Who Is Judge Judy's Husband? All About Jerry Sheindlin (2023)

Judge Judy Sheindlin and her husband, Jerry Sheindlin, have been together for over 40 years.

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 revealed one of the couple's secrets to a long-lasting marriage — a good physique.

"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.

So, who is Judge Judy's husband? Here's everything to know about Jerry Sheindlin.

He is a former trial judge and author

Gerald "Jerry" Sheindlin was born on Nov. 19, 1933, in New York City. He served in the Army during the Korean War and went on to receive his bachelor's degree from Long Island University and a law degree from Brooklyn Law School in 1959.

After graduating, Jerry eventually became a partner at Adlerberg & Sheindlin, where he worked as a defense attorney focused on criminal cases. In 1980, he was appointed a U.S. administrative law judge before becoming a criminal court judge in 1983. In 1986, Jerry began working as a trial judge serving the New York Supreme Court.

He has also written two books: Genetic Fingerprinting: The Law and Science of DNA Evidence and Blood Trail.

He worked as a TV arbitrator

Like his wife, Jerry has worked as a television arbitrator. He became the presiding judge on The People's Court in the fall of 1999, replacing former New York City Mayor Ed Koch.

Jerry told the Los Angeles Times in 1999 that his wife, whose series Judge Judy began in 1996, encouraged him to take the job. "She is the one who told me I should do it. If she had any reservations at all, I wouldn't have done it."

"I think that behind every great woman there is a man," he added. "So I may be behind her now, but I also heard a rumor that behind every great man there is a woman. So we'll have to wait and see how it plays out."

He presided over the show for the 1999-2000 season and a majority of the 2000-2001 season until he was replaced by Marilyn Milian, who has worked on the show ever since.

He and Judy met at a bar

The couple first met in a bar, Jerry recalled to the Los Angeles Times. "I just finished trying a murder case as a defense lawyer. She was a prosecutor. 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," he said.

He married Judy in 1977

Judy and Jerry got married in 1977; it was each their second marriage.

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 hesitant about the idea of a second marriage.

"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.' "

He and Judy have a blended family

Jerry was previously married to Suzanne Rosenthal from 1965 until 1977. The exes share three children together, Gregory, Jonathan and Nicole.

Like Jerry, Judy also had children from her first marriage. She married Ronald Levy in 1964, and they welcomed daughter Jamie and son Adam together before divorcing in 1976.

Judge Judy premiered in 1996, an opportunity that allowed the couple to better support their blended family.

"I was hoping we would have a three- or four-year run and that my husband and I would be able to afford a two-bedroom apartment one block off the beach in Florida as a retirement place," she recalled to PEOPLE in November 2021 of her initial hopes for the show.

"We were civil servants. We had five kids that were all educated, most went to graduate school. We tried to see to it they weren't burdened with a lot of debt," Judy added.

Between their five children, the couple have 13 grandchildren.

He and Judy briefly got divorced in 1990

In 1990, Judy was struggling with the loss of her father and was not happy with Jerry's lack of support. In Thomas and Donahue's book, Jerry revealed what led to their brief divorce.

"She said to me, 'If you can't maneuver this, I'm going to divorce you,' " he recalled. "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."

"Like they say, don't try to teach a pig to sing. It doesn't work and it just annoys the pig," Judy added.

He remarried Judy in 1991

After their divorce, Jerry shared in Thomas and Donahue's book that he missed his ex-wife almost immediately.

"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."

"I like being married," Judy added. "I missed him."

She said yes to dinner with her ex, telling him about a bad date, and they soon remarried in the chambers of a New York Supreme Court justice friend, who officiated the ceremony.

"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,' " Jerry wrote.