Does 'RHONY' Star Jill Zarin's Net Worth Excuse Her Behavior on 'Below Deck'? Fans Have Opinions

No one watches a Real Housewives franchise for kind words and easy friendships — we tune in for the drama! And Jill Zarin was always one to serve. However, she was only part of the Real Housewives of New York until 2011 and has been relatively out of the spotlight since. Now, however, in March 2024, she has returned to reality television in Bravo's Below Deck.

In Below Deck Season 11, Jill hops aboard the yacht as the primary’s guest, and her complaints aboard the boat rubbed everyone the wrong way, from the staff to the fans. Plus, it has forced us to wonder what her net worth is for her to act so “entitled.” What is Jill Zarin’s net worth?

Despite being a “housewife,” Jill had an established career before she met her second husband, Bobby Zarin. Jill worked her way up the real estate ladder in New York City, which isn't an easy thing to do. Bobby was a fabrics mogul. His father’s business, Zarin Fabrics, first opened in Manhattan in 1936, so Jill definitely married into money.

She began consulting for Zarin Fabrics after she and Bobby married in 2000 and in 2008, she got her first television work as a regular cast member of RHONY. However, in 2011, Jill was fired (fans are now speculating that her abrasive personality could explain that), although she continued to appear as a guest throughout the Real Housewives franchise.

Various sources suspect that the Real Housewives cast makes anywhere from $30,000 to $60,000 per episode, often amounting to $500,000 to $1 million per season. During her time on the show, Jill also published a book with her mother, Gloria Kamen, and sister, Lisa Wexler, called Secrets of a Jewish Mother, which brought in some income.

After Jill's time on RHONY was up, she appeared in various television films and shows as a guest star, from Night of the Wild and White Collar to Celebrity Wife Swap and Who Wants to be a Millionaire. In addition to her television appearances, Jill is an entrepreneur.

Jill launched several companies, mostly after her husband’s 2018 death, including Jill Zarin Bedding, Jill Zarin Jewelry, Jill Zarin Rugs, and Skweez Couture Shapewear and Hosiery. In addition, Jill and her daughter, Ally, started Jill & Ally, an apparel and accessories company that donated masks to healthcare and essential workers during COVID-19.

When Jill was putting her energy into real estate, she was married to her first husband, Steven Shapiro, whom she married in 1987. They had one daughter, Allyson Shapiro, who was conceived via sperm donor. She came from relatively humble beginnings in Woodmere, N.Y., born to a Jewish family and attending Simmons University.

But after her 1998 divorce from Steven, Jill catapulted on a path towards riches and stardom. She married Bobby in 2000, although he died in 2018 at 71 years old from thyroid cancer. “The radioactive iodine usually kills off whatever undetectable cancer cells are left in your body after surgery,” Bobby told People in 2015. “We thought it was cured — and it usually is in about 93 percent of cases. But I wasn’t able to absorb the radioactive iodine. So it came back.”

We’ve now all seen Jill’s behavior on television. You can tell a lot about a person based on how they treat service workers. But Jill has had her own struggles and obstacles in life to get to where she is today, so we’ll just do unto others as we’d want to them to do unto us and lead with compassion.