Netflix’s My Unorthodox Life documented the breakdown of Julia Haart’s marriage and professional life, so what exactly happened to her and where is she now?
Reality TV fans may only know Julia Haart as a celebrity attempting to navigate life outside of her Jewish religion in glitzy New York, but she is a well-established name in the fashion game.
After creating a reputation for herself, Haart’s influence was propelled thanks to marriage to Silvio Scaglia, a tech entrepreneur and owner of the global model agency Elite Model Management.
The mom of four was named Elite’s CEO, but her “nightmare” divorce from Silvio ended her relationship with the agency. Here’s exactly what happened to the couple in their personal and professional lives.
What happened with Julia Haart?
My Unorthodox Life season 2 followed the Haarts as she coped with the breakdown of her marriage. Julia, 51, married Silvio in June 2019 but filed for divorce in February 2022.
The Swiss businessman summarized the marital issues on the Netflix show. “My problem is that your life is ruled by your children, and I don’t want my life to be (ruled) by your children because I have different approaches to life,” he explained.
The same day the divorce was filed, Julia was ousted from her CEO position at Elite by her ex, who also accused her of withdrawing $850,000 from the company account for her own use.
Julia denied the allegations and responded with a lawsuit claiming that she owned 50 per cent of the business and, therefore, could not be dismissed.
In May 2022, a Delaware judge concluded that Julia did not own half of Freedom’s [Elite’s parent company] shares.
“Haart does not own half of Freedom’s preferred shares,” the documents read. “Despite the appearance of an equal partnership, the evidence reveals that Haart never owned an equal stake of Freedom’s preferred stock.”
Haart responded with a lawsuit two months later, accusing her ex of being a “liar and a fraud”. She alleged that Scaglia amended Freedom’s Articles Of Incoroption to issue himself preferred shares of company stocks before transferring her 50 per cent, making her ownership “purely illusory”.
The defendant’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, denied the accusations by highlighting the judge’s previous ruling on Haart’s alleged equal ownership.
“Ms. Haart has touted in her book her mantra, ‘Fake it till you make it.’ By her latest lawsuit filing, she proves she believes this works in a court of law. It does not,” it reads.
“The case she just filed is similar to claims that she made in a Delaware court. After a full trial, the court ruled in April against her on all counts – ie, that she does not own 50 per cent of the parent company or any of the companies that are owned and controlled by Mr Scaglia.
“Moreover, her own testimony and documents in that trial proved she knew before she filed the case that she did not own 50 per cent of Mr Scaglia’s parent company assets. She forgot to include that fact in this latest lawsuit. She apparently thinks she can mislead the media. Again. She can’t.”
Further developments of the lawsuit are unknown.
Where is she now? Tech venture is at a pause
The designer and entrepreneur went on to release a book titled Brazen: My Unorthodox Journey From Long Sleeves To Lingerie and has continued her TV career on and off-screen as My Unorthodox Life’s executive director.
Julia set her sights on the tech industry with her metaverse-based business Haart Sphere. The venture aimed to transform celebrities into avatars to allow closer fan interaction and the ability to be “everywhere at once”.
“When I took over Elite World Group, the only reason I took over is because I started avatars, the metaverse, all of this digitalizing the company, transforming ourselves into a media conglomerate – the day I took over,” she told NBC before her first EWG lawsuit. “I saw this coming, and I planned for it.”
Her daughter, Miriam Haart, is a computer science graduate from Stanford University who serves as chief technology officer. Neither of them have provided further updates on Haart Sphere, so it’s unknown if the venture is still in action.
As for her love life, Haart has attempted to return to the dating scene but, judging from her social media, she has either kept things private, or she’s had no luck so far.
The mother of four is always active online. You can catch her cooking tutorials with Batsheva on Instagram.