Bert Girigorie is best known as the first husband of Wendy Williams, though their marriage lasted barely five months before the couple called it quits. His full name is Bertrand Girigorie, and outside of his brief union with the future talk show queen, almost nothing is publicly known about his personal life or career.
The core facts of the marriage are documented in Williams’ Wikipedia biography and in her own 2003 autobiography, Wendy’s Got the Heat, co-written with New York Daily News journalist Karen Hunter and published by Atria Books. The book spent time on The New York Times Best Seller list for nonfiction upon its release.
Williams’ Wikipedia biography lists the marriage as lasting from 1994 to 1995, with Girigorie’s full name recorded as Bertrand Girigorie. According to Williams’ own account in Wendy’s Got the Heat, the two separated after just five months together, and the legal divorce was finalized roughly 18 months after the separation. In the decades since, Girigorie has stayed completely out of the public eye: no interviews, no public appearances, no trace on social media.
The Brief Marriage: A Timeline
According to Williams’ autobiography, she and Girigorie tied the knot in 1994, the same year she was building her reputation on New York radio stations WRKS and WQHT. Born in July 1964, Williams was 29 or 30 years old at the time, still more than a decade away from the national fame that would come with The Wendy Williams Show, which launched in 2008.
By most accounts, the marriage unraveled quickly. Williams has said that she and Girigorie separated after only five months of living together. The divorce itself took longer to finalize: about a year and a half from the separation date, meaning the legal dissolution likely wrapped up sometime in 1995 or early 1996.
| Event | Year | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Marriage | 1994 | Williams was a rising radio host in NYC |
| Separation | 1994 | The couple split after roughly 5 months |
| Divorce finalized | ~1995 | Legal process took about 18 months total |
| Williams meets Kevin Hunter | 1994 | Same year as the marriage to Girigorie |
| Williams marries Kevin Hunter | 1999 | Second marriage; lasted until 2020 |
Who Was Wendy Williams When She Married Bert Girigorie?
In 1994, Wendy Williams was not yet the household name she would become. According to her Wikipedia biography, she had started her radio career in the late 1980s at WVIS in the U.S. Virgin Islands, then moved to WOL in Washington, D.C., before landing in New York City. By the year she married Girigorie, she was working at WRKS and would soon move to WQHT, where her confrontational style began attracting major attention.
Her on-air persona was already taking shape: bold, unfiltered, and willing to stir controversy. She was known for asking celebrity guests pointed questions about their personal lives, a style that earned her both fans and detractors. But the massive platform of daytime television was still more than a decade away.
Williams herself has described this period as a time when she was young, driven, and prone to making impulsive personal decisions. In her 2003 autobiography Wendy’s Got the Heat, she reflected on the marriage to Girigorie as a mistake she made during those early, chaotic years of chasing a career in radio. The book is the most detailed public account of Williams’ early years and remains the primary source for what little is known about her relationship with Girigorie.
Why Did the Marriage End So Quickly?
Williams has never gone into extensive detail about why her marriage to Girigorie fell apart, but the timing offers some clues. According to her autobiography, she met Kevin Hunter — the man who would become her second husband, manager, and the father of her only child — in 1994, the very same year she married Girigorie.
The overlap is hard to ignore. Williams and Hunter began a relationship that would define much of her personal and professional life for the next 25 years, and it appears the connection with Girigorie was already fading by the time Hunter entered the picture. Williams has characterized the first marriage as a youthful misstep, something she jumped into before she fully understood what she wanted.
In her autobiography and in the few interviews where the topic has come up, Williams does not speak negatively about Girigorie. The tone is more one of hindsight — acknowledging that she was not ready for marriage and that the relationship simply was not built to last. There were no children from the union, and no public legal battles followed the split.
Bert Girigorie After the Divorce
Here is where the paper trail ends. After the divorce was finalized in the mid-1990s, Bert Girigorie retreated entirely from public view. No interviews, no social media presence, no mentions in entertainment news. He simply disappeared from the narrative of Wendy Williams’ life.
Whether he remarried, changed careers, moved away from New York, or stayed in the same city is not a matter of public record. The entertainment press has never tracked him down for a follow-up story, and Williams herself rarely mentions him by name in interviews. In the few instances where she has referenced her first marriage, she refers to it briefly and moves on.
This level of privacy is unusual for someone connected to a major celebrity, but it speaks to a deliberate choice on Girigorie’s part. Unlike Kevin Hunter, who became a public figure through his role as Williams’ manager and co-host, Girigorie has apparently had no interest in leveraging the connection for attention or financial gain.
The Kevin Hunter Contrast: Two Very Different Marriages
If the marriage to Bert Girigorie was a footnote, the marriage to Kevin Hunter was a full-length chapter. Williams and Hunter were together for roughly 25 years, married for 21 of them, and their relationship produced a son, Kevin Hunter Jr., born in 2000.
Hunter also served as Williams’ manager and was deeply involved in building her media empire. He was an executive producer on The Wendy Williams Show and a constant presence in her professional orbit. But the marriage ended in 2020 amid reports of Hunter’s infidelity — he fathered a child with another woman during the marriage, and the divorce was far messier and more public than the quiet split from Girigorie.
The two marriages tell a story of Williams’ evolution. At 29 or 30, she married a man whose name almost no one remembers. At 35, she married the man who would help build her career and then, in the end, become the source of one of her most painful public chapters.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Bert Girigorie?
Bert Girigorie, full name Bertrand Girigorie, is the first husband of talk show host and radio personality Wendy Williams. The two were married briefly in 1994 before separating after five months. Beyond this connection, very little is publicly known about his personal or professional life.
How long were Bert Girigorie and Wendy Williams married?
They were married in 1994 and separated after approximately five months. The divorce was finalized roughly 18 months after the separation, meaning the legal marriage likely lasted close to two years from the wedding date to the final divorce decree.
Does Bert Girigorie have children with Wendy Williams?
No. Bert Girigorie and Wendy Williams did not have any children together. Williams’ only child, Kevin Hunter Jr., was born in 2000 during her second marriage to Kevin Hunter.
Where is Bert Girigorie now?
Bert Girigorie has maintained complete privacy since his divorce from Wendy Williams in the mid-1990s. There is no public information about his current whereabouts, occupation, or whether he has remarried. He has never given an interview about his marriage to Williams and does not appear to have any social media presence.
Why did Wendy Williams and Bert Girigorie divorce?
Wendy Williams has characterized the marriage as a mistake she made when she was young and driven by her career ambitions. She met her second husband, Kevin Hunter, in the same year she married Girigorie, and the brief first marriage appears to have ended partly because she had already formed a connection with Hunter. Williams has not spoken negatively about Girigorie in public.
