Season 4, Episode 16
Marie
Age: 49
Location: Undetermined, but I’m assuming New York or New Jersey (accent, mafia ties).
Addiction: Alcohol (vodka)
What’s memorable: How addicted her body is to the alcohol, and how messed up that body is as a result. You can see the toll alcohol takes on a body by seeing what she looked like before she was addicted and how much better she looks in the post-treatment transformation. Also, her serial marriages and how her relationship with Bora just completely destroyed her.
Official Synopsis: A Sophia Loren look-alike, Marie was born into an Italian mob family. When her parents’ marriage end, Marie and her mother struggled with extreme poverty. Marie’s three marriages ended in divorce, but she was still determined to give her children what she didn’t have growing up. Despite her own unhappy love life, she became a highly successful matchmaker and well known socialite. She even appeared on shows like 60 Minutes. Then Marie met her fourth husband, Bora, an addict and alcoholic. Marie tried to clean him up, but developed her own addiction to alcohol. Bora’s alcoholism killed him, and now Marie is headed down the same road–fast. Marie’s family knows an intervention is her last hope.
Original Air Date: July 2008
Interventionist: Ken
do we know how she is doing?
Posted by kayla | July 23, 2014, 5:54 amHope shes doin okay. i sympathized with her and her family. just loved em all. her son needed to be more sensitive tho. in my opinion.
Posted by Jeanine | December 29, 2014, 11:44 pmHe was only 17… A kid rejected by his own mother, and he knew it. Rejecting her in turn was an understandable defense mechanism. I felt very sad for him…I hope that in the years since then he has found a way to deal with his childhood pain.
The follow up had me in tears. Very sweet family. Hope they are all doing well today.
Posted by Kat R. | April 17, 2015, 5:39 pmI liked how he spoke up about how she spends her food stamp and disability $ on alcohol, which I think made her think a little bit. I know I would have a hard time feeling sympathy for someone who virtually abandoned me, so the fact that he came at all was really impressive.
Posted by Sue Ellen Hegstrom | April 18, 2019, 8:43 amI am curious as to how Marie has progressed with her recovery. Also wondering if her kids found help for their pain as well.
Posted by Candace | April 11, 2015, 9:12 pmJust watched this episode. The episode can’t be filmed in NY or NJ. There were tons of palm trees around. My guess is that it was in Florida or somewhere in the southeast.
Posted by Zack | April 13, 2015, 2:12 pmThat’s a fair point. I don’t recall palm trees but I was mostly going by accents and mafia stuff, so you could be right.
Posted by Dizzy | April 13, 2015, 2:15 pmThey mentioned at some point in the episode that Marie moved to Florida. IIRC, she moved when her kids were young, so I think they all grew up there.
Posted by hipstertarian | April 14, 2015, 10:46 pmEnd of the episode said she returned to Alabama after treatment
Posted by Chanda | April 21, 2015, 9:40 amI’m always amazed at the difference in the faces of the really severe alcoholics pre- and post-intervention. Marie is the most unforgettable example of this. She looks like a completely different lady in the follow-up–absolutely gorgeous.
Posted by Lisen | April 23, 2015, 11:02 amYes she does! She looks great now. She looked terrible in her addiction condition. I wish the best to her and family. She is a nice pretty lady
Posted by Rob Thompson | March 31, 2016, 9:16 pmThis episode absolutely gutted me. My mother was an alcoholic, and died when I was 2 because of it. Seeing a mother sink to that level and finally say she’d do anything for her son. Holding her daughter once she was sober saying, “mommy’s here now.” just absolutely killed me – I am so happy for them, but I always wonder if that’s what it would have been like if my mother had gotten better. I hope she’s still doing well. Marie, if you ever read this, I am so proud of you and you did the right thing. All my love, S.
Posted by s.a. | December 16, 2015, 3:56 pmIt appears she’s sober on her FB. Proud of her kids, Clorinda owns an Italian restaurant, the other daughter had twins, and I couldn’t really get an update on Sal but she posted a few things he “liked”.
Posted by Ash | March 8, 2016, 2:19 amLittle confused about why she went to,Alabama after treatment, because I thought they all lived in Florida,. But happy and hopeful she stayed sober. A nice lady.
Posted by Corrine | May 9, 2016, 12:06 amany updates on Marie? Her true self seemed to start to emerge after she had been in treatment. I hope she’s OK.
Posted by Greg E. | June 16, 2018, 4:10 pmHer Facebook page states she has stage 4 breast cancer. Her relationship with her daughters seems to be very poor judging from comments on her page.
Posted by Brian | January 12, 2019, 4:51 pmIf anybody is feeling generous, here is the link to her gofundme: https://www.gofundme.com/please-help-maries-medical-fund?fbclid=IwAR1sySFERMhwCem6kaeJRaIUgXRZxPy7ecRVqkyH4YEyrYOigEHUe-o0AUk
Posted by Erica | January 12, 2019, 7:57 pmOof. As of yesterday she made an angry post on Facebook about how her daughters are mistreating her and keeping her grandchildren away.
Posted by Anon | March 28, 2019, 11:10 am