Jim Cramer Said Marrying His Wife Has Been His 'Best Investment'
Jim Cramer’s wife is Corcoran real estate broker Lisa Detwiler. The host of CNBC’s "Mad Money" said marrying her has been his best investment.
July 6 2021, Published 3:38 p.m. ET
Jim Cramer and Lisa Detwiler in 2008
CNBC’s Jim Cramer ditched his trademark rolled-up selves in favor of a black and white Brioni tuxedo in 2015 when he married his second wife, Lisa Detwiler, in front of 500 well-wishers.
“It’s the best investment I have ever made!” the Mad Money host quipped to People after swapping rings with Detwiler, whom he met nearly a decade earlier.
Here’s more information on Cramer, Detwiler, his first wife, and his kids.
Jim Cramer and his first wife, Karen Backfisch.
Before Cramer was a household name, he and his first wife, Karen Backfisch, were two of the dozen young investment managers Fortune profiled in a 1989 issue. An excerpt:
In a windowless lower Manhattan office, a young married couple with matching desks furiously buy and sell stocks. “Sell at three-quarters,” she says to a broker at the other end of her line. “Terrific. I want to participate,” he says to his broker. Karen and Jim Cramer, 31 and 34, are the quintessential Eighties couple, equal partners in work and at home.
At the time, the couple was celebrating 12 months of marriage and 12 months of positive financial performance—with their hedge fund, Cramer & Co., enjoying an annual compound rate of return of 23 percent. (Cramer called his first wife “the Trading Goddess,” according to The New York Times Magazine.)
As Fortune reported in the profile, Backfisch handled the trades while he came up with most of the investment ideas. They devoted half of their $19 million portfolio in stocks for long-term value and the other half to intraday trading.
“Our goal is to make money every day,” Cramer said at the time. “That is why we trade. I never want to write a letter to our investors saying that we didn't participate this quarter because we think the market's too high. That's none of our business.”
Cramer and Backfisch eventually settled down in Summit, N.J., in 1993, where they raised their two daughters, Cece and Emma, according to New Jersey Monthly. They divorced in 2009.
Cramer's second wife once swore to never go out with “that bald, screaming man.”
In 2015, Cramer practically shouted happy news on Twitter: “YES I AM GETTING MARRIED AND I NEVER USE ALL CAPS!” he tweeted.
He and Detwiler, a Corcoran Group Real Estate broker, met at a Manhattan bar in 2006 after a mutual friend set them up, according to a New York Times wedding announcement.
“I remember saying that there was no way I was going to go out with that bald, screaming man,” she said, laughing. “But then the person who set us up reminded me that I had been spending too much time at home watching television with my dog.”
Detwiler told the Times that she enjoyed the date but figured that she wouldn’t get a second date with the CNBC personality. But he emailed her at 4:00 a.m., writing, “Sometimes in life people who are special need to be told they are special.”
Cramer and Detwiler tied the knot in Brooklyn in 2015. According to her Corcoran bio, Detwiler enjoys spending time with her kids, Charlotte and Will, and tending to her dogs, Bug and Everest.
