Dorinda Medley’s second husband Richard Medley was, by all accounts, a kind and generous man, a loving husband and father, and a success at his business. But how did Richard Medley die? Dorinda isn’t reluctant to bring him up on The Real Housewives of New York, or her affiliated blog, but does so rarely, leaving many fans to look elsewhere for clues.
According to Richard’s official obituary, Dorinda Medley’s husband passed away on November 16th, 2011, following “a brief illness.” He was 60. Though friends and family were shocked by the relatively young age at which death took him, Richard did have an unusually productive life: he served in the Air Force from 1970 to 1973, and made Airman First Class; he received four degrees from Ohio State and Yale, including a Ph.D in political philosophy; he founded and served as the CEO of his own “geopolitical and economic intelligence firm dedicated to providing hedge funds and high-net-worth clients with advance news alerts”; he was head speechwriter for Geraldine Ferraro’s speech during the 1984 presidential campaign; and he was a close business associate of George Soros, with whom Richard made millions of dollars.
Richard and Dorinda had been married for six years when he fell ill. Unfortunately, Richard’s “brief illness” led to liver failure; despite care at New York’s Presbyterian Medical Center, liver failure was what ultimately took his life. The experience was “devastating” for Dorinda, who was about to turn 50, and had envisioned a long, happy life with her husband. She seemed to suggest to Bravo that the opportunity to become one of the Real Housewives was, at least in part, a way to help her work through her grief: “I thought, ‘You know what? I am turning 50. I’ve never done anything like this before,” she explained. “I’m sort of too young to do nothing and too old to do anything. So I thought, ‘I’m going to cast my hat in the wind.’ I feel safe and protected around these girls and I just decided to give it a go. Change it up a bit.”
And, though she gave the idea thorough consideration, in the end, Dorinda felt like Richard would have been on board with it:
I went to dinner the other day with all my new friends and I looked around and I thought, it’s so weird that three years on I’ve made so many new friends that Richard doesn’t even know it and it made me both happy and sad. He would love them, but I thought to myself ‘Richard, I’ve come a long way. You would love all these new people in my life.’
Dorinda herself rarely shares photos of she and her husband on social media, but she did share this photo of herself, her mother, and her daughter Hannah, taken on Dorinda and Richard’s wedding day:
And, on October 3rd, 2014, Dorinda also shared this image:
Happy Birthday Richard we love and miss you!!!! A photo posted by Dorinda Medley (@dorindamedley) on
In addition, Hannah, Dorinda’s daughter, has shared multiple touching images of she and Richard over the years:
Update 2020 During the coronavirus quarantine Dorinda Medley showed off a special, gift her late husband Richard gave her: a rotary iron that keeps sheets perfectly pressed.
RELATED ARTICLE: How did Dorinda Medley make her money?
(Photo credits: Dorinda Medley’s husband via Instagram)
