Early life and career
Zarin was born in Woodmere, New York [1] [2] to Saul and Gloria Kamen. [3] She graduated from Simmons University in 1985 with a degree in retail management. [4] [5]
Upon graduating, Zarin became an assistant buyer at Filene's department store, and later the Vice President of Great American Knitting Mills. [1] In 2008, Zarin was announced as one of five women cast to appear in the Bravo network reality series, The Real Housewives of New York City , the second installment Bravo's Real Housewives franchise. [6] According to Jill, she was approached by a producer after they saw a picture of her, her husband Bobby, and her daughter Ally on the New York Social Diary website, and asked if she was interested in doing a reality show based on "glamorous Manhattan moms and their children," to which she agreed in order to gain exposure for her and her husband's fabric store, Zarin Fabric Warehouse. [7]
In 2010, Zarin published the book Secrets of a Jewish Mother with her mother and sister. [8] The following year, she along with Kelly Bensimon and Alex McCord, were fired from the series. [9] In late 2012, Zarin launched her jewelry line, Jill Zarin Jewelry Collection, which was sold at Macy's and Lord & Taylor. [10]
In June 2022, Zarin appeared in the Peacock Real Housewives spin-off The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip . [11] In 2024, she took part in the Amazon Freevee reality series The Goat , where she was exiled in episode 10. [12]
On February 3, 2026, it was announced Zarin, along with several alumni from The Real Housewives of New York City, would appear in a new series. [13] Produced by E! under the working title The Golden Life, the series would follow the lives of Zarin, Bensimon, Luann de Lesseps, Sonja Morgan, and Ramona Singer as they navigate their "golden" years together in Palm Beach, Florida. [14] [15] Seven days later, Zarin was fired from the series, following her criticism of the Super Bowl LX halftime show and its headliner, Bad Bunny. [16]
Philanthropy
In 2008, Zarin co-chaired the second annual Help for Orphans International benefit in Water Mill, New York. Proceeds raised went toward the construction and opening of the Help for Orphans International Vocational School in Kisii, Kenya. [17] [18]
Since 2013, Zarin hosted annual luncheons in the Southampton, New York, raising funds for charities such as St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation. [19] [20] Her July 2018 event was in honor of her late husband, Bobby, with proceeds going toward the International Thyroid Oncology Group. [21] Her July 2022 luncheon benefited the Bobby Zarin Memorial Trust. [22] By 2025, she hosted her 12th annual luncheon, raising funds for thyroid cancer research. [23]
In 2020, Zarin and her daughter Ally Shapiro launched the "Noshes for Nurses" fundraiser, which raised over $60,000 and delivered more than 30,000 meals to healthcare workers at over 40 hospitals. [24]
Personal life
Zarin married Steven Shapiro in 1987; they divorced in 1998. [25] Zarin married Bobby Zarin in 2000; he died in 2018 at the age of 71. [26] She has one daughter, Allyson Shapiro, who was conceived via a sperm donor during her first marriage. [27] [28] Since 2018, Zarin has been dating businessman Gary Brody, [29] and as of June 2022, she lives in Boca Raton, Florida. [30]
Zarin received backlash from fans and other reality television stars after calling Bad Bunny's performance at the Super Bowl LX halftime show the "worst halftime show ever." In an Instagram video, which she later deleted, she expressed disappointment that the show was in Spanish and that there were "literally no white people in the entire thing". [31] [32]
This page is based on this
Wikipedia article Text is available under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
