It’s notoriously hard to keep the details of a high-profile marriage under wraps, but it appears that former New York governor Eliot Spitzer and his partner Roxana Girand managed to do just that. Last month, Spitzer confirmed to Page Six that he and his real estate mogul girlfriend tied the knot in a secret wedding in 2020. They may not be a Hollywood couple, but when the pair began dating in 2017, they were under heavy public scrutiny.
After all, Spitzer’s love life had made headlines previously when he was involved in a prostitution scandal, cheated on his wife with a political strategist named Lis Smith, and was blackmailed by a Russian woman. {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer speaks during a primary debate for New York City comptroller in 2013.
Photo: Reuters","url":"https://img.i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/08/28/1e186ae6-4377-4811-a122-6b28f3691c08_4085906a.
jpg"} Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer speaks during a primary debate for New York City comptroller in 2013. Photo: Reuters So, who exactly is Girand – the woman who finally accepted Spitzer, warts and all? Here’s what you need to know about her. She’s had to overlook Spitzer’s messy sex scandals {"@context":"https://schema.
org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"Roxana Girand quietly married Eliot Spitzer in 2020. Photo: @sebastiancapital/Instagram","url":"https://img.i-scmp.
com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/08/28/821b55cf-c974-437a-b55b-7589d66a38fe_7390c88c.jpg"} Roxana Girand quietly married Eliot Spitzer in 2020. Photo: @sebastiancapital/Instagram When Girand and Spitzer were first romantically linked, their every move made headlines in the US tabloids.
That’s because Spitzer had stepped down as New York’s governor in 2008 after being exposed as a regular patron of high-end call-girls. He even asked his official protection team to stop working so that the women could easily enter the premises, according to the Albany Times Union. At the time, his wife Silda famously chose to stick by his side, per Politico, but the couple finally parted ways in 2013.
According to US media, towards the end of his marriage, Spitzer was also having an affair with Lis Smith, who had worked on his failed bid for city comptroller in 2013. {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"Former New York governor Eliot Spitzer was embroiled in scandal after scandal in the early 2000s.
Photo: AP Photos","url":"https://img.i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/08/28/71f852a0-b071-4f49-b847-af312b7e52bc_d4023dff.
jpg"} Former New York governor Eliot Spitzer was embroiled in scandal after scandal in the early 2000s. Photo: AP Photos Then, in 2016, Spitzer was involved in yet another scandal. This time, he claimed he was being blackmailed by a Russian woman named Svetlana Travis Zakharova who alleged he had attacked her during a night at the Plaza Hotel.
US media reported that the two had been having an affair and that she’d called 911 from the hotel after he’d threatened to cut ties with her. Lis Smith called off the relationship when Spitzer told her about the supposed blackmail attempt. With all of that relationship baggage, all eyes were on the “luv-guv” and Girand when their relationship went public in September 2017.
She married Spitzer in a secret wedding {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"Eliot Spitzer and Roxana Girand attend New York Magazine’s 50th Anniversary Celebration at New York’s Katz’s Delicatessen in 2017 in New York City. Photo: FilmMagic","url":"https://img.
i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/08/28/810c121d-6215-4bf9-89be-d8eccc70b2d3_595de0ff.jpg"} Eliot Spitzer and Roxana Girand attend New York Magazine’s 50th Anniversary Celebration at New York’s Katz’s Delicatessen in 2017 in New York City.
Photo: FilmMagic In 2019, representatives for the couple confirmed to US tabloid PageSix that they were engaged and they were planning a big New York bash to celebrate their nuptials. However the Covid-19 pandemic interrupted their plans and, according to the same outlet, they sent an email to friends saying the big 2020 party would be cancelled because of the virus. Per the email, the couple said they instead intended to get married later in a “small, family-only event.
” At the end of July, Spitzer confirmed that he and Girand had indeed married quietly in 2020. He told PageSix that their big wedding was supposed to be on April 4 2020 and they kept the date, but made it an intimate ceremony, getting hitched at his Columbia County home near Millbrook. They’ve bought luxury apartments {"@context":"https://schema.
org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"Roxana Girand and Eliot Spitzer began dating in 2017. Photo: Getty Images","url":"https://img.i-scmp.
com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/08/28/63a7f833-c4ae-444a-bd64-dc67e26d8dbe_98c54a39.jpg"} Roxana Girand and Eliot Spitzer began dating in 2017. Photo: Getty Images In early 2020 it was revealed that the couple had bought two adjacent apartments in a building on New York’s Upper East Side.
According to The Real Deal real estate news site, Girand already owned one apartment in the ritzy Concorde building on 65th Street and Spitzer bought two adjoining apartments valued at US$4.37 million in an off-market deal. Spitzer bought the apartments under his name; they came with building amenities including valet parking, a gym, pool, roof deck and children’s playroom.
She’s a property queen {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"Roxana Girand poses with members of the Lightstone Group during the construction of the Moxy Hotels in New York. Photo: @sebastiancapital/Instagram","url":"https://img.
i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/08/28/f8b2f654-a644-4c31-87d9-92c21db488b7_2adab122.jpg"} Roxana Girand poses with members of the Lightstone Group during the construction of the Moxy Hotels in New York.
Photo: @sebastiancapital/Instagram Girand is the founder and president of Sebastian Capital, a boutique real estate firm that specialises in helping Latin America based families and investors with real estate assets in the US, per the company website. According to the site, over 3.5 million sq ft of commercial and residential real estate in New Jersey, Westchester and New York City is managed by Sebastian Capital.
She promotes female empowerment {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"A headshot of Roxana Girand from her real estate firm, Sebastian Capital. Photo: @sebastiancapital/Instagram","url":"https://img.
i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/08/28/e9353434-ad13-4019-b50d-642a43be6df7_cabdabd9.jpg"} A headshot of Roxana Girand from her real estate firm, Sebastian Capital.
Photo: @sebastiancapital/Instagram In an interview with Westchester magazine, Girand says she focuses on ensuring other women are also empowered in the real estate world, adding that her office has an 80 per cent female workforce. “I love to see up-and-coming women succeed in the business”, she told the magazine. Per the publication, Girand was born in New York but grew up in Colombia and Spain and speak English, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian fluently.
She once stopped a big party at Elizabeth Taylor’s former home {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"Roxana Girand attends the opening party For The Elizabeth Collective in New York in 2019. Photo: Getty Images","url":"https://img.
i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/08/28/f9b43764-6a5a-45f0-91cc-f5bc5b461dba_7a1e17ba.jpg"} Roxana Girand attends the opening party For The Elizabeth Collective in New York in 2019.
Photo: Getty Images Back in 2018, Girand made headlines after it was reported that she personally shut down a party held at one of the properties her company oversees. According to US media, jeweller Lisa Linhardt was launching her new line at Elizabeth Taylor’s former town house on West 56th Street, and when Girand was told that the party had “several hundred people” in attendance, she phoned Linhardt personally and instructed her to end the party early. According to the publication, the party was shut down and all 400 guests asked to leave the venue.
Spitzer and Girand began dating in 2017 and got engaged in 2019; they called off their big wedding amid Covid lockdowns but recently revealed that they quietly married in 2020 anyway Spitzer resigned as governor after he was embroiled in a 2008 prostitution scandal, then had an affair and divorced his wife in 2013, and was caught up in an extortion case in 2016.
