Name Mary Buttafuoco | Role Author | |
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Born May 15, 1955 (age 69) ( 1955-05-15 ) Spouse Joey Buttafuoco (m. 1977–2003) Similar People Joey Buttafuoco, Betty Broderick, Babak Azizzadeh, Lisa Nowak | ||
Mary jo buttafuoco s new beginning where are they now oprah winfrey network
Mary Jo Buttafuoco (born May 15, 1955) is an American author, motivational speaker, and ex-wife of Joey Buttafuoco. She is best known for her involvement in the Amy Fisher case and later for her book and public speaking. Fisher shot Buttafuoco in 1992 while she was having an affair with her husband.
Contents
- Mary jo buttafuoco s new beginning where are they now oprah winfrey network
- Mary jo buttafuoco on the oprah show where are they now oprah winfrey network
- Incident
- Aftermath
- Career
- References
Mary jo buttafuoco on the oprah show where are they now oprah winfrey network
Incident
Mary Jo's husband, Joey Buttafuoco, had an affair with Amy Fisher, who subsequently shot her in the face, on May 19, 1992. Although deafened in one ear and her face partially paralyzed, she survived the shooting and was able to give a description of her assailant and a T-shirt that Fisher had shown her before she shot her.
Aftermath
Joey Buttafuoco pleaded guilty to one count of statutory rape and served four months in jail. Mary Jo and her husband later moved to Southern California. Buttafuoco stayed defensively loyal to her husband for several years. She even defended him when he was arrested in 1995 for sexual solicitation in Los Angeles. During this time, she consistently blamed others, such as Fisher, instead of her husband. She eventually filed divorce papers in Ventura County Superior Court on February 3, 2003.
In 2006, Mary Jo underwent a facial reanimation procedure with facial plastic surgeon Babak Azizzadeh, involving static facial suspension, face lift, and eye lift procedures. These surgeries restored balance and gave her back her ability to smile. Next was surgery to widen the ear canal, which improved her hearing and prevented future infections. She also underwent physical therapy to strengthen her facial muscles, which she explained in an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Buttafuoco is still paralyzed on one side of her face and deaf in one ear.
Mary Jo had a daughter, Jessica Buttafuoco, with Joey before the split. She and Jessica remain close to this day.
In 2012, she married Stu Tendle in Las Vegas.
Career
Sixteen years after the incident, Buttafuoco wrote a book telling her story, Getting It Through My Thick Skull: Why I Stayed, What I Learned, and What Millions of People Involved with Sociopaths Need to Know. She was inspired to write the book after her son referred to her ex-husband as a sociopath. Not knowing what the word meant, she looked it up and had a realization leading to her going public with her story. The title of the book comes from a saying her mother often used with her, "when are you going to get it through your thick skull?" The memoir describes her whole life, not just focusing on her shooting. She describes how she felt manipulated to stay with a person who was a sociopath. Booklist called the book "strangely compelling," and said that "Readers will want to know – why did she stay with him?"
Buttafuoco has used her story to raise awareness of facial paralysis.