Maury Povich is a TV icon and lives very comfortably with a reported net worth in the tens of millions, but that wasn’t always the case.
The American TV personality, who hosted the popular daytime talk show Maury and has an estimated net worth of $US80 million, revealed he was “dead broke” in his 40s and didn’t find great success until later in life.
Povich opened up about his cash-strapped days in a conversation with Canadian former ice hockey player Sean Avery on an episode of the newly launched podcast On Par with Maury Povich.
Watch the video above.
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”First of all, I was dead broke at 44,” Povich said after Avery told him he was 44 years old.
“I mean, really dead broke.”
Povich at the time was working as a newscaster and it wasn’t until a “couple of years later” that his financial situation began to shift.
”A couple of years later, this wild crazy Australian buys the television stations,” Povich explained, referring to Rupert Murdoch, who co-founded the Fox Broadcasting Company.
“In a second, I’m off to New York to do this crazy tabloid show called A Current Affair and the rest is history.”
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Povich presented the American version of the TV news program A Current Affair between 1986 and 1990.
“That show ended up being the biggest show for the next five years in syndicated television,” he said.
Povich added that his parents were “so worried” about his financial predicament.
“My father was so worried that money just burned through me, that there was a hole in my pocket,” he said.
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It wasn’t until “years later” when he was “much older” and Povich had found his groove with the talk show that Povich’s dad was able to breath a sigh of relief.
When he did, he told Povich, “I’m not going to worry about you anymore”.
It’s a place Povich believes everyone’s parents should get to eventually.
“I think everybody should get to the point where their parents don’t have to worry about them anymore,” he said.
“And I was dead in my 50s or 60s before that happened!”
After four years on A Current Affair he sought out a new challenge.
”It’s just that over the last week or so, I began to think that it’ll soon be five years here. That’s 1300 shows. I was here when it was a baby,” he told the Associated Press in 1990.
“It has grown into an institution and will be a hit long after I’m gone. And so I thought maybe it’s time for the kid to leave the house – even though the kid is 51.”
It was then Povich brought the Maury Povich Show to life. Known simply as “Maury”, the show ran for 31 years over 3600 episodes.
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For more than three decades, Povich enthralled and appalled audiences with his tabloid-brand of television, complete with his salacious slogan “you are/are not the father”.
It was Povich’s job to keep pace as the show’s guests let fly with gritty details of their relationship – the more sordid the better – as a studio audience watched on.
At a heightened point, Povich would reach for a sealed envelope.
Inside was the results of a paternity test, set to unleash anguish or joy of the guest. In some instances, the guests moved swiftly between each emotion.
Then, in September 2022, 83-year-old Povich opened the show’s last envelope.
These days, Povich appears to be keeping himself busy with his new podcast.
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