“For 25 years, Judge Judy has been one of the most recognizable judges on television, presiding over some of the most straightforward and complicated cases with her quick wit and no-nonsense attitude.
The show has won three Emmys and is one of the highest-rated syndicated television shows, making Judy Sheindlin one of the highest-paid TV hosts. However, the show will come to an end soon, but the 79-year-old has no plans to retire yet. “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,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. Born in Brooklyn, New York, to a dentist father and a mother who was a “meat-and-potatoes kind of gal,” Sheindlin attended James Madison High School before studying government at American University in Washington, D.C. After graduation, she pursued a law degree at New York Law School and became a corporate lawyer for a cosmetics firm.
After two years, she left the job, and later, she became a prosecutor in New York’s family court system. She raised two children with her first husband, Ronald Levy, and then got a job as a prosecutor in New York’s family court system. However, she divorced Levy in 1976, after 12 years of marriage, citing that he didn’t view her job as anything more than a hobby.
She met Jerry Sheindlin, an attorney, and they married the same year. The couple divorced in 1990 but remarried a year later. Together, they have raised five children, including three who work in the legal profession. Judy’s stepchildren, Gregory and Nicole, pursued a career as lawyers and have been inspired by their parents.
Sheindlin quickly made a name for herself and was appointed a criminal court judge in 1982 by New York Mayor Ed Koch. Within four years, she received a promotion as a supervising judge within the Manhattan division of family court. By the early 1990s, her no-nonsense attitude in New York began attracting nationwide attention, and she was featured on The Los Angeles Times and 60 Minutes.
From there, she began the journey to becoming one of the most recognizable judges on television. Since the beginning, Sheindlin’s courtroom series has remained among the top-rated courtroom shows, and she has no plans to retire yet.”