What is Jacqueline Laurita's Net Worth?
Jacqueline Laurita is an American reality television personality, author, and former cosmetologist who has a net worth of $500 thousand. Jacqueline Laurita starred on the Bravo reality series "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" from 2009 to 2014, then she rejoined the cast for one more season in 2016. Jacqueline guest-starred on the TV series "Mercy" in 2009, and she appeared in the 2012 film "Bad Parents." In 2016, she published the book "Get It!: A Beauty, Style, and Wellness Guide to Getting Your 'It' Together," which she co-wrote with Jenè Luciani.
As we detail later in this article, Jacqueline and her husband Chris Laurita have experienced a handful of financial bumps over the years, including several threats of foreclosure on a New Jersey home and a business bankruptcy.
Early Life
Jacqueline Laurita was born Jacqueline Elizabeth Grippe on April 26, 1970. She was reportedly born in Las Vegas, Nevada, or Long Branch, New Jersey, and she grew up with mother Bonnie, father Jerome, and brothers Thomas and Robert. Jacqueline's father was an Army Colonel, so the family moved around during her youth. Laurita lived in South Korea and Germany before the family settled in Virginia, where she attended Chantilly High School. In 1990, Jacqueline, her then-husband, Matt Holmes, and her parents moved to Las Vegas, and Laurita worked as a cosmetologist and a model there.
Reality Shows
Laurita joined the cast of "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" during the show's first season, starring alongside her sisters-in-law Dina Manzo and Caroline Manzo. Jacqueline appeared in 116 episodes between 2009 and 2016, and in April 2017, she announced that she would not be returning for season eight after she was offered the option of being a part-time cast member.
At the time she stated:
"I just felt that after being on the show for seven years and putting my time and everything into that, to not have a confirmed full-time decision, with that feeling that I had to kind of tryout again, it just didn't feel right."
In addition to her work on "The Real Housewives of New Jersey," Laurita has appeared on Caroline's show, "Manzo'd with Children," as well as "Live with Kelly and Ryan," "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," "The Nate Berkus Show," "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," "The Wendy Williams Show," and "The Dr. Oz Show."
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Personal Life
Jacqueline married Matt Holmes on July 28, 1990, and they welcomed daughter Ashlee (born December 1st, 1990) before divorcing in 1992. While working as a model at a trade show in Chicago, she met Chris Laurita, and the couple married on May 11, 2002. The Lauritas have two sons, CJ (born May 24th, 2002) and Nicholas (born June 11th, 2009). Nicholas was diagnosed with autism in 2012, and Chris launched a popcorn company, The Little Kernel, that donated profits to an autism foundation.
In 2015, Jacqueline revealed that she and Chris were writing a book, "Defy Expectations," about their "journey with autism."
In 2009, Chris's clothing business, Signature Apparel, filed for bankruptcy amid accusations that Chris and his brother, Joseph (who co-owned the business), drained "the company of all its funds and assets in order to support their families' increasingly opulent lifestyle of private jets, limousines, extravagant parties, premium automobiles, designer clothing, ostentatious home furnishings and lavish vacations." Jacqueline and Chris were later sued for $7.8 million and charged with defrauding creditors.
Real Estate
In April 2013, a bank in New Jersey began foreclosure proceedings on Laurita's New Jersey mansion. The bank claimed that she had not made a payment on her $1.6 million mortgage since February 2012. The monthly payment before penalties was more than $10,000.
The state of New Jersey also claimed that Jacqueline owed more than $340,000 in state back-taxes. Jacqueline and Chris paid $1.72 million for the mansion in 2002, and they put the six-bedroom home on the market for $2.85 million in 2014, then relisted it for $2.3 million in 2017. The couple lowered the asking price to $1.95 million in April 2019, then dropped the price to $1.75 million three months later. The Lauritas moved to Las Vegas in the summer of 2019.
