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S4E15 Marie

Season 4, Episode 16

Marie

Age: 49
Location: Florida
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.

Update: Marie Francesca Poggi died of breast cancer on Feb 19, 2022.

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

Comments
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Comments

  1. kayla

    do we know how she is doing?

  2. Jeanine

    Hope 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.

    1. Kat R.

      He 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.

      1. Sue Ellen Hegstrom

        I 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.

  3. Candace

    I am curious as to how Marie has progressed with her recovery. Also wondering if her kids found help for their pain as well.

  4. Zack

    Just 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.

    1. Dizzy

      That’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.

      1. hipstertarian

        They 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.

      2. Kara Bishop

        They were from New York but they moved to Florida when she married Bora and both of her daughters live in Florida. Got this information from watching the episode and seen the Facebook of both daughters.

    2. Chanda

      End of the episode said she returned to Alabama after treatment

  5. Lisen

    I’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.

    1. Rob Thompson

      Yes 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

  6. s.a.

    This 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.

  7. Ash

    It 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”.

  8. Corrine

    Little 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.

  9. Greg E.

    any updates on Marie? Her true self seemed to start to emerge after she had been in treatment. I hope she’s OK.

    1. Cynthia

      Read she just passed away Feb 19, 22 breast cancer. Be in peace beautiful lady.😥🙏🌹💜

      1. Contrary

        Oh no!! How unfair that seems (to me)!! Finally sober and ready to live a wonderful life, and gets breast cancer. How incredibly sad!!
        Rest in love, peace, and light Momma Marie!! ♥️

  10. Brian

    Her 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.

  11. Anon

    Oof. As of yesterday she made an angry post on Facebook about how her daughters are mistreating her and keeping her grandchildren away.

  12. Brooke

    what a nasty, obnoxious woman. i didn’t like her behavior throughout the episode, but addiction can do that to a person so i was giving her the benefit of the doubt but after seeing her facebook, she’s a horrible woman. she called her daughters “heartless spoiled rotten b*tches” as well as liars, phony, evil, ignorant, etc…WHO speaks that way about their own children? it’s disgusting. yeah they’re reeeeeal spoiled with a mother like her. her daughters won’t let her see her grandchildren apparently and i’m sure they have good reason. i cannot stand people that refuse to accept any blame for their own behavior and try to blame it on others.

    1. MC

      I bet she was drinking again. Sad. What a miserable person she was. All of that anger comes from deep inside, and it’s self-hate. They always take it out on loved ones.
      I hope her daughters and son have found peace.

  13. Em

    Update from Marie and Clorinda last summer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0dB283aDVw

    1. Dizzy

      Thank you for posting this.

  14. MC

    I’m so sad to hear of Marie’s passing! She was so young, and cancer is such a hard path. I’m sure she fought tooth and nail though. I’m glad her family had a few year with her sober.

  15. MC

    Oops! I didn’t read the comments. Apparently she was not getting along with her family before her death. That is so sad!