Bert Girigorie: Wendy Williams’ First Husband, Biography, Career & Net Worth

Bertrand “Bert” Girigorie is an American sales and marketing executive from Charlotte, North Carolina. He lives in Charlotte, runs his own digital marketing firm, and is best known to the public as the first husband of Wendy Williams, the television host and former shock jock. His main source of income comes from his role as president of G2 Marketing Inc., the company he founded in 2010. The Bert Girigorie story is unusual because almost everything about it runs in the opposite direction of celebrity culture: a five-month marriage to a rising star, followed by three decades of quiet, private, professional life.

Published net worth estimates for Bert Girigorie range roughly from $700,000 to $3 million, depending on the source. Most serious writeups cluster in the lower half of that band, around $700,000 to $1.5 million. He has never disclosed his finances publicly, so treat every figure as an estimate. In this article, you will get the full picture: his real name, his family, his Morehouse College education, his years in New York radio sales, what actually happened during his brief marriage to Wendy Williams, and how he built the business that defines his life today.

Bert Girigorie Profile Summary

Full Name	Bertrand “Bert” Girigorie
Born	March 13, 1964
Age	62 years old (as of 2026)
Birthplace	Charlotte, North Carolina, United States
Residence	Charlotte, North Carolina
Nationality	American
Ethnicity	African-American
Height	6 feet 2 inches (189 cm)
Education	Morehouse College, Atlanta, Georgia
Profession	Sales and marketing executive, entrepreneur
Company	G2 Marketing Inc. (Founder and President, since 2010)
Marriage	Wendy Williams (1994–1995)
Children	None publicly known
Net Worth	Estimated $700,000–$3 million (2026)
Famous For	Being the first husband of media personality Wendy Williams

Who Is Bert Girigorie?

Bert Girigorie is a marketing executive and entrepreneur whose name keeps resurfacing in celebrity coverage for one reason: he was married to Wendy Williams before she became the daytime television star the world knows today. They met in the New York City radio scene in the early 1990s, when both were working in and around the same stations. They married in 1994, separated about five months later, and finalized their divorce in 1995.

Here is the twist. Girigorie never used that connection to build a public career. He did not write a tell-all book. He did not chase talk-show appearances or launch a reality arc. Instead, he went home to Charlotte, built a digital marketing agency, and stayed there. For more than two decades he said almost nothing publicly about the marriage at all. That restraint is exactly what makes his story worth telling.

Bert Girigorie Early Life and Education

Bert Girigorie was born on March 13, 1964, in Charlotte, North Carolina. He grew up in a close-knit Christian household alongside two siblings, his brother Bruce Girigorie and his sister Gabrielle Girigorie. Church was a regular part of family life. That faith-centered upbringing shows up in almost every profile written about him, and those who know him in Charlotte’s business community describe him as faith-oriented to this day.

Public details about his childhood stay limited, which is normal for someone who never sought the spotlight himself. What is well documented is where he went to college. Girigorie attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, one of the most respected historically Black colleges in the United States. Morehouse has produced generations of business leaders, pastors, and public servants. It is a school that takes character development as seriously as coursework, and Girigorie’s disciplined, low-key career reflects that training.

What Bert Girigorie Studied at Morehouse

Multiple outlets report that he studied business administration at Morehouse, which lines up perfectly with the career he built later. His exact major and graduation year are not publicly confirmed. He is also reported to have joined the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity during his college years, a brotherhood with a long tradition of leadership and community service. Between the classroom training in business and the network he built at Morehouse, he left Atlanta with the tools he would spend the next forty years using.

Bert Girigorie Career Beginnings in New York Radio

After finishing college, Bert Girigorie moved into the advertising and radio sales industry. He landed a job as an account executive at KISS FM in New York City, where he worked from roughly 1991 to 1996. Radio ad sales in early-1990s New York was a brutal, high-pressure business. Dozens of stations fought over the same advertisers. Winning accounts meant pitching fast, reading audiences well, and building trust that lasted.

Girigorie reportedly thrived in that environment. Colleagues and profile writers describe him as reliable, personable, and results-driven. Those years gave him a practical education in persuasive communication, client relationship management, and audience behavior that no classroom could match. That foundation would later become the backbone of his own company.

It was also during this New York period that his personal life took its famous turn. Wendy Williams was then a young radio personality climbing through the city’s competitive stations. The two worked in overlapping circles. What started as a professional acquaintance became a romance, and eventually a wedding that neither of their lives would ever quite repeat.

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How Bert Girigorie Met Wendy Williams

Bert Girigorie and Wendy Williams met while both were working in New York radio in the early 1990s. He was selling advertising; she was becoming known as an on-air personality with an unfiltered, confrontational style that stood out even in a city full of loud voices. According to RadarOnline‘s reporting, they started dating in 1992 and spent about two years together before getting married.

Wendy later described her attraction to him in her memoir. She noticed his strong build, his calm presence, and the quiet confidence he carried in a workplace where volume was the currency. At 6 feet 2 inches, he stood out physically. What drew her in, though, was his steadiness. He was not a performer. He was a businessman, and that grounded quality appealed to her.

The relationship moved at a normal pace. They dated, got serious, and decided to marry. The wedding took place in 1994 in a ceremony attended by family, reportedly officiated by a pastor connected to Wendy’s childhood church. Nothing about the day suggested what was coming. Within months, the marriage would be one of the most discussed short-lived unions in celebrity media.

Bert Girigorie and Wendy Williams: The Marriage

The marriage did not go smoothly for long. In a rare 2019 interview with RadarOnline, Girigorie described it bluntly. He said Wendy turned into a different person after the wedding, and he found the shift confusing and hard to understand. He called the whole marriage “very bizarre.” It is the most detailed public account he has ever given, and it arrived nearly twenty-five years after the divorce.

According to multiple accounts, tension surfaced almost immediately. The couple clashed over lifestyle differences and trust issues. Girigorie later said he had doubts as early as the wedding day itself. He found it strange that Wendy had a reporter from a magazine and a photographer ride with them in the limousine from the church to the reception. A wedding day, in his view, should have been a private moment. That instinct would define the rest of his life.

They separated after approximately five months of marriage. The divorce was finalized in 1995, about a year and a half after the wedding. They had no children together. Wendy would go on to marry Kevin Hunter in the late 1990s, a marriage that lasted more than two decades and produced her only child, Kevin Hunter Jr., born in 2000.

The Rio Honeymoon and the First Cracks

Their honeymoon in Rio de Janeiro became the most retold episode of the short marriage. Girigorie recalled that Wendy insisted on spending a night out alone during the trip, which struck him as deeply odd for newlyweds. The disagreement that followed became a major blowout. Looking back, he saw it as an early sign that the marriage was not going to work.

He was not the only one with that memory. Wendy has also described the marriage as brief and troubled, saying in her 2021 Lifetime special that she married in 1994 but only stayed for five months. On the basic timeline, both ex-spouses agree.

Why the Marriage Ended

The reasons for the split are contested in tone but consistent in broad strokes. Girigorie pointed to Wendy’s erratic behavior during the marriage, which he later came to suspect was connected to substance use. He told RadarOnline he had been unaware of any drug use while they were together. She kept it hidden from him, he said. Looking back, he believed addiction might explain behavior he could not understand at the time.

Wendy, for her part, has spoken openly about battling cocaine addiction during that era of her life. In her memoir, Wendy’s Got the Heat, she described an incident during one of their arguments that portrayed Girigorie in a negative light. Girigorie has firmly denied ever physically harming her. The disagreement over what happened inside that marriage has never been resolved, and Girigorie has generally refused to escalate it in public.

He also claimed that after the breakup, people began telling him stories suggesting infidelity had played a role. He declined to name anyone, saying it could harm other people’s marriages. His final position was simple: he did not wish her ill will, and he hoped she would find peace of mind.

Bert Girigorie Life After the Divorce

After the divorce, Bert Girigorie made a deliberate choice. He stepped away from anything connected to the spotlight and rebuilt his life as a private person. That choice held for more than two decades. He declined interviews, avoided commentary about Wendy’s rising fame, and refused to turn a five-month marriage into a career. Few former celebrity spouses manage that kind of discipline.

Professionally, he kept working in sales and marketing, carrying the skills from his radio years into the broader business world. By the late 2000s, he had accumulated nearly two decades of experience in advertising sales, client management, and business development. He was ready to build something of his own. The question was when, and the answer arrived in 2010.

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Bert Girigorie’s Company: G2 Marketing Inc.

In 2010, Bert Girigorie founded G2 Marketing Inc., a digital marketing and business strategy firm headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. As founder and president, he oversees strategic planning, client relationships, and business development. The firm has now operated successfully for more than fifteen years, far longer than his brief period of public attention.

Starting an independent agency takes more than ambition. It requires industry credibility, a trustworthy client base, and a deep understanding of how markets actually behave. Girigorie had spent years developing all three. G2 Marketing became the professional identity he had been building toward since his KISS FM days, and it remains the center of his working life today.

What G2 Marketing Inc. Does

G2 Marketing primarily serves small and medium-sized businesses that need structured help growing their digital presence. Its reported service areas include digital marketing strategy and campaign planning, brand development and positioning, business consulting and revenue development, event management and promotional planning, and direct mail blended with modern digital work. The firm has reportedly served more than 100 clients across the southeastern United States, including businesses in real estate, healthcare, and finance.

Under Girigorie’s leadership, the company has built a reputation for practical, results-oriented strategy rather than one-size-fits-all packages. Client testimonials describe sound, strategic solutions tailored to each business’s specific challenges. He has also continued his own professional development, including coursework related to data processing, keeping pace with a digital landscape that changes constantly.

Bert Girigorie Net Worth: The Honest Estimate

Here is the part you came for. Bert Girigorie net worth in 2026 is estimated somewhere between $700,000 and $3 million. The most commonly cited figures sit in the $700,000 to $1.5 million range. No outlet has access to his books, and his company’s revenues are private, so every number you see online is an educated guess built from his career length, his business ownership, and the typical economics of a small agency run for fifteen-plus years.

What the estimates agree on is the source of the wealth. It comes from decades of sales and marketing work and the agency he owns, not from any financial windfall connected to his former marriage. The 1995 divorce predates the bulk of Wendy Williams’s earnings from The Wendy Williams Show (2008–2021). Whatever the exact figure, this is a fortune built slowly, through payroll-sized decisions rather than headlines.

Why the Estimates Disagree

The range is wide because the inputs are private. One outlet’s $700,000 and another’s $3 million both describe the same reality: a successful small-business owner who has never filed celebrity-scale earnings. Smaller outlets tend to anchor low, around $500,000 to $1 million. Broader trackers push higher, toward $3 million, possibly assuming stronger agency revenues.

Source Type	2026 Estimate	Note
Conservative bio writeups	$500,000–$1 million	Based on salary history, limited company data
Mid-range trackers	$700,000–$1.5 million	Most common band cited online
Higher-end profiles	$1–$3 million	Assume strong agency revenue over 15+ years

The honest takeaway is a range, not a headline number. Girigorie has kept his financial details private, and he has earned that privacy. Unlike many people attached to celebrities, he never converted the connection into income.

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Bert Girigorie Personal Life Today

As of 2026, Bert Girigorie is 62 years old and continues to live in Charlotte, North Carolina, the city where he was born and raised. He maintains a notably private lifestyle. There is no verified public record of him having remarried or having children since his divorce from Wendy Williams. He has chosen not to discuss his romantic life in public, and that boundary has held.

He keeps a modest social media presence, including an X account (@BertGirigorie) where he shares marketing insights and professional commentary rather than personal updates. His LinkedIn profile lists the Charlotte Metro area and a substantial professional network. Those who know him in Charlotte’s business circles describe him as disciplined, faith-oriented, and committed to his work.

He has also stayed silent about Wendy Williams’s well-documented later struggles, including the guardianship proceedings that have controlled aspects of her finances since 2022. He did not appear in the 2024 Lifetime documentary Where Is Wendy Williams? He made his one detailed statement in 2019 and has said little since. For a man who could have spent thirty years talking about a famous ex-wife, the silence says everything.

Frequently Asked Questions About Bert Girigorie

Who is Bert Girigorie?

Bert Girigorie is an American sales and marketing executive and entrepreneur from Charlotte, North Carolina. He is best known publicly as the first husband of Wendy Williams, but his own career spans decades, including his current role as president of G2 Marketing Inc.

How old is Bert Girigorie?

Bert Girigorie was born on March 13, 1964, which makes him 62 years old as of 2026. He turns 63 in March 2027.

What is Bert Girigorie’s real full name?

His full name is reported as Bertrand Girigorie, with “Bert” as his everyday name. Most outlets simply call him Bert Girigorie.

When did Bert Girigorie marry Wendy Williams?

The couple married in 1994 after dating for about two years. They separated roughly five months later, and the divorce was finalized in 1995.

Why did Bert Girigorie and Wendy Williams get divorced?

Girigorie described the marriage as “very bizarre” and said Wendy changed noticeably after the wedding. He pointed to erratic behavior, suspected substance use he only recognized in hindsight, and stories of infidelity he heard after the split. Wendy has disputed his account of their arguments.

Does Bert Girigorie have children?

There is no public record of Bert Girigorie having children from any relationship, including his marriage to Wendy Williams. He has kept his personal life private since the divorce.

What company does Bert Girigorie run?

He is the founder and president of G2 Marketing Inc., a digital marketing and business strategy firm based in Charlotte, North Carolina. He founded the company in 2010 and still leads it today.

What is Bert Girigorie’s net worth?

His estimated net worth is reported between $700,000 and $3 million, with most writeups clustering around $700,000 to $1.5 million. The figures are unverified estimates based on his career and business ownership.

Is Bert Girigorie married now?

There is no public information confirming a current marriage for Bert Girigorie. He has stayed silent about his romantic life since his divorce from Wendy Williams in 1995.

Where did Bert Girigorie go to college?

He attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, where he reportedly studied business administration and joined the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity.

Conclusion

Bert Girigorie’s story is often reduced to a single line in someone else’s biography: the first husband of Wendy Williams. But his life reflects far more than a five-month marriage from the mid-1990s. From his upbringing in Charlotte and his education at Morehouse College, to his early career in New York radio sales and the founding of G2 Marketing Inc., he has spent three decades building a career defined by consistency, privacy, and professional integrity.

While Wendy Williams’s life played out in the public eye, Bert chose the opposite path, one built on business, faith, and quiet stability. His story is a reminder that a brief brush with fame never has to define a whole life. You can read more about Wendy Williams’s own career on Wikipedia, and see Girigorie’s rare firsthand account of the marriage in his 2019 interview with RadarOnline.