WEBVTT - “Don’t Get Remarried” with Julia Haart 0:00:01.000 --> 0:00:06.000 This is the most dramatic podcast ever, an iHeartRadio podcast. 0:00:07.760 --> 0:00:11.920 Everybody, Welcome to the most dramatic podcast ever. Lauren Zima 0:00:11.920 --> 0:00:14.640 and Chris Harrison coming to you today with the story 0:00:14.640 --> 0:00:20.239 of a woman who has literally time traveled and I 0:00:20.280 --> 0:00:23.640 really mean that. Julia Hart of the show My Unorthodox 0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:27.080 Life on Netflix spent the first forty two years of 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:31.760 her life in an ultra Orthodox Jewish community, living without TV. 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:34.919 She had never seen movies, she had never worn the 0:00:34.920 --> 0:00:37.600 clothes that you and I wear every day. She had 0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:41.840 not grown up in America, even though she was technically 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:45.159 in America. This community was located in New York. At 0:00:45.159 --> 0:00:48.840 age forty two, she left with her kids, and, as 0:00:48.880 --> 0:00:52.319 she describes it, was an eleven year old even though 0:00:52.320 --> 0:00:54.640 she was an adult trying to figure out the world 0:00:54.680 --> 0:00:58.240 on her own. She went on to build multiple multimillion 0:00:58.320 --> 0:01:01.400 dollar businesses, get her own net fie show. Now she's 0:01:01.440 --> 0:01:03.880 got a new shapewear line and a new TV show 0:01:03.920 --> 0:01:05.840 in the works, And Chris and I are going to 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:09.440 talk to her about dating from her perspective, getting married 0:01:09.440 --> 0:01:11.440 and divorced from her perspective, because she is in the 0:01:11.440 --> 0:01:15.560 middle of a very high profile multimillion dollar divorce right 0:01:15.560 --> 0:01:19.240 now and much much more. I actually have met Julia 0:01:19.319 --> 0:01:23.000 once before, interviewed her for Entertainment Tonight at her home 0:01:23.040 --> 0:01:26.200 in New York before her Netflix show premiered, but at 0:01:26.200 --> 0:01:29.480 that time she was married. Still, I met her husband 0:01:29.920 --> 0:01:32.039 in their penthouse. Since then, they've split up, so we 0:01:32.080 --> 0:01:33.759 have a lot to catch up with her on Babe. 0:01:33.800 --> 0:01:35.240 Were you a little blown away when you first heard 0:01:35.240 --> 0:01:35.679 her story? 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:38.959 Reading her story? I really wasn't aware of it, and 0:01:39.080 --> 0:01:41.800 I have so many questions I cannot wait to dive in, 0:01:41.920 --> 0:01:46.480 So let's get to it. Julia Hart, Hi, Thank Julia. 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:50.440 Julia, Hi, Hi, Julia. Do you remember me? I came 0:01:50.480 --> 0:01:53.560 to your house with et your penthouse and interviewed you 0:01:53.600 --> 0:01:56.720 before the first season of My UNORTHODOXYG Oh. 0:01:56.680 --> 0:01:59.520 My goodness, no, wonder you look so familiarly, so good 0:01:59.560 --> 0:01:59.960 to see you. 0:02:01.080 --> 0:02:02.880 Great to see you too, and we were in your 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:04.760 fabulous closet. 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:07.680 Are you Are you in la now? 0:02:07.720 --> 0:02:10.160 No, we live in Austin, And again I'm Laurence. This 0:02:10.200 --> 0:02:12.240 is my husband, Chris. It's so good to see you. 0:02:13.240 --> 0:02:15.320 Great to see you. You know I grew up in Austin. 0:02:15.560 --> 0:02:16.720 No, did you really? 0:02:17.680 --> 0:02:21.520 I left Moscow? When I was three, I spent two 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:27.600 years in internment camps, was like seven months in Vienna, Austria, 0:02:27.720 --> 0:02:34.960 and almost nine months in the Vatican in Rome. And 0:02:35.000 --> 0:02:38.440 then IBM hired both my parents and the first place 0:02:38.440 --> 0:02:40.680 we came to America was Austin, Texas, and I lived 0:02:40.680 --> 0:02:41.720 there until I was eleven. 0:02:43.520 --> 0:02:45.960 In that ten seconds you get a glimpse of the 0:02:46.080 --> 0:02:51.120 wild life Julia has led I. When you speak and 0:02:51.160 --> 0:02:53.760 you tell your story, it's like you don't know what 0:02:53.960 --> 0:02:56.040 this woman is going to say next. You have done 0:02:56.160 --> 0:02:59.480 so much and seen so much. So where did you 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:00.840 go after Austin. 0:03:02.480 --> 0:03:03.799 To the eighteen hundreds? 0:03:04.000 --> 0:03:06.600 Yes, you know what I couldn't remember. Chris was asking 0:03:06.639 --> 0:03:09.519 me where was that part of your life? Physically? The 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:10.360 what state were you in? 0:03:10.600 --> 0:03:13.679 Rock and County, New York state? Rock and upstate New York, 0:03:13.760 --> 0:03:15.960 Rock and County Muncie suffering. 0:03:16.120 --> 0:03:19.359 And when we say that state, this was so how 0:03:19.400 --> 0:03:24.440 old were you when you entered the ultra Orthodox Jewish? 0:03:25.080 --> 0:03:25.320 Ten? 0:03:25.880 --> 0:03:28.640 Ten years old? So up to this is like zero 0:03:28.680 --> 0:03:32.919 to ten. What was life you were just, I mean 0:03:33.240 --> 0:03:34.240 just Jewish life was. 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:37.920 First Moscow and then it was you know, living in 0:03:37.920 --> 0:03:41.280 the tent in Rome and having my first cherry and 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:45.400 my first slice of pizza, you know, and then coming 0:03:45.440 --> 0:03:48.760 to Austin, Texas, as you could imagine a five years 0:03:48.800 --> 0:03:52.160 I've been already been in four countries, four different languages, 0:03:54.480 --> 0:03:56.800 and you know, I got to go to public school. 0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:02.280 I learned English, and the first year that we were there, 0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:03.920 there was some kind of state tests because they were 0:04:03.960 --> 0:04:08.040 still trying to segregate blacks and lights to the seventies. Right, 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:12.960 Austin when I came in, was still not segregated, so 0:04:13.800 --> 0:04:16.599 it was still SegReg Yeah, I'm sorry, it was still segregate. 0:04:16.680 --> 0:04:21.760 They hadn't done and so the federal government forced desegregation, 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:26.120 and so Texas came up with their idea of, well, 0:04:26.160 --> 0:04:29.599 if we can't divide them by color, we'll divide them 0:04:29.680 --> 0:04:33.760 by test score, because they thought they were wrong, but 0:04:33.839 --> 0:04:36.000 they thought that black kids would score worse than white 0:04:36.080 --> 0:04:37.839 kids and then they wouldn't have to be bussed, and 0:04:37.880 --> 0:04:40.839 blah blah blah blah. And the end it failed. Yeah, 0:04:40.960 --> 0:04:43.919 in the end it failed, and busting worked and the 0:04:44.000 --> 0:04:47.400 schools became integrated. But that all happened when I came 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:49.200 to Texas. Of course, I didn't know any of this. 0:04:49.320 --> 0:04:52.200 I was a child. I was five years old, but 0:04:52.279 --> 0:04:56.280 I take the state test and I get the highest score, 0:04:56.720 --> 0:04:59.640 and I'm this little immigrant kid from Russia, and I'm 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:03.080 the first person in all of Texas that comes from Russia. 0:05:03.120 --> 0:05:06.000 Because this is before Peter Stroika, this is before Gorbachev. 0:05:06.520 --> 0:05:10.840 This is still ussr Resina, right, this is cold family, 0:05:12.080 --> 0:05:14.680 this is cold war. This is my parents and I 0:05:14.760 --> 0:05:20.600 were traded for grain through the Jackson Vanekvild. So this 0:05:20.640 --> 0:05:24.160 is real, full on cold war. And so it was 0:05:24.480 --> 0:05:27.320 first birthday in free world, you know, because it was 0:05:27.360 --> 0:05:29.000 so unusual. I was I think we were the first 0:05:29.080 --> 0:05:31.000 Russian family in the entire state of Texas. 0:05:31.040 --> 0:05:33.200 I never intended for this interview to go this direction, 0:05:33.240 --> 0:05:35.000 but so I grew up as a kid in Texas 0:05:35.000 --> 0:05:38.480 also in the seventies and eighties, so I remember those times, 0:05:39.360 --> 0:05:43.719 and I imagined being Russian at the time, Like were 0:05:43.760 --> 0:05:46.080 you mocked where you pointed out. 0:05:46.240 --> 0:05:49.440 I was just like this exotic plant, you know, So 0:05:50.160 --> 0:05:53.440 like people just wanted to like they were just fascinated 0:05:53.480 --> 0:05:56.279 because I was the only Russian they'd ever met. Totally, 0:05:57.200 --> 0:05:58.920 So it was kind of like, oh, let's go look 0:05:58.960 --> 0:06:03.680 at the Martians so far. But I have to tell 0:06:03.720 --> 0:06:07.480 you that I felt more at home and more comfortable 0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:11.280 and more myself when I was the only Jew in 0:06:11.279 --> 0:06:15.360 a public private school called Kirby Hall. You know it, 0:06:16.480 --> 0:06:20.159 I was their token Jew and there was one token plaque. 0:06:20.400 --> 0:06:23.440 And like people always say, like did I feel comfortable? 0:06:23.440 --> 0:06:27.880 Did I feel anti Semitism? There? Honestly, not an iota. 0:06:28.080 --> 0:06:31.000 There was this these two twins, they were Germans. I 0:06:31.080 --> 0:06:33.520 think their names were like Ulrick and Deep Trick or something. 0:06:34.200 --> 0:06:38.120 And when we learned about the Holocaust, they came over 0:06:38.160 --> 0:06:40.880 and like they hugged me, like we're really sorry, and 0:06:40.880 --> 0:06:44.839 I'm like, you don't have to about it, but it 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:48.320 was really beautiful. And then when I left, my math 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:51.919 teacher costured her kitchen. She was a vegetarian, so it 0:06:51.960 --> 0:06:53.960 was actually very easy for her because at that point 0:06:53.960 --> 0:06:56.599 I was already kosher. She costured her kitchen so that 0:06:56.680 --> 0:06:58.360 she could give me a going away party that I 0:06:58.400 --> 0:06:58.880 could eat at. 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:02.200 That's amazing. Well, and so you moved to New York, 0:07:02.279 --> 0:07:04.479 and I guess obviously your parents are the ones that 0:07:04.560 --> 0:07:06.520 dictate this. They decide we're going to move into this 0:07:06.640 --> 0:07:11.600 ultra orthodox Jewish community, and this is like stepping back 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:15.000 into the eighteen hundreds, right, I mean this is no TVs, 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:17.920 no devices, no radios. 0:07:18.280 --> 0:07:20.880 I always tell people I'm a time traveler. I lived 0:07:20.880 --> 0:07:23.160 in the eighteen hundreds until I was forty two years old. 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:25.200 I am eleven years old in this century. 0:07:25.360 --> 0:07:27.160 But what I didn't get was that you lived in 0:07:27.200 --> 0:07:29.960 the nineteen hundreds for quite some time, you know, almost 0:07:30.040 --> 0:07:32.760 until your teenage years. Then you joined this. 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:36.960 Yeah well no, no, no, we became religious much earlier. We 0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:45.800 became religious when I was around let's see six or seven. No, yeah, 0:07:45.800 --> 0:07:49.800 around six or seven. So we became religious in Texas. 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:52.640 Yeah right, my parents. My mother started wearing a wig, 0:07:52.720 --> 0:07:54.960 I started keeping kosher. I wasn't allowed to hang out 0:07:54.960 --> 0:07:57.679 with any of my non Jewish friends. I wasn't allowed 0:07:57.720 --> 0:08:00.000 to go on the weekends. I couldn't watch cartoons anywhere. 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:04.679 So it started before I actually came to Monseya. However, 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:07.440 when it got to monsey just the doors of the 0:08:07.440 --> 0:08:09.560 outside world closed completely. 0:08:10.560 --> 0:08:12.360 So were you mad at your parents for moving you 0:08:12.360 --> 0:08:13.520 out of Texas? 0:08:16.400 --> 0:08:20.760 At the time, I was fully indoctrinated, and that's what 0:08:20.840 --> 0:08:25.120 God wanted. And I shouldn't be with non Jews. They 0:08:25.160 --> 0:08:27.520 want to kill us. And by the way you look 0:08:27.560 --> 0:08:29.720 at what's going on today and you say to yourself, 0:08:30.120 --> 0:08:32.719 they're not wrong. I just don't think the answer is 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:35.400 hiding and separating yourself from the rest of the world. 0:08:35.840 --> 0:08:37.520 But I mean, there is a lot of hatred for 0:08:37.559 --> 0:08:40.000 the Jewish people, and so you know, I was brought 0:08:40.080 --> 0:08:42.480 up to think that every non Jews dangerous and wants 0:08:42.520 --> 0:08:45.040 to turn me into a lampshade and burn me in 0:08:45.040 --> 0:08:51.319 an oven. So you know it was us and them. 0:08:51.600 --> 0:08:53.839 Wow, Well, I'm glad that you found some warmth and 0:08:54.080 --> 0:08:57.520 welcome in Austin. I am despite all of these. 0:08:57.600 --> 0:09:00.520 I love Austin. I really do. Like Austin is one 0:09:00.600 --> 0:09:04.200 of They're my only happy childhood memories. They're all in 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:07.280 as before we became religious. They're the only ones I got. 0:09:07.440 --> 0:09:10.400 We've found there. There are such warm and loving people here, 0:09:10.440 --> 0:09:15.280 and so I'm glad to hear that despite the turbulent, 0:09:15.360 --> 0:09:17.880 to say the very least times that you and your 0:09:17.880 --> 0:09:21.000 family had lived through. Wow. Okay, yeah, I know I 0:09:21.040 --> 0:09:22.959 interviewed you before, but I'm like, I didn't know this 0:09:23.080 --> 0:09:26.200 origin story. Oh my gosh. And Chris is wrapping his 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:26.920 head around it all. 0:09:27.200 --> 0:09:30.040 There's a book I wrote because this show is my present. 0:09:30.600 --> 0:09:33.160 The book is my past. It's it goes to the 0:09:33.160 --> 0:09:37.120 whole story. And know, it's real interesting. It's in English, obviously, 0:09:37.200 --> 0:09:39.400 you know the other language it's been translated in so 0:09:39.480 --> 0:09:41.440 far German, German. 0:09:42.960 --> 0:09:43.640 That's interesting. 0:09:44.240 --> 0:09:45.120 It's interesting, right. 0:09:45.240 --> 0:09:47.040 Can I bring up a similarity you guys have really quick, 0:09:47.040 --> 0:09:48.959 because I feel like you should talk about this. Well, 0:09:49.040 --> 0:09:51.920 Chris is Jewish. Chris's whole family is Jewish, and he 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:54.280 grew up in Dallas, and you were really the only 0:09:54.360 --> 0:09:55.640 Jewish family you knew in Dallas. 0:09:55.720 --> 0:09:58.080 There was a there's a very tight knit Jewish community 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:00.079 in Dallas. Same thing here in Austin. It's it's a 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:03.319 small it's a small community in the seventies and eighties. Yeah, 0:10:03.360 --> 0:10:06.080 my parents, my family had been there for three generations, 0:10:06.160 --> 0:10:09.280 four generations now, and so yeah, there is a very small, 0:10:09.280 --> 0:10:12.160 tight knit group. And but yeah, they were you know, 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:16.880 ostracized and persecuted in their own ways growing up in Dallas. 0:10:16.920 --> 0:10:20.440 It was Texas and the seventies for sure. You know 0:10:20.559 --> 0:10:22.480 the story. My parents tell me stories about it all 0:10:22.480 --> 0:10:27.880 the time. But what's interesting is, I'm what I'm trying 0:10:27.880 --> 0:10:30.120 to wrap my head around is then this young girl 0:10:30.200 --> 0:10:33.839 goes into something that I think we would all like 0:10:33.960 --> 0:10:40.040 into a third world country where you disappear from Earth, 0:10:40.760 --> 0:10:43.040 but this is in New York. You're not this is 0:10:43.280 --> 0:10:45.240 this is happening in the United States, where there is 0:10:45.280 --> 0:10:48.120 this community that is not watching TV, not listening to 0:10:48.160 --> 0:10:51.680 the radio, not engaging with the outside world. And then 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:55.599 you emerge three decades later. You go in as a 0:10:55.640 --> 0:10:57.440 ten year old, you come out as a forty two 0:10:57.520 --> 0:10:58.240 year old woman. 0:10:58.800 --> 0:11:00.840 You know which movie? When I saw it, I was like, 0:11:00.880 --> 0:11:06.439 oh my god, that's me. It's a movie with Hugh Jackman. 0:11:06.280 --> 0:11:07.760 And Meg Ryan. 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:10.880 Meg Ryan. Yeah, what was it called, you know, Trying 0:11:10.880 --> 0:11:14.200 to Leopold. Yes, oh my god. 0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:20.120 Well one and only time that movie was ever mentioned. 0:11:20.200 --> 0:11:21.720 I like that movie. It's cute. 0:11:21.920 --> 0:11:23.680 But yeah, so that that that's what I was trying 0:11:23.679 --> 0:11:24.840 to think of, Like what's. 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:27.400 Yeah, that's what it felt like. It's you know, how 0:11:27.520 --> 0:11:31.400 he he The story is of Kate and Leopold. He 0:11:31.720 --> 0:11:34.480 falls through a wormhole in time from the eighteen hundreds 0:11:34.480 --> 0:11:36.840 and he lands in twenty first century New York City, 0:11:37.160 --> 0:11:41.440 and he's discombobulated and completely lost because it's it's like 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:46.880 going tomorrows such a different planet, and that those first 0:11:46.960 --> 0:11:49.600 days of his in the city. That's what it was 0:11:49.720 --> 0:11:52.600 like for me. Everything I was like, you know, my 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:56.040 eyes were like giant saucers, Like I thought everything was 0:11:56.080 --> 0:11:58.720 super exciting. I'd never been to a bar, I never 0:11:58.800 --> 0:12:03.199 kissed anyone I chose it. I'd never slept by myself, 0:12:03.400 --> 0:12:05.800 you know, like just things that people just so much 0:12:05.840 --> 0:12:11.040 take for granted. I never watched without permission. There's just 0:12:11.080 --> 0:12:16.000 so many things that you know, I'd never done, and 0:12:16.080 --> 0:12:18.640 I knew so I knew nothing about the outside world 0:12:18.640 --> 0:12:20.600 except when I read and watched. 0:12:20.840 --> 0:12:21.800 You were a mom at the time. 0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:22.800 Yeah, I know, Miriam. 0:12:22.880 --> 0:12:23.640 You had your daughter. 0:12:23.679 --> 0:12:24.840 Did you just for children? 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:26.120 Four kids at the time? 0:12:26.200 --> 0:12:30.520 Okay, yeah, kids, all my four kids were. My last 0:12:30.559 --> 0:12:32.040 child was born when I was thirty five. 0:12:32.200 --> 0:12:35.640 So and but man, you up and moved out of 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:38.600 this community and the safety net you had with four 0:12:38.720 --> 0:12:42.960 kids to take on the world. Yeah, that's a badass move. 0:12:43.440 --> 0:12:46.360 Great, it's an insane room to make. Honest, people don't 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:49.280 make it. Most people can't because you're just not equipped 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:51.480 to handle the outside world. You're really not. You don't know. 0:12:52.200 --> 0:12:54.760 I mean, I got, you know, roof feed and raped. 0:12:54.840 --> 0:12:57.280 I think the first year that I was out because 0:12:57.280 --> 0:12:59.640 I'd never heard of ro Hipnol. I didn't know you 0:12:59.679 --> 0:13:02.760 can't take a drink from I literally was like a 0:13:02.800 --> 0:13:05.439 five year old child. On one hand, I had this intellect, 0:13:05.480 --> 0:13:08.800 this talent, my herd, crazy work ethic, and on the 0:13:08.840 --> 0:13:12.119 other hand, I was like, what's a Madnum bottle of champagne? 0:13:12.200 --> 0:13:14.880 I don't know. I didn't know anything about anything. You know, 0:13:26.960 --> 0:13:27.400 what do you. 0:13:27.360 --> 0:13:33.760 Think was the key to your survival during that time? 0:13:33.880 --> 0:13:37.959 Because you were so lacking and like being educated on, 0:13:38.120 --> 0:13:40.360 like you said, the world, what was it in your 0:13:40.400 --> 0:13:43.200 inner personality? If there's one quality or one thing that 0:13:43.559 --> 0:13:46.280 made you push through all that, what was it? 0:13:46.480 --> 0:13:53.960 Governess? Governess can be. 0:13:54.760 --> 0:13:57.480 But you know, I think what you're hitting on is 0:13:57.480 --> 0:13:59.760 actually something Chris and I've been talking about so much lately, 0:13:59.760 --> 0:14:02.080 Becau because I just feel like, right now there's a 0:14:02.120 --> 0:14:08.120 lot of research and discussion about how, interestingly, despite all 0:14:08.400 --> 0:14:11.640 of the education and mental health help that we have 0:14:11.720 --> 0:14:14.840 for people, like more than ever before, people are like 0:14:15.160 --> 0:14:17.680 more depressed than ever before, and the suicide rates are up, 0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:22.240 and and it's just interesting to hear because you persevered 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:25.320 through so much, and I'm like you in your answer, 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:26.840 interesting me because you're like stubbornness. 0:14:26.840 --> 0:14:26.960 You know. 0:14:27.000 --> 0:14:29.400 It wasn't like like, oh, had I had, you know, 0:14:29.800 --> 0:14:31.680 a good therapist. It's like, now, I was just stubborn, 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:34.360 And sometimes I wonder if you know, I'm like, man, 0:14:34.520 --> 0:14:35.840 we need some of that resilience. 0:14:36.200 --> 0:14:38.760 That's the thing. Like, you know, I think, I think 0:14:38.800 --> 0:14:41.800 my biggest strengths were I'm an internal student. I don't 0:14:41.800 --> 0:14:44.320 assume I know anything. So I go and I deep 0:14:44.360 --> 0:14:47.920 dive and I study and I learn. I'm a voracious reader, 0:14:48.320 --> 0:14:51.280 and I have a pretty decent memory, so I tend to, 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:56.080 you know, retain when I read. But I think, you know, 0:14:56.160 --> 0:14:59.800 my success has all been around the unknown, right every 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:02.440 industry I've gone to, I've invented something. With the shoes, 0:15:02.560 --> 0:15:06.640 it was an organomically designed shoe with Laperla and the lingerie. 0:15:06.760 --> 0:15:09.800 It was the first ever stretch lace, the first clothing 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:12.720 that had cup sizes put inside, so you could buy 0:15:12.760 --> 0:15:14.960 things not just by your dress size, but by your 0:15:14.960 --> 0:15:20.280 cup size. I come to WG. It's a modeling agency 0:15:20.360 --> 0:15:23.120 valued at seventy million dollars in two years through COVID, 0:15:23.160 --> 0:15:26.000 I built it into a billion dollar business by transforming 0:15:26.040 --> 0:15:31.480 it into a media conglomerate, using my talent as brands 0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:34.720 and networks and building them up so that they can 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:37.960 shift the power dynamic there in control now and they 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:42.240 can elongate their career because to me, I didn't care 0:15:42.280 --> 0:15:46.360 if you walked, you know, a runway, or it was 0:15:46.440 --> 0:15:49.080 a tennis court or a football stadium. I didn't care 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:52.680 what your area of expertise was. I just understood that 0:15:52.880 --> 0:15:56.800 social media is the new television, it's the new magazine, 0:15:56.840 --> 0:15:58.400 and so if we can put the power in the 0:15:58.440 --> 0:16:02.000 hands of our talent, the power dynamic, and now it's 0:16:02.000 --> 0:16:05.880 the magazines and the editors and the creative director's chasing 0:16:05.920 --> 0:16:09.320 after them because they have the audience. They're the media. 0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:14.160 So everything I've done has always been to disrupt whatever 0:16:14.240 --> 0:16:18.080 industry I've gone into, turn things upside down, and do 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:20.040 things the way that I think they should be done 0:16:20.080 --> 0:16:22.920 instead of the way they're currently being done. And I 0:16:22.960 --> 0:16:26.520 think that my not being educated in a certain way 0:16:26.640 --> 0:16:29.040 where I was, you know, like this is fashion, this 0:16:29.120 --> 0:16:33.560 is this. So it's always been going into industry turning 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:37.360 it upside down, finding the spaces and the holes in between, 0:16:37.640 --> 0:16:39.640 which is again what I did with my plus body 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:42.440 shapewear brand. Right, Why did I start a shapewear brand 0:16:42.480 --> 0:16:44.880 for the same reason. It's the same idea, always innovation, 0:16:45.040 --> 0:16:49.160 always helping women. Because I saw Bridget Jones's diary much 0:16:49.240 --> 0:16:52.760 later than most people. Okay, but I watched that scene 0:16:52.800 --> 0:16:55.680 where she's sitting on the on her bed and she 0:16:55.720 --> 0:16:58.840 has to decide does she wear the shapewear. She'll look 0:16:58.880 --> 0:17:00.960 better in her dress, she'll get grant, but then she 0:17:00.960 --> 0:17:03.080 can't bring him home because no woman wants to get 0:17:03.240 --> 0:17:07.320 caught dead in shapewear beije white and black. It's super ugly. 0:17:08.080 --> 0:17:10.639 So I started thinking, I say, okay, I don't want 0:17:10.680 --> 0:17:14.280 women to ever feel ashamed or humiliated. How can I 0:17:14.320 --> 0:17:16.680 make shapewear sexy so that if you take it off, 0:17:17.200 --> 0:17:19.280 nobody's going to realize that it's shape or to begin with. 0:17:20.280 --> 0:17:23.600 And that's how Plus Body started. So everything I've done, 0:17:23.880 --> 0:17:27.080 it's always about going into an industry, figuring out what 0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:28.560 women need and giving it to them. 0:17:28.680 --> 0:17:30.600 To think about where you came from. So you're forty 0:17:30.640 --> 0:17:34.920 two years old, and first of all that starting life 0:17:35.000 --> 0:17:38.600 and starting business and starting an entrepreneurship at forty two 0:17:39.960 --> 0:17:42.200 crazy like you kind of took everything and turned it 0:17:42.240 --> 0:17:46.439 upside down right. The modern I guess diagram of this 0:17:46.680 --> 0:17:49.480 is I get my undergraduate degree at an institution of 0:17:49.560 --> 0:17:53.000 higher learning, I go to a business school, I network, 0:17:53.080 --> 0:17:55.600 and in my twenties and in my thirties, I get 0:17:55.600 --> 0:17:57.919 here and then maybe by the time you're in your 0:17:57.960 --> 0:18:01.880 forties you start making these moves. You basically were birthed 0:18:02.280 --> 0:18:08.240 at forty two without all the other stuff. How do 0:18:08.280 --> 0:18:13.159 you figure that you were able to accomplish what it 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:17.320 took others decades of schooling and grinding and networking to do. 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:21.440 Two answers. The first one's kind of embarrassing, but it's true. 0:18:21.480 --> 0:18:24.560 And I started my shoe brand. I had no idea 0:18:24.680 --> 0:18:28.359 how hard like. If I had actually known what is 0:18:28.520 --> 0:18:30.639 entailed in starting a brand, I never would have tried it. 0:18:30.880 --> 0:18:35.040 But I was so incredibly ignorant that my basic philosophy 0:18:35.200 --> 0:18:39.320 was I've time traveled from the eighteen hundreds and survived 0:18:39.920 --> 0:18:42.840 shoe brand. That's going to be easy. That was literally 0:18:42.880 --> 0:18:45.840 my thinking. I just had no clue how difficult it 0:18:45.880 --> 0:18:49.040 would be. And then again, part two, I would say, 0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:52.400 is the fact that I had time traveled, I had 0:18:52.440 --> 0:18:56.480 done the unthinkable. And most women who leave my community, 0:18:56.920 --> 0:19:01.119 they end up committing suicide or going to drugs because 0:19:01.560 --> 0:19:03.680 you aren't equipped to handle the outside world. You're really 0:19:03.720 --> 0:19:06.320 not equipped to handle the twenty first century. I know 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:11.320 over twelve people who have committed suicide. Leaving right it's 0:19:11.359 --> 0:19:14.719 an almost impossible thing to do, it really is. So 0:19:14.760 --> 0:19:17.879 when I survived that, and I was still smiling and standing, 0:19:17.920 --> 0:19:21.640 and my children were with me, which never happens. Basically, 0:19:21.720 --> 0:19:24.440 you leave, you leave without your kids. So the fact 0:19:24.440 --> 0:19:26.919 that I had managed to bring my children along and 0:19:26.960 --> 0:19:29.359 I was still standing, I was like, Julie, you're just 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:32.640 time traveled. You can do anything. And so I went 0:19:32.680 --> 0:19:33.160 and did it. 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:37.280 Yeah, I mean, it's beyond culture shock. You time traveled, 0:19:37.320 --> 0:19:40.600 it's world shock. You stepped away from something like you said, 0:19:40.640 --> 0:19:45.119 you'd been indoctrinated into. So, I mean, Julia, you've reinvented 0:19:45.160 --> 0:19:49.320 yourself on a level that people would aspire to. I think, 0:19:49.400 --> 0:19:52.800 not just once, but multiple times. Because then not only 0:19:52.840 --> 0:19:55.119 did you leave that world, but and you succeeded in 0:19:55.200 --> 0:19:57.320 so many businesses. And then you got a Netflix show, 0:19:57.359 --> 0:20:00.639 My Unorthodox Life, and you wrote a book. So and 0:20:00.760 --> 0:20:03.040 now I mean, I know you've even got a new 0:20:03.040 --> 0:20:06.240 show you're working on with Jill Zarin, former Real Housewife 0:20:06.280 --> 0:20:09.479 of New York and I think you're single and you're 0:20:09.560 --> 0:20:10.119 dating again. 0:20:10.160 --> 0:20:12.840 Now, yes, I am no any does. 0:20:14.119 --> 0:20:16.120 What if you learned in this kind of second round 0:20:16.200 --> 0:20:19.520 of reinvention of like becoming getting divorced, becoming single and 0:20:19.600 --> 0:20:21.520 now doing reality TV? 0:20:22.520 --> 0:20:24.840 What a great question. Thank you. I think you're the 0:20:24.840 --> 0:20:27.119 first person to ask me that I love this question. 0:20:28.160 --> 0:20:31.000 I have learned a lot because I think, oh gosh, again, 0:20:31.080 --> 0:20:33.360 I don't have a filter. One of these days I'm 0:20:33.359 --> 0:20:35.479 going to learn how to not tell everything out. But 0:20:35.920 --> 0:20:38.640 you know, look, if the purpose of what I'd done, 0:20:38.960 --> 0:20:40.760 of telling my story is to help other people, I 0:20:40.760 --> 0:20:42.520 gotta tell it I like it is, with all the 0:20:42.520 --> 0:20:45.400 bumps and words and bruises. Otherwise it doesn't help anybody. 0:20:47.320 --> 0:20:51.760 As fierce and independent and confident as I was in business, 0:20:52.840 --> 0:20:56.960 until I went through the monstrously horrible divorce that I've 0:20:56.960 --> 0:21:01.720 had to go through, I did not knowledge and recognize 0:21:01.720 --> 0:21:06.200 that I was still that woman in my personal life. 0:21:06.400 --> 0:21:08.879 I was still trying to please the man, make the 0:21:08.920 --> 0:21:14.520 man happy. It was so indoctrinated into me that the 0:21:14.600 --> 0:21:17.199 man is always right, and that it's my job to 0:21:17.240 --> 0:21:21.000 be pleasing that as much as I had eviscerbated that 0:21:21.080 --> 0:21:24.040 from my brain when it came to business, and I 0:21:24.200 --> 0:21:27.400 was fierce and fearless. When it came to my personal life, 0:21:27.440 --> 0:21:32.520 I was still little miss homemaker. And I didn't recognize 0:21:32.560 --> 0:21:36.640 that until the blank hit the fan, right, and then 0:21:36.680 --> 0:21:40.320