedroom penthouse apartment in Naples, Florida, for $11M. (According to Dirt, Judge Judy purchased the 8,550-square-foot condo for $6.9M in 2005.) The property features four full bathrooms, two half bathrooms, two high-speed private elevators and ocean views. The unit comes with parking for three cars in an air-conditioned garage, plus a private cabana/studio near the complex's resort-style swimming pool. She had a good reason for unloading the luxury property…

In 2015, Judge Judith Sheindlin dropped $8.6M on a nearly 11,000-square-foot lakefront mansion in a gated community in Naples, Florida. According to Dirt, Judge Judy's six-bedroom property features nine full bathrooms, two half bathrooms, two air-conditioned three-car garages, an outdoor kitchen and a lagoon-style swimming pool with three waterfalls and a spa.

In early 2022, Judge Judith Sheindlin donated $5M to Her Honor Mentoring to fund a scholarship program that will provide full tuition for 10 women at her alma mater, New York Law School. Judge Judy co-founded Her Honor Mentoring with her daughter, Nicole Sheindlin, in 2006.

In 2013, Judge Judith Sheindlin sold her two-bedroom condo on the 11th floor of the Sherry Netherland building on New York City's Fifth Avenue for $8.5M. According to Dirt, the unit featured two and a half bathrooms. Around the same time, Judge Judy snapped up another NYC pad…

In 2013, Judge Judith Sheindlin dropped $8.5M on a four-bedroom duplex in New York City's Sutton Place neighborhood. According to Dirt, Judge Judy's NYC pad features four and a half bathrooms and a wrap-around terrace.

Judge Judith Sheindlin once owned a yacht named the Triumphant Lady that she reportedly sold for nearly $7M at some point. Judge Judy's 152-foot, five-cabin vessel featured a glass-bottom spa pool and a gym.

In 2013, Judge Judith Sheindlin reportedly dropped $10.7M on a five-bedroom condo at the Montage Beverly Hills hotel and condo complex in the heart of Beverly Hills. The 4,680-square-foot unit features three and a half bathrooms, a walk-in wine cellar and seven balconies. Judge Judy's Beverly Hills base also comes with four dedicated parking spots in an underground garage, plus all the amenities offered by a five-star hotel — from room service to laundry and housekeeping services.

In 2020, TheRichest reported that Judge Judith Sheindlin owns "a whole fleet" of Bentleys including a 2007 Bentley Azure, a 2006 Bentley Arnage R and a 2016 Bentley Mulsanne. Judge Judy dropped more than half a million dollars on those three cars alone!

In 2020, TheRichest reported that Judge Judith Sheindlin's signature diamond stud earrings — which were practically a supporting character on "Judge Judy" — are worth an estimated $120K.

In 2018, Judge Judith Sheindlin reportedly dropped $40K on a three-wheel Harley-Davidson motorcycle for her husband's 85th birthday. (Judge Judy married fellow judge Jerry Sheindlin in 1977 and again in 1991 after a brief split.)

Judge Judith Sheindlin once forked over more than $50K to "Judge Judy" executive producer Randy Douthit for some Christofle Mary Bone China and cutlery. The transaction came to light in early 2013 when Randy's estranged wife, Patrice Jones, sued the TV judge for more than $500K, claiming that the posh tableware was community property and that Randy had no right to sell it to Judy without her consent. (Judy ultimately returned the items to Patrice, who alleged that Judy conspired with Randy to make the deal as Patrice and Randy geared up to divide their assets as part of their divorce.)

In early 2014, Judge Judith Sheindlin filed a $75K lawsuit against a personal injury attorney who used her image in advertising without her consent. The duo settled out of court in Judge Judy's favor. Per the terms of their settlement, the lawyer made a charitable donation to Judy's mentoring program, Her Honor Mentoring.

In early 2018, two former "Judge Judy" producers sued Judge Judith Sheindlin and CBS for $4.75M for allegedly cutting them out of profits for the show they helped create back in 1995 after they essentially discovered the TV judge. Ultimately, the court sided with Judy and CBS in early 2022.

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All the homes Judge Judy owns from LA to New York

Everyone's favourite hard-talking courtroom queen, Judge Judith Sheindlin, is the highest-paid woman on US television, with an estimated net worth of $622 million (US$$440m).

The famous judge earned a whopping $67 million (US$47m) a year on her iconic show Judge Judy , and with her new show Judy Justice now on streaming platform IMDb TV, Sheindlin – and her earnings – aren't showing any signs of slowing down.

With that kind of accumulated wealth, Judge Judy has secured investments to ensure she remains well positioned long after her final episode airs.

Of course, that includes a few fabulous properties in a real estate portfolio spanning the United States from Naples, Florida to Los Angeles, California.

Her real estate portfolio is worth a reported $71 million (US$50m) but when you factor in appreciating home values, it's said to likely be worth more in the ballpark of $142 million (US$100 million).

Here are the current mansions and penthouses Judge Judy and her husband Jerry can fly to in their private jet, along with a couple of former properties they've since sold.

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Property Listings

Where does judge judy live.

Judy and her husband Jerry Sheindlin's primary residence, for tax purposes is their US$8.6 million Florida mansion. However, the couple also has homes in Connecticut, California, and Rhode Island.

The huge mansion in Connecticut is said to be a true home base for the TV star.

Judge Judy's property portfolio timeline

1. greenwich, connecticut – 2007.

Judy and Jerry bought a US$13.2 million property on 12.5 acres in gorgeous Connecticut, promptly demolishing the existing home to build a sprawling manor-style compound that's said to be over 20,000 square feet. There's 10 bedrooms, 10+ bathrooms, a pool and stunning landscaped gardens. Little is known about the interiors.

This home, known as 'Judge Judy House', is said to be her true primary residence.

READ MORE: A timeline of Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi's $600-million property portfolio

2. Beverly Hills, California – 2013

When Sheindlin finds herself in Los Angeles, she stays at her US$10.7 million five-bedroom condo at the super swanky residences at The Montage Beverly Hills.

The corner unit has five bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, four exposures, seven small balconies and four dedicated parking spots in the underground garage.

3. New York, New York – 2013

Judge Sheindlin picked up a duplex penthouse co-op at the Rosario Candela-designed 14 Sutton Place South in Midtown East for US$8.5 million.

Features of the four-bedroom, 4.5-bathroom unit include two dining rooms, a library and a wine cellar that holds up to 900 bottles.

4. Naples, Florida – 2015

In 2015 Sheindlin sold her Naples, Florida penthouse and instead bought this waterfront mansion, also in Naples. The star dropped US$8.6 million on a palatial Florida home (big enough to house her 12 grandchildren) which features eight bedrooms and nine+ baths – including a first-floor master suite – and a separate guest apartment.

The landscaped grounds include a separate guest house, gazebo and a geothermal 74-foot lagoon-style pool, with three waterfalls and a huge spa. There are also two-air conditioned three-car garages with hurricane-resistant garage doors.

5. Newport, Rhode Island – 2018

In 2018, Sheindlin scooped up this US$9 million estate known as the 'Bird House'. It sits atop the highest point in the Rhode Island beach town of Newport, many of the rooms in the huge home offer either panoramic coastline views or views of rock outcroppings and gardens.

There's a two-story entrance hall and the living room has a floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace with coastal views. There are top-of-the-line features, like custom Tischler windows and doors, an elevator and radiant heated floors.

SOLD: New York Penthouse – 2010

Brooklyn native Sheindlin sold her duplex penthouse at 60 Sutton Place South with her now ex-husband, Gerald Sheindlin, for $2.25 million in 2010.

The 19th-floor of the building, the duplex penthouse features three bedrooms and 3.5 baths. Plus, there are two terraces overlooking the East River.

SOLD: New York apartment – 2013

Sheindlin paid US$6.75 million for the two bed, 2.5 bath apartment within the prestigious Sherry-Netherland hotel in 2009, then sold it in 2013 for US$8.5 million.

The Sherry-Netherland was built in 1927 and features a restored ceiling mural in the lobby based on Raphael's Vatican frescoes.

SOLD: Naples, Florida penthouse – 2015

Listed by Sheindlin for US$11 million in December 2015, this penthouse features four bedrooms and an enclosed lagoon. After the sale, Judge Judy swapped out the penthouse for a mansion in the same neighbourhood of Naples (above).

The full-service Gulf-front penthouse was originally purchased in July 2005 for US$6.9 million by the cranky judge and her current husband, Jerry Sheindlin.

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Judge Judy House: A $50M Real Estate Portfolio from Beverly Hills to Florida

Judge judy 's house photos.

Updated on June 21, 2024

This straight-talk star with classy retorts has made her mark in television history. With at least two years left in her contract, Judge Judy net worth is $420 million (just imagine what Judge Judy house looks like!). Let’s enter the courtroom of Judge Judy Sheindlin and open the case of an iconic judge, delivering justice with style.

Famous for her stern judgment and controversial decisions, Judge Judy Sheindlin has been gracing the television screen for over 20 years and has won the hearts of many viewers. After over 22 seasons, the showing ratings have been climbing, gaining on average more than 10 million viewers a day, making her show a prime example of Hollywood success, according to Forbes. CBS, which owns her daytime show, has even given her an evening time show, “Judge Judy Primetime,” within the last four years, capitalizing on her popularity, charm, and rigor. According to her interview with the New York Times, she believes her show provides a fantasy for those enthusiastic about justice, giving them the ideal version of what a fair court should be in today’s world.

Where Does Judge Judy Live?

Judge Judy and her husband have a huge portfolio of mansions and penthouses that span across the United States, giving them plenty of options to live in the most beautiful homes. Let’s take a look at her portfolio and be in awe at the beauty and luxury of her mansions:

Judge Judy House Newport RI (Current)

Judge judy house naples (former), judge judy house greenwich connecticut (current), judge judy house beverly hills (current).

The day-time television star sealed the deal on a beautiful Newport, Rhode Island in July 2018. According to a news release from the Newport Daily News, the towering estate overlooking the oceanside is one of the highest in Rhode Island this year.

Judge Judy fell in love with Newport, so they purchased the notable birdhouse, originally being sold by White Sotheby International Realty.  The original owner of the mansion, Dorrance Hill Hamilton, had the estate on the market for $12.5 million. As the price decreased and after the Campbell Soup heiress passed away back in 2013, Judge Judy purchased the house for a total of $9 million, making the over 14,912 square foot mansion hers.

The six bedroom, eight bathroom home has key highlights, including a 2-story entrance hall, floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace, state-of-the-art technology, geothermal heating and cooling in the floors, an elevator, and multiple rooms with panoramic coastline views.

Itching for more? Check out the rest of   Judge Judy House Photos, Newport RI here!

Judge Judy purchased a mansion for $8 million in Naples after selling off her 16-floor penthouse back in December of 2015. Why Florida? Well, the climate is amazing, but the lack of income tax is amazing, too!

One notable mention is that the home is situated around beautiful white sand beaches, waterfront resorts, and beautiful wildlife in Naples, Florida. The mansion contains six bedrooms, over nine bathrooms, and includes a master suite and guest apartment.

Some of the unique highest points of the mansion include a black marble foyer, a huge staircase, and a brick gazebo painted with the scenery of white clouds and a blue sky.

Judy would go on to offload her Florida abode in March 2022 for $8.6 million.

Wanna see more photos of her Naples home? Check out the rest of   Judge Judy House Photos, Naples here!

In 2007, Judge Judy bought a massive estate in Greenwich, CT for $13.2 million. It was a 20th century home built on 12.5 acres but needed a ton of work. The Sheindlins opted to demolish the existing home to make way for a new manor-style home. It’s a reported 11,623 square feet.

Not much is known about the home’s interior, but aerial images show a long motor court with a hefty security presence. The grounds are immaculately landscaped, surrounding the castle-like mansion.

Variety reported that her property tax on the property had skyrocketed to $230,660, a result of rebuilding this incredible palace.

We’ve got more where that came from. More Judge Judy House Photos, Greenwich here!

The judge only has to appear for production of her show for about 52 days a year…so why not have a $10.7 million dollar home in Beverly Hills, near where she films?

That’s exactly what she did in 2013. Judge Judy reportedly paid $10.7 million for a 4,680 square foot, 5 bedroom, 3.5 bathroom unit at the swanky Montage Beverly Hills. The unit is full of top-of-the-line amenities, not least of which are the SEVEN balconies and four underground parking spaces, which make it easy for her to come and go without the hassle of paparazzi.

Is Judge Judy Real Judge?

YES! Born in Brooklyn, Judge Sheindlin attended School of Government at American University in Washington D.C. After graduating with an undergraduate degree, she went to New York Law School, where she received Masters. After practicing law in New York, she continued her education and now holds multiple Doctor of Law degrees from Elizabethtown College, New York Law School and University at Albany, SUNY.

Her first true beginning in law began when New York City Mayor Ed Koch gave her her first court position in 1982 and then made her a Manhattan family court judge in 1986.

She distinguished herself from other family court judges by introducing an “an open-court policy” which allowed the public and media to view her court proceedings, which wasn’t done at the time. In 1993 she was featured in a 60 Minutes piece, and soon, people started tuning in to her live courtroom.

It was such a huge hit, CBS offered her a TV show contract. She accepted and began the show in 1996. Although her court seen on TV now is not a “real” courtroom, her judgments are final and legally binding, terms the plaintiff and defendant must agree before being on the show.

Where Is Judge Judy?

The show is filmed at Sunset Bronson Studios in Los Angeles.

How Does the Judge Judy Show Work?

The show follows laws of arbitration, which allows legal disputes to be solved outside of the courtroom, which grants the power to solves arguments by contract. Arbitration also allows the show to behave the way it does, even if at times Judge Judy only selectively chooses her evidence and information from her plaintiffs and defendants. Arbitration and syndi-courts are not bound by rules of procedure, evidence, or even proper etiquette, which allow them to behave in any way they wish.

How Much Does Judge Judy Pay to be on Show

Both parties are paid to appear on the show, as well as have an “all expenses paid vacation to LA” of sorts. The appearance fee ranges from $100-$500, as reported by people who have been on. They also receive $35/day while in LA filming the show.

If there is a financial judgment ruled, the producers of the show cover that cost. Like in most civil cases, there is a limit as to how much can be won. The limit on Judge Judy is $5,000.

How Much Money Does Judge Judy Make A Year?

Judge Judy is raking in an estimated $47 million a year. According to Judge Judy, every three years, she sits down for a renegotiation with CBS and brings along a card with her demands.

“We go to the Grill on the Alley with the president of the company,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “We sit across the table, and I hand him the envelope and I say, ‘Don’t read it now, let’s have a nice dinner. Call me tomorrow. You want it, fine. Otherwise, I’ll produce it myself.’ That’s the negotiation.”

Judge Judy Car

Judge Judy spends her money not just on houses, but on cars. Sheindlin has been spotted driving a Bentley convertible, perhaps her fanciest car. Her Bentley convertible is known as her favorite car, even though she prefers her Lexus to drive around Los Angles.

Judge Judy Children

Judge Sheindlin is married to Judge Jerry Sheindlin, a former Judge of the Supreme Court of New York. They have a blended family making up of 5 children – four sons, Jamie, Gregory, Adam and Jonathan, and one daughter, Nicole. They also have 13 grandchildren!

Judge Judy Family

The family itself has had enormous success in the making as a powerhouse family of law and celebrity fame. Three of those children, Gregory, Nicole, and Adam, all becoming lawyers themselves.

The family, because of Judge Judy, has accumulated a fortune and gained fame, giving her children and grandchildren a future that’s bright and successful, and Judge Judy hasn’t even retired yet. Let’s hope that her career continues to be successful, her homes beautiful, and her life celebrated as one of the most famous, strict, sassy, and entertaining judges on television.

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/24/business/media/others-fade-but-judge-judy-is-forever-at-71-she-still-presides.html

https://www.godupdates.com/judge-judy-interview-pre-tv/

https://www.forbes.com/profile/judy-sheindlin/

https://pagesix.com/2018/08/01/judge-judy-buys-9m-rhode-island-mansion/

https://www.6sqft.com/judge-judys-former-sutton-place-penthouse-with-two-terraces-asks-3m/

https://variety.com/2015/dirt/real-estalker/judge-judy-buys-and-lists-in-naples-florida-1201657389/

https://www.today.com/popculture/judge-judy-explains-why-she-s-not-retiring-any-time-t141657

http://www.newportri.com/news/20180730/judge-judy-purchases-hamilton-estate-for-9-million

http://realestate.boston.com/news/2018/08/01/judge-judy-newport-mansion-bird-house/

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https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/judge-judys-47-million-salary-isnt-rules-real-judge-110081

https://beverlypress.com/2014/06/judge-judy%E2%80%99s-contributions-sustained/

http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2013/08/how-did-judge-judy-get-her-gig/

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https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/migrated/dispute/essay/syndicourtjustice.authcheckdam.pdf

.css-16urd06{margin:0;font-family:Roboto,sans-serif;font-weight:400;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.5;} .css-1eo6nkc{color:rgb(0, 0, 238);font-size:24px;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;cursor:pointer;} Jessica Frye

Jessica loves two things most in this world; celebrities and her dog. She can be seen walking along Venice Beach with her yellow lab mix in tow, staring off into the sky hoping that looking uninterested and deep will get her discovered. She may or may not have followed Justin Timberlake's every move back in the day but now she is content to write out her obsession for Velvet Ropes along with ghost writing novels about celebrity romance. Jessica recently decided to bring her passions to Twitter. When she's not busy writing and making plans for her celebrity life after being discovered, you can find her there.

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Judge Judy Net Worth: Sheindlin's Finances After Unexpectedly Endorsing 2020 Presidential Candidate

Since 1996, Judge Judith Sheindlin has been known to TV audiences thanks to her popular court show. With her background in corporate law and her television appearances, how much is the TV personality worth today?

According to Celebrity Net Worth , the "Judge Judy" host is worth $420 million. After earning her law degree and passing the bar examination, Sheindlin started serving as a family court prosecutor. After 17 years, she went on to become a judge in New York.

Following a successful beginning to her legal career, she published the 1996 book, "Don't Pee on My Leg and Tell Me It's Raining: America's Toughest Family Court Judge Speaks Out." Then, after retiring, her television career was launched.

Her appearance on "Judge Judy" has made her one of the highest paid entertainers in the world. Reportedly, her show allows her to take home $47 million a year. Her salary in 2005 was said to be $15 million, but contract renegotiations in 2010 resulted in an increase to almost $50 million annually.

READ : Judge Judy Endorses This 2020 Presidential Candidate In New Clip: 'No One Comes Close'

Aside from income earned from her long-running television program, she also owns a variety of expensive pieces of real estate that some have estimated are worth nearly $100 million. On top of two mansions in Naples, Florida, that are worth $13 million and $11 million, she additionally owns a 9-bedroom mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut, that could be worth more than $20 million in the present day. Her and her husband, Jerry, also have a several other properties around the country.

MSN has also reported that she was once the owner of a 152-foot-long yacht but eventually sold it for $6.9 million.

At this time, Judge Judy will continue to tape new shows until 2021 after extending her contract with CBS in 2017, according to Fox News . She has also remained busy in recent weeks as she has continued to speak out about the political climate after making a surprise endorsement for one 2020 presidential candidate in a new ad that premiered earlier this week.

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• Judge Judy, in a rare interview, reflects…

Judge Judy, in a rare interview, reflects on her iconic TV show as it reaches its final season

By Randy Maniloff

January 7, 2021, 9:54 am CST

Photo courtesy of CBS Television Distribution.

In 1987, Judge Judith Sheindlin of New York County Family Court terminated a couple’s parental rights to their two young children. The mother had shown no interest in raising them. Their father had been incarcerated for several years, and his release was many more away.

In issuing her opinion that the parents had neglected their children, now freeing the youngsters for adoption, Sheindlin observed that children “do not wait in a state of limbo while their parents mature.” But the judge wasn’t finished.

“The act of becoming a parent takes only seconds, but being a parent takes dedication, hard work and sacrifice.” Sheindlin’s decision, In the Matter of Kareem B. , was affirmed by New York’s highest court.

Sheindlin served for 15 years as a family court judge in Bronx County and then as supervising judge in Manhattan. Her docket included cases of child abuse, neglect, custody and juvenile crime. She stepped down in 1996 but didn’t hang up her robe. Nor did she stop speaking her mind.

Judge Sheindlin switched coasts and became known as “Judge Judy” on an afternoon television program, arbitrating small claims cases with a scalpel-sharp tongue. Her wildly successful, eponymous program is in its 25th and final season. “Judge Judy” is reality TV; however, reality prepared Sheindlin for the role.

It’s all about personal responsibility

During a nearly hourlong phone interview from her winter home in Naples, Florida, Sheindlin, 78, held court on several topics. In a warm and immensely entertaining manner, Sheindlin reflected on her program and what lies ahead.

She also had much to say about her judicial philosophy, which has not wavered in 40 years. Whether it was incarcerating a teen for committing a violent crime or resolving a dispute between roommates over an electric bill, her decisions have been based on common sense. At their core, individuals must take personal responsibility for their actions.

“I’ll give you an example,” Sheindlin offers. She takes me back to a case from 1983 that centered around a paternity test, which judges are authorized to order by statute. However, Sheindlin says, “let’s say the man does not want to appear. He does not want to be adjudicated the father, thereby avoiding the possibility of child support.” In this situation, Sheindlin explains, to her disbelief, the statute provides no remedy. Instead, judges are left to re-order the test or impose a fine on the noncompliant party.

But “there has to be a consequence,” Sheindlin insists. So, she filled the legislative void. “The very easy response is, if you fail to go, there is going to be a negative inference that the results would have been unfavorable to your position,” she says. In her opinion regarding In the Matter of Molly M. , Sheindlin wrote: “The Legislature could not have intended to render the courts impotent in the face of failure to comply with an order for the [paternity] test.”

Sheindlin does not see herself as a judicial activist. “I don’t think it’s the role of judges to legislate,” she says. “But I think it’s part of their responsibility to use common sense.”

‘Don’t pee on my leg’

I’m curious where Sheindlin developed her thinking.

We take lessons from life experiences, she explains. “To me, it was my work in the family court, where I saw so many people lacking responsibly for situations they caused, blaming it on somebody else or society as a whole.”

Sheindlin also credits a lesson from her dad. “I came home from college and my father was questioning some of my grades. I started giving him all kinds of excuses why I had not performed as expected. He looked me and said, ‘Darling, don’t pee on my leg and tell me it’s raining.’”

That statement “really says it all,” Sheindlin tells me. “You are supposed to take responsibility for what you do in this world.”

Sheindlin borrowed her father’s admonition, which she says “should be etched on the courtroom walls,” for the title of her 1996 book, a scathing critique of the family court system.

Unlike many of her fellow family court judges, Sheindlin opened her courtroom to the press. According to Sheindlin, prior to Ed Koch becoming mayor of New York City in 1978, the family court was a “dumping ground for incompetence.” She points to a judge who could not read and other judges who came back from lunch drunk.

“I said to myself, if the press ever saw this gaggle of nincompoops … the public would be outraged. So the press was welcome in my courtroom.” They could not report the names of the juveniles, Sheindlin assures me. Her other rules: sit in the back, be quiet, no gum chewing and no reading the paper.

A woman’s road to the bench

The Brooklyn-born Sheindlin knew from an early age that she wanted to pursue a career as a lawyer. “I was lousy in math and chemistry,” she says laughing.

“[For] most of the young woman of my generation, their plan was to marry and have a family,” Sheindlin says. “I always felt that it would be great to be a woman who had a profession that separated you from the rest of the pack.”

The would-be judge started at American University in a joint undergraduate and law program where she was only woman in her law school class. She transferred to New York Law School after getting married. While Sheindlin says that American was “welcoming” to a rare female presence, she cannot say the same for New York Law School. She recalled a question posed to her from a professor: “Why are you taking up the seat of a man who is going to have to support a family?”

Sheindlin earned her law degree in 1965. After a couple of unfulfilling years as a corporate lawyer, and then raising a family, she had her first stint in family court, serving as a prosecutor for 10 years. In 1982, she was appointed to the bench by Koch.

Again, being a rare female presence brought out the sexism existing at the time. Sheindlin shares the story of entering a lunchroom used by criminal court judges. A judge approached her and stated: “Little girl. This a lunchroom for judges only.” While Sheindlin says that she could have introduced herself, she instead went around the room and collected paper plates and placed them in the trash. The “old codger,” Sheindlin recounts, was infuriated for being made to look like a fool in front of his colleagues.

Becoming a celebrity judge

The judge’s no-nonsense style drew the attention of the Los Angeles Times, which profiled her in 1993. Next came a segment on 60 Minutes . Sheindlin allowed the iconic news magazine to film in her courtroom, bearing witness to “a 5’2” package of attitude with a capital A,” as correspondent Morley Safer described her.

Following this exposure, Sheindlin was offered a courtroom television show. Judge Judy premiered in national syndication in 1996 and became a ratings juggernaut. Last year, the show averaged 9 million daily viewers and one in three Americans watched it.

But after 6,500 episodes and 12,500 cases, give or take, the three-time Emmy-winning program is coming to an end. The final season is now on the air, and the last episodes are being taped in Los Angeles. Sheindlin’s tough talk will live on in reruns. Next up: a show on Amazon’s IMDb streaming service.

Sheindlin is mum on the details. She’ll be a judge is all she’ll reveal. “I like to work,” Sheindlin tells me. “This will give me the opportunity … to do what I do best … I’m not going to be selling jewelry on QVC.”

“Judge Judy” is licensed in over 100 international territories. “I get mail from all over, including Zimbabwe,” Sheindlin says with a chuckle.

How do foreign audiences react to the program? Just as here. “Human emotion is the same,” Sheindlin says, “irrespective of what language you speak or where you are in the world. People like to see the right thing happen and the bad guy get a little bit of a whoopin’ once in a while.”

A 2019 New York Times Magazine feature listed Sheindlin’s 2018 salary as $47 million. Forbes recently put her net worth at $445 million.

I ask the woman who has been satirized by Saturday Night Live about her midlife adjustment from one of relative anonymity to mega-celebrity. “People [now] worried about whether or not I was comfortable. Whether I needed iced tea,” Sheindlin jokes.

Some young people, lacking life experiences, have problems with the adjustment, Sheindlin says. “[But] I was a fully cooked human being at 52. I was a wife and a mother and a grandmother a couple of times. I knew how to take care of my own home. Keep it tidy. I knew how to cook. I knew how to negotiate moving my car from alternate sides of the street.”

Surely Sheindlin has a few cases from her program that she’ll never forget. “I don’t have any from the last 25 years,” she says, to my surprise. It is the cases from her days as a family court judge that Sheindlin says she will remember.

It is those that “involved grave injustice that the system had worked on people. And because of lazy judging over the years, families and people’s lives were destroyed … Those are the cases that stay with me.”

Randy Maniloff is an attorney at White and Williams in Philadelphia and an adjunct professor at the Temple University Beasley School of Law. He runs the website CoverageOpinions.info.

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A woman and her three grandchildren are accused of leaving a huge mess on their way out of a rental home; a woman says her former friend stole the boat they bought together. A woman and her three grandchildren are accused of leaving a huge mess on their way out of a rental home; a woman says her former friend stole the boat they bought together. A woman and her three grandchildren are accused of leaving a huge mess on their way out of a rental home; a woman says her former friend stole the boat they bought together.

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Inside the Winning Love Story of Judge Judy and Husband Jerry Sheindlin

Let the record state that Judge Judy Sheindlin and her husband, the honorable Jerry Sheindlin , haven't had the most perfect of marriages. But we're going to go ahead and deliver our verdict: Anyone who makes it past their silver anniversary is a winner .

And Judy is already well into her 44th year of marriage with Jerry, which is nearly two decades longer than she presided over her triple Daytime Emmy-winning eponymous court series Judge Judy , which gaveled out June 25 after 12,500 episodes.

The pair just had to overcome one teeny, tiny blip that saw the two judges, perhaps ironically, facing off in court.

Dissatisfied with Jerry's inability to take care of her as she grieved the 1990 death of her father, Judy issued an ultimatum. "She said to me, 'If you can't maneuver this, I'm going to divorce you,'" he recalled to Marlo Thomas and Phil Donahue in the duo's May 2020 release, What Makes a Marriage Last . "And I said, 'Oh, yeah? I dare you.' And the next day I got divorce papers. The next day. So, that was the end of that."

Stars Reveal the Secrets Behind Their Long-lasting Marriages

It wasn't of course, their split lasting all of a year and ending with Judy accepting this particular blindspot of her husband's, declaring to Marlo and Phil that oftentimes you truly can't change a man: "Like they say, don't try to teach a pig to sing. It doesn't work and it just annoys the pig."

Not that Jerry, a retired New York Supreme Court justice, regularly gets a pass. In real life, Judy is every bit the exasperated, watch-tapping, meme-generating, take-no-prisoners cultural icon that she portrays onscreen, never afraid to unleash one of her patented insults or remind a defendant, "On your best day, you're not as smart as I am on my worst day." (Or, as Amy Poehler lovingly referred to her as she presented Judy with her lifetime achievement Emmy, "the Jewish mother we all want.")

Judy, who will mark her 79th birthday Oct. 21, split with her first husband, fellow prosecutor Ronald Levy , after 12 years and two kids—daughter Jamie Hartwright , born in 1966, and Adam Levy , born in 1968—because, as she put it on the Fox News show, OBJECTified , he saw her career in law "as a hobby." Entering back into the workforce, she was a prosecutor in the New York family courts when she first cross-examined defense attorney Jerry in a bar.

"I just finished trying a murder case as a defense lawyer," he recalled to the Los Angeles Times years later in 1999. "There was a reporter from the New York Post there at the bar, and I was speaking to him about the case. 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."

Transitioning from his work on the New York Supreme Court at the time, Jerry was speaking to the L.A. Times about his new gig as arbitrator on the third season of The People's Court —a role that his bride pushed him to consider despite it placing him as her direct competition.

"She is the one that told me I should do it," he assured in that 1999 interview. "If she had any reservations at all, I wouldn't have done it."

Not that she had allll that much to worry about considering Judge Judy began crushing its next closest competitor, Oprah Winfrey with all of her free cars and celebrity confessionals, two years after its 1996 debut. Still, Jerry cautioned to the paper, if "my show takes off and I beat her, I am contacting Hollywood immediately to remake the movie Sleeping With the Enemy ."

One could argue a ratings battle was nothing compared to what they'd already endured.

Having spent the first decade-plus of her marriage tending to Jerry's needs while also building a legal career that had taken her from prosecutor to judge, Judy was thrown when her father ("My champion" she she put it to Thomas and Donahue) passed away in 1990.

In desperate need of a role reversal, "I said, 'I've been taking care of you for 12 years, now it's your turn to take care of me.' And he was totally unaccustomed to that role," Judy detailed of her husband in What Makes a Marriage Last . "I wasn't asking for anything unreasonable, and he wasn't being unreasonable saying that he really didn't know how to do that. He was 55 and had lived a certain way all his life. He couldn't even conceptualize taking over that role. He just couldn't."

Agreed Jerry, "What she said was, 'Unless you change, we can't stay together.' I said, 'Tell me what you want me to do. You can't just say 'take care of me.'' What does that mean? Do you want me to carry you from place to place? Do you want me to buy you things? Do you want me to feed you? Do you want me to keep you warm? What you have to do is tell me—use your words and tell me what you want me to do to take care of you.' She said, 'Just take care of me.' And I said, 'I don't know how to do that.'"

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The stand-off led to the sort of expedited divorce that occurs when both halves of the couple are judges. Then, not long after, came the regrets.

"I missed her presence the very first week that we were separated," he shared. "It was the first time in years that we didn't get to see each other every single day. It was such a strange experience."

Equally as forlorn, she was receptive when he phoned her up after a year apart, agreeing to his request for dinner and gamely detailing one particularly unsuccessful date that had her telling an overweight suitor to rethink his dinner order. "I was so pleased having her tell me that story," Jerry said, "because, at that moment, I knew she eventually had to come back to me."

Both in agreement that the previous year without each other had been rough—"I missed him," allowed Judy—they decided to give both their romance and matrimony another shot.

"I like being married," Judy noted of their decision to retie the knot. Ahead of their first vows in 1977, she recalled in the book, "I actually had to drag him to the altar....He had no intention of divorcing his wife, even though they had been separated for three or four years. After we were together for about a year, I said, 'I want to see your divorce in the newspaper or don't bother calling again.'"

When he argued they could simply live together, Judy countered it'd be his job to inform her father. "I said, 'I'm not going to do that,'" recalled Jerry. "So she whipped out a calendar and said, 'Pick a date. Now.'"

This time around, though, he was the one tossing out propositions. "I picked her up from work at family court one day, and we were walking through downtown Manhattan," Jerry shared. "Suddenly I said to her, 'This is silly. I'm uncomfortable being with you all the time and not being married to you. Let's get married again.' She said, 'Well, how are we going to do that?' I said, 'The clerk's office is right up the street. We can go in and get a license…'"

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As predicted, their marriage license request was handled immediately, the standard 24-hour waiting period waived. The pieces snapping into place, she called up her best friend of 40 years to serve as maid of honor, he contacted his son, working at his downtown Manhattan law practice, to stand in as best man. And after a quick call to Jerry's New York Supreme Court justice pal they had an officiant.

"So we go up to Herbie's chambers, and he performs the following ceremony," Jerry recalled. "To me he says, 'Do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife forever—in good times and bad, in sickness and in health?' I said, 'Yes.' He looks at Judy and says, 'Do you take this man to be your husband?' She says, 'Yes.' He says, 'In good times or bad?' And she looks right at him and says, 'In good times or forget it.'"

In the three decades since, they haven't had to put those vows to the test.

A 1993 Los Angeles Times profile on Judy spiraled into a spot on 60 Minutes , then her first of seven books, 1996's Don't Pee on My Leg and Tell Me It's Raining and finally reality TV stardom. Her net worth estimated at roughly $440 million, their life together includes multi-million dollar spreads in Beverly Hills (a five-bedroom condo her landing spot when she's filming in L.A.), in Greenwich, Conn. (a sprawling 12.5-acre spot some 35 miles outside where they both grew up in New York City) and their home base: a massive compound in Naples, Fla., where Judy spends several mornings at the Ritz-Carlton, Jerry joining her for lunch.

Their five kids—Jamie and Adam from her first marriage; Gregory Sheindlin , 57, Jonathan Sheindlin , 54, and Nicole Sheindlin , 53, from his—have given them 13 grandchildren, at least four of whom are interested in the family business.

And having long eschewed retirement ("I'm not tired. I don't play golf or tennis. I have no desire to learn how to play mahjong, chess or checkers. I know what I like to do"), Judy shows no signs of laying down her gavel .

She expanded her television empire in 2014 to include Hot Bench , now the third-highest-rated syndicated show on daytime behind Dr. Phil and, well, Judge Judy , which she's really only ending to make room for her latest venture, Judy Justice , which will premiere on IMDb TV Nov. 1. Plus, as she put it to The Hollywood Reporter recently, "I like to see things tied up in a bow," and 25 years just sounds better than, say, 27.

As for their union, though Jerry didn't magically transform himself into a doting caregiver during their year apart, "He did learn to use a calendar better," she remarked to Marlo. "He learned to write down: 'October 21, Judy's birthday. Buy present, card.'"

In 2019, to mark her 77th, he got her exactly what she wanted—more or less. "I said, 'I'd like a new Aston Martin,'" she detailed to the TMZ cameras waiting outside her Beverly Hills apartment. "And he said, 'What's your second choice?' So I got a bathrobe!" In Jerry's defense, he cut in, "It was from Aston Martin!"

That she finds the whole situation impossibly charming is evidence that you can learn quite a bit across four-plus decades of marriage.

"I believe that men's brains and women's brains are different," she explained in What Makes a Marriage Last . "Women will accommodate men from the beginning, and after they get married, they say, 'All right, you start accommodating me. You start changing.' I remember when one of our kids was getting married, she complained to me that her fiancé cleaned the bathroom with a sponge, then tried to clean the kitchen with the same sponge. She told me, 'I don't know if I can deal with this.' And I said, 'Sweetheart, this is as good as it gets. The truth is, you're not going to be able to modify that behavior, and if you're not prepared to live with that, then don't do it. Otherwise, buy a dozen sponges.' And they're still married, almost 25 years."

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In other words, that conventional wisdom about choosing your battles holds strong. Though Jerry would throw in an addendum that you also need to be certain you've found the person you'd like to fight alongside.

"The truth of the matter is: No matter how you slice it—no matter how many sponges you buy—it's all irrelevant unless there's a special feeling when you speak to her, when you hug her and tell her you can't do without her," he added. "If you love your mate, it all works out."

Which is something Judy has known at her core since the day she spotted Jerry at that New York bar.

Asked the advice she'd give any young couple standing before her bench, she informed Marlo, "I'd tell them they had to have that intangible feeling of looking across the room and saying, 'I've got to have me one of those.' My father once told me that the first time he saw my mother was at a dance at the Jewish center when she was just 18. She was so pretty. My father was with his best friend, and he looked at him and said, 'You see that pretty girl over there? I'm going to knock that halo off of her head.' And he did. But he loved her from the first minute he looked at her. He saw her and he said, 'I've got to have it.' That's how I felt when I saw Jerry. I said, 'I have to have that forever.'"

(This story was originally published on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2020 at 8 a.m. PT.)

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Judge Judy Reveals What 'Deadly' Habit She and Husband Jerry Have Avoided to Keep Their 46-Year Marriage Strong

Judy and Jerry Sheindlin have been married since 1977

Nearly five decades into her marriage, Judge Judy Sheindlin knows how to create lasting love with husband Jerry Sheindlin .

The Judy Justice star, 81, shared the secret to her marriage with Jerry, telling E! News , "You don't spend 24 hours together because that's deadly.” 

“Jerry just celebrated his 90th birthday and I still like to look at him when he walks in the room—that's a key," she added.

The couple got married in 1977 and share five children from both of their previous marriages. In 1990, they divorced but remarried the following year. After so many years together, Judy previously opened up to PEOPLE about how a good physique keeps the spark alive between the pair.

"We're both very surface people when it comes to that," she told PEOPLE in 2021. "You know if you fall instantaneously for somebody that means there's a physical attraction. And people age, people they change, you can either do it gracefully or you can say 'I give up.' "

She continued, "And I, for myself, I said 'I choose to not give up, I choose to stay fit.' So don't even think about anything but staying, looking as good as you can possibly look at this stage in your life."

"I don't have to tell him that more than once, he loves himself desperately," she joked of Jerry.

In Marlo Thomas and Phil Donahue's 2020 book , What Makes a Marriage Last: 40 Celebrated Couples Share with Us the Secrets to a Happy Life, Judy revealed that Jerry was initially hesitant about the idea of tying the knot a second time. (Judy was previously married to Ronald Levy while Jerry was married to Suzanne Rosenthal.)

"I actually had to drag him to the altar ... He had no intention of divorcing his wife, even though they had been separated for three or four years. After we were together for about a year, I said, 'I want to see your divorce in the newspaper or don't bother calling again,' " she recalled.

"I said, 'I'm not going to do that,' " Jerry added. "So she whipped out a calendar and said, 'Pick a date. Now.' "

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The third season of Judy Justice is currently streaming on Prime Video and Amazon Freevee with new episodes premiering every weekday until April 5.

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‘Judge Judy' sues National Enquirer, InTouch Weekly over Menendez brothers stories

The television judge said the publications apparently used quotes from a fox nation docuseries about the case and falsely attributed them to her, by the associated press • published may 14, 2024.

“Judge Judy” Sheindlin sued the parent company of the National Enquirer and InTouch Weekly on Monday for a story that she said falsely claimed that she was trying to help the Menendez brothers get a retrial after they were convicted of murdering their parents.

The story was first published on InTouch Weekly's website on April 10 under the headline “Inside Judge Judy's Quest to Save the Menendez Brothers Nearly 35 Years After Their Parents' Murder,” according to the lawsuit, filed in circuit court in Collier County, Florida.

A version of the story later appeared in the National Enquirer, a sister publication to InTouch Weekly also owned by Accelerate360 Media. The 1989 Menendez murders in Beverly Hills, California, was a case of some tabloid renown.

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Sheindlin said she's had nothing to say about the case. Her lawsuit speculated that the news outlets used statements in a Fox Nation docuseries made by “Judi Ramos,” a woman identified as an alternate juror in the first Menendez trial, and misattributed them to the television judge.

There was no immediate comment from Accelerate360, whose attempt to sell the National Enquirer last year fell through.

Sheindlin does not ask for a specific amount of damages, but made clear it wouldn't be cheap.

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“When you fabricate stories about me in order to make money for yourselves with no regard for the truth or the reputation I've spent a lifetime cultivating, it's going to cost you,” she said in a statement. “When you've done it multiple times, it's unconscionable and will be expensive. It has to be expensive so that you will stop.”

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Sheindlin, who hosted the syndicated “Judge Judy” through 2021 and now hosts “Judy Justice,” has had run-ins with the Enquirer in the past.

In 2017, the newspaper retracted and apologized for stories that falsely claimed she suffered from Alzheimer's disease and depression and had cheated on her husband.

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