Abby Connolly
When I was a little girl, I secretly loved the afternoons when I’d be home sick from school and could lay on the couch, eating soup and watching daytime cable shows like “Judge Judy” with my mom.
Judy Sheindlin, best known as Judge Judy, has been a household name since her successful show ran for 25 years, and she continued making more. Today, she’s worth around $480 million and has built herself a wonderful reputation as a judge and humanitarian.
Judy was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1942. Her father was a dentist, and her mother was an office manager.
After graduating from high school, she got her Bachelor’s degree in government from American University and her Juris Doctorate from New York Law School in 1965.
In 1982, former New York mayor Ed Koch appointed Judy as a criminal court judge and later became the supervising judge in the family court’s Manhattan division. She quickly earned a reputation for being tough, and people were in awe of her attitude.
Judy’s popularity as a notable judge soared after the Los Angeles Times published an article about her in 1993.
The article chronicled her journey of being a powerful woman in law, trying to improve the world through the court system. Not long after the article came out, she was featured in a “60 Minutes” segment.
A little over a year later, she was offered to star in a reality courtroom series, and thus, “Judge Judy” was born.
The show premiered in September 1996 and ran all the way until July 2021 with 25 seasons. The show was a hit and collected millions of viewers daily.
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