The following article includes references to sexual violence.
In America, anybody can be a celebrity including lawyers.
Enter Gloria Allred, who has become a public figure in her own right after representing famous clients.
Some have even accused Allred of making victims into celebrities, an accusation she discussed withCNN.
“A lot of my clients have not begun as celebrities,” she said.
“Gloria just has an ability to handle the mishegas.
She can face 150 cameras as cool as a cucumber.”
Allred’s career in law and in the media stretches back decades.
Gloria Allred almost dropped out of high school
Gloria Allred was born July 3, 1941.
“I grew up in Southwest Philly, on Springfield Avenue,” she toldPhiladelphia Magazine.
“My parents had an eighth-grade education.
We had no car.
It was a one-new-dress-a-year situation.”
This made the young Allred self-conscious, especially at school.
She was embarrassed by how their family lives lined up.
“So many of the girls had parents who were doctors, lawyers, elected officials.
And then there was me,” she said.
“My dad was a door-to-door salesman.
My mother was at home.”
As a result, Allred said she considered dropping out, feeling like she didn’t fit in.
That convinced her to stick it out.
“I received so, so much encouragement there from so many women teachers,” Allred recalled.
“They helped me believe in myself and realize that I could make a difference.”
Previously, Gloria was briefly married to Peyton Huddleston Bray, Jr.
They divorced in 1962.
Things reached a boiling point in 1992 when Gloria was awarded $4 million in the divorce.
I don’t think feminists would approve of that."
Later, Gloria toldLos Angeles Magazine, “We had something special for a while.
There’s nothing in any article that will explain what really happened.
I’ll just leave it at that.”
In 2010, Gloria toldThe New York Timesthat she had no interest in ever getting married again.
“I’m not interested in dating,” she said.
“I like being with my own best friend, me.”
President Milton Berle welcomed her into the club.
A few months later, she wanted to have lunch at the New York Friars Club.
They didn’t let her in, insisting that the New York branch was only for men.
The following year, Allred clashed with the Beverly Hills club.
Though she had been welcomed as a member, women still weren’t allowed to use the sauna.
Decades later, she wasroasted at the Friars Club, suggesting they’d been able to settle their differences.
According to a source who spoke withPage Six, Allred recounted the end of the sauna saga.
“After winning, she put on a 1890s-style bathing suit,” the source said.
She wound up in the hospital after hemorrhaging.
“The nurse said to me, ‘This should teach you a lesson,'” Allred recalled.
“The lesson I did learn is that abortion should be safe, legal, affordable and available.”
Allred sued for libel; she won an apology and $20,000.
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available.
Gloria Allred was involved in the O.J.
In 1994, she called for District Attorney Gil Garcetti to consider the death penalty.
on the death penalty," she said, according toThe Los Angeles Times.
The former football star was infamously acquitted.
And so she got involved.
Cosby did ultimately face charges, and Allred was present in court for the case.
“It was so off!”
she insisted to theNew York Daily News.
“I don’t understand how a phone rings when it’s off.”
Instead, it was her daughter Lisa Bloom, also a high-powered attorney who found herself in the spotlight.
Allred released a statement toVanity Fairabout her daughter’s choice of client.
Bloom dropped Weinstein little more than a week after her mother’s statement.
“I can see that my just being associated with this was a mistake,” she toldBuzzFeed News.
“I’m not here to second-guess her in any way.”
In apress conference, Allred said states should step in and pass stronger protections.
She advised, “I always say… ‘First we cry, and then we fight.'”
Allred won the case, forcing restaurants to end the practice of segregating rooms based on sexual orientation.
“You don’t have to accept second-class citizenship because of your sexual orientation,” Allred wrote.
“Stand up for your civil rights and fight back.”
Comedian Chelsea Handler once called out Allred in a blog post.
She’d also earlier accused Allred of “setting the women’s movement back a hundred years.”
Allred has denied accusations of ambulance-chasing or of only choosing the cases that she thinks will get her attention.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Allred explained, “I’m not a politician.
Instead, she said she’s guided by a simple principle.
She claimed, “I do what I believe is right.”
“More than 90 percent [of my cases] are confidential.
You don’t know about them and never will,” she said.
“Sometimes it only takes a small push to get a big result,” Allred wrote.
A year later, Allred represented a 3-year-old girl named Yael Miller.
“Don’t tolerate it for a single day or even a single minute.”
Allred claimed that Whitman exhibited “cold and heartless treatment of a hardworking Latina,” according toCBS News.
That weekend, “Saturday Night Live” poked fun of Allred and her press conferences.
“Is there anything you won’t do to push your butt-ugly mug in front of a camera?”
As a result, Allred has had to defend her position on these agreements several times.
“It is not too late to help in the process of seeking justice.”
Mere weeks later, Epstein died by suicide in jail.
Even though Epstein is no longer around to stand trial for his crimes, Allred hasn’t let up.
Allred has continued her advocacy in 2024, representing20 of Epstein’s victims.
She explained things simply toNews Nation, insisting, “Here’s what my clients want …
They want to know everything they can about what happened to them and why.”
However, over the past decade, Allred has said she has no plans to ever retire.
“Every day is an adventure,” she said.
She toldABC Newssomething similar in 2018, insisting that she wants to keep working because her clients need her.
“You’d have to drag her kicking and screaming out of the office,” Bloom joked.
