[Image: Metro Goldwyn Mayer / IMDb]
Ask the average person who they think tops the list of the richest celebrities, and you’ll hear the usual suspects: Taylor Swift, Oprah, maybe even Clooney with his coffee commercials.
But lurking in the shadows of Hollywood’s A-list is a star whose bank account leaves them all in the dust, and odds are, you wouldn’t even recognise her at Starbucks.
Enter Jami Gertz. Yep, that Jami Gertz, the queen of ’80s cinema cool with credits like Endless Love, Sixteen Candles, Less Than Zero, and The Lost Boys.
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She even popped up on TV hits like Seinfeld, ER, and Ally McBeal back in the day.
But while she’s been keeping a low profile lately, her net worth is shouting from the rooftops. According to Hello!, Gertz and her husband, Tony Ressler, are sitting on a casual $8 billion fortune. That’s billion with a “B” – enough to buy their own streaming platform and still have change for a private island.
And no, before you ask, she didn’t just hitch a ride on a rich guy’s yacht.
“Everyone thinks I married a rich guy,” she said. “But I made more money — way more money — than Tony when I met him. I paid for our first house. I paid for our first vacation. I married him because I fell in love with him.”
You tell ’em, Jami.
Back when they met, Ressler was still clocking in as a banker. Flash forward a bit, and he co-founds Apollo Global in 1990. Not enough? Fine – in 1997, he doubles down and launches Ares Management, which he humbly described as a “$125-ish billion asset manager.”
“I guess the right quote would be, ‘We’re the most amazing investment firm in the history of the universe,’” Ressler told The Hollywood Reporter. Modest guy, clearly.
In 2015, the duo flexed their billionaire muscles and bought the Atlanta Hawks for a reported $720 million. Because why not? They also hold a minority stake in the Milwaukee Brewers, just casually collecting pro sports teams like other couples collect wine glasses.
And while their wallets are clearly stacked, they’ve also made philanthropy a serious part of their legacy. Together, they started the nonprofit Painted Turtle Camp, giving kids with chronic and life-threatening illnesses a chance to enjoy the magic of campfires and s’mores.
“We had such good memories of our own experiences at camp, and want to make sure that all sorts of kids get that chance, no matter what their circumstances,” Gertz wrote in a 2008 Huffington Post essay.
They’ve also got a full house of their own: three sons, Oliver, Nicholas, and Theo. And with parents like that, you can bet the group chat is anything but boring.
[Source: Parade]
