Nadine Caridi was a 22-year-old model when she met stockbroker Jordan Belfort at a party in the Hamptons, and they were engaged six months later — but their 14-year marriage was marked by accusations of infidelity and drug addiction.
Dr. Nadine Macaluso/InstagramNadine Caridi, now known by her new surname Macaluso, was Jordan Belfort’s second wife, portrayed in The Wolf of Wall Street by Margot Robbie.
Even if you’ve never heard of Nadine Caridi, it’s likely that you’re familiar with the Wolf of Wall Street character she inspired: Naomi Laptaglia. In the film, Lapaglia was portrayed by Margot Robbie as the second wife of stock market fraudster Jordan Belfort, the titular “Wolf” played by Leonardo DiCaprio.
Like her on-screen character, the real-life Lapaglia, Nadine Caridi (now Nadine Macaluso), was a model who met Belfort while he was still married to his first wife, Denise Lombardo.
Caridi and Belfort would eventually wed, but their marriage was troubled, even according to Belfort’s own admissions about his life at the time. Caridi accused Belfort of infidelity and domestic violence, and the two ultimately divorced in 2005.
However, Caridi has not shied away from the public eye as Belfort’s first wife did. In fact, she went on to have a lucrative career in California as a therapist, and she now posts on social media to educate women about abusive relationships and emotional manipulation.
This is the story of Nadine Caridi and her relationship with Jordan Belfort.
Nadine Caridi’s Life Before Meeting “The Wolf Of Wall Street”
Nadine Caridi was born in London, England, on Dec. 24, 1967, but she grew up in the Bay Ridge neighborhood of Brooklyn. She was a bright student who graduated from high school early, but after starting college, she realized she couldn’t afford to continue.
Dr. Nadine Macaluso/InstagramYoung Nadine Caridi during her time as a model.
“I was working in the city, and people would come up to me and say, ‘You should be a model,'” she told Business Insider in 2022.
She soon signed with the agency Elite Petite and landed jobs with Wrigley’s gum, Miller Lite, and Seagram’s. In an effort to advance her career, she made plans to move to Los Angeles and give acting a shot — but then she met Jordan Belfort.
Caridi’s Life As Jordan Belfort’s Wife
The beginning of Nadine Caridi and Jordan Belfort’s relationship was shockingly similar to its portrayal in The Wolf of Wall Street, when Jonah Hill’s character, Donnie Azoff (who is loosely based on Belfort’s real-life business partner Danny Porush), exposes himself at a rowdy party.
Dr. Nadine Macaluso/InstagramJordan Belfort and Nadine Caridi had a lavish Caribbean wedding that reportedly cost upwards of $750,000 in 1991.
“When I first met Jordan, it was in the Hamptons in the early ’90s. He was throwing a party in what exemplified the excess of Wall Street, money, and youth,” Macaluso recalled in a piece she wrote for Newsweek in 2022. “The movie got it right — someone did expose themselves to me, and I immediately wanted to leave. Jordan sought me out after the party. We ended up falling in love and getting married.”
That marriage happened earlier than Nadine Caridi would have liked, however. Belfort was reportedly relentless in his pursuit of her, telling her that she wouldn’t have to work anymore because he could afford to pay for her. He sent her gifts, bought her luxurious items, and flaunted her like she was a trophy.
Dr. Nadine Macaluso/InstagramA young Nadine Caridi.
“After the pain of my parents’ divorce when I was six, I promised myself not to marry until I was 30. Jordan, however, had a different plan,” Macaluso later recalled. “He was determined for us to become fully committed at warp speed. After dating only six months, he threatened to leave me if I refused to marry him… I drove past those red flags like Jordan in his Ferrari.”
The press, meanwhile, came to refer to Nadine Caridi as the “Duchess of Bay Ridge” due to the lavish lifestyle she and Belfort were living.
The two were married for 14 years, including during Belfort’s most turbulent time with Stratton Oakmont. But from the outside, it looked like they were living the perfect life of luxury.
The Turbulent Final Years Of Nadine Caridi And Jordan Belfort’s Marriage
Dr. Nadine Macaluso/InstagramNadine and Jordan Belfort with their two children.
Belfort purchased a yacht and named it Nadine after his wife. It later sank off the coast of Sardinia in 1996.
Behind the scenes, though, their relationship was anything but idyllic. In both the film and Belfort’s own book, his abuse of Nadine Caridi is made apparent, and his drug habit was only getting worse. That, of course, doesn’t even take into account their legal troubles.
And while The Wolf of Wall Street portrays Belfort’s affairs as the main source of their arguments, Caridi has claimed many of their marital problems stemmed from her husband’s drug use.
Paramount PicturesMargot Robbie and Leonardo DiCaprio as Naomi Lapaglia and Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street.
Nadine Caridi eventually tried to hold an intervention for Belfort, telling him, “I’m not going to sit here and watch you kill yourself like everyone else, just because you make them money, I’m not going to be a part of that.”
Just one year later, Belfort was arrested for money laundering and securities fraud.
“Finally,” Macaluso wrote, “I felt as though I was able to leave him. People think I left because he lost all of our money, but I ended the marriage because I felt I finally could. I felt safe.”
From The “Duchess Of Bay Ridge” To Successful Psychologist
During her marriage to Jordan Belfort, Nadine Caridi had started her own maternity business, so she didn’t suddenly lose everything when her husband was arrested. Still, how does someone recover from such an abrupt change — let alone come to terms with the nature of their spouse’s crimes?
“That relationship sent me right into therapy,” Caridi later recalled.
Dr. Nadine Macaluso/InstagramNadine Caridi pictured with her children.
Through therapy, Nadine Caridi realized the abuse she suffered during her marriage to Belfort. It wasn’t just the physical abuse, either, though Caridi did claim that Belfort once kicked her down the stairs. According to Caridi, Belfort was controlling and manipulative. “My autonomy, my agency, my individuality was very squashed while I was married to him,” she told Business Insider.
However, around the time her divorce was finalized and she began seeing a therapist, Caridi met her second husband, John Macaluso. The two have been together ever since.
Nadine Caridi found therapy and meditation to be so beneficial in the aftermath of her divorce from Belfort that she decided, at the age of 39, to go back to school, receiving a master’s degree from Pacifica Graduate Institute and then earning a Ph.D. in counseling and somatic psychology.
Dr. Nadine Macaluso/InstagramDr. Nadine Macaluso is now a bestselling author and psychotherapist.
“Therapy saved my life,” she said. “I want to really give back to others and be of service. I’m always that type of person that’s searching and wanting to grow.”
In service of that goal, Macaluso wrote a book about trauma bonding — forming deep attachments as a result of a cycle of abuse followed by positive reinforcement — and posts regularly on social media encouraging other women in similar situations to leave abusive relationships.
“Nothing I’m doing is to harm Jordan,” she clarified in her Newsweek article, “this is for every woman who has gone through something like this and has the right to voice their experience.”
After learning about Nadine Caridi, the second wife of Jordan Belfort, read about Julianna Farrait, the wife of “American Gangster” Frank Lucas. Or, dive into the story of Hetty Green, the “Witch of Wall Street.”
