WHEN I WAS A KID, I WAS A BIT OF ATOMBOY. I rode little dirt bikes. I wanted tobe like a little Evel Knievel. I loved that kindof stuff. I met him later on in life. He became acustomer of Gold & Diamond Source, and heused to eat at the restaurant my ex-husbandand I had. I was always wanting to do tricks onmotorcycles and things like that. I swore thatwas what I was going to do when I grew up.
I WAS BORN IN LONDON, ENGLAND, AND I’M FROM BRIGHTON, ENGLAND.That’s where my whole family lived. I moved here when I was 6 or 7 years old. My father was recruited by Baxter. He’s a plastics engineer. I remember my dad told me we were moving, and I was like, where are we moving? What’s going on? My whole family was there. My cousin and I were very close. He said, we live on this little tiny island. We’re going to this big, huge country.
MY FATHER IS ORIGINALLY FROM EASTINDIA. My mother is English and Welsh allthe way back. It’s been interesting enjoyingthe British side of my culture and my blond haired, blue-eyed relatives and the Indianculture, which is so different. It’s really kind ofinteresting knowing that both of your culturesare so different.
I ALWAYS PICTURED MYSELF RUNNING ABUSINESS. I would always envision myselfcarrying a briefcase and wearing a suit. Idon’t know why. I always thought, I’m going towork hard and I’m going to be somebody. Assoon as I turned 18 I was going to real estateschool, and I became a licensed Realtor by19 years old. I was taking multimillion-dollarlistings before I was even old enough to drinkbeer. I handled the Pepin estates that wereworth millions of dollars. I would alwayswear a suit and put my hair up in a bun andcarry a briefcase, so they all thought I wasolder. I think at the time they discovered[my age], I was 20. One time they said,here, have a beer. I hesitated, and I had totell them I wasn’t 21. [Art and Tom Pepin,owners of beer distributing company PepinDistributing,] were dying [laughing] becauseI was handling multiple residences of theirs.They were like, oh my god, you’re not evenold enough to drink beer. I was always a littlebit of a go-getter.
STEVE AND I GOT MARRIED IN 2004. In thebeginning, I had an interior design company.I did well at that. I said, you do your job, I’mdoing my job, I’m not combining careers. Butwhen the real estate market crashed, all thepeople that were buying homes and buyingfurniture from me disappeared… My companywas struggling at that point, and so wasGold & Diamond Source. We were debatingbankruptcy at Gold & Diamond Source. Wedecided to start buying gold. We said, let’s doa commercial and let people know who weare and that we pay a fair price for people’sgold. We did that, and our business took off.We ended up buying over $40 million worthof gold over the next few years from doingthose commercials. It just evolved from there.
WHEN PEOPLE CALL ME A CELEBRITY, IT USED TO MAKE ME UNCOMFORTABLE. I’d think, what are you talking about? I’m just a business owner doing commercials. Then finally I thought, if people are going to give me attention, I have something to say. So I started trying to speak for people who don’t have a voice [through my charity Hands Across the Bay]. I really enjoy being able to do that. When I go into a courtroom and there’s a mother in there who’s been violently abused, and she has no attorney and [the accused] has a super attorney on his side, and the judge sees I’m advocating on that case, they know I help give her a voice. They know that the media is a call away. People are watching. Bad things happen in dark places. I really enjoy utilizing whatever “celebrity” status I’ve been given forsomething useful.
TAMPA BAY IS A BEAUTIFUL, LOVING PLACE.I say it’s like living in Busch Gardens. Everybody is super friendly and kind. I’ve lived a lot of different places, and this is my favorite place. You’d have to drag me out.
PROBABLY THE FURTHEST AWAY, MOSTRANDOM PLACE SOMEONE RECOGNIZEDUS WAS PARIS. We were taking a pictureright by the Eiffel Tower, and all of a suddenI heard someone yell “Gold & DiamondSource!” I was like, oh my god. All the way inParis. That was really crazy to have gone thatfar [and been recognized].
MY SECRET TALENT, WHICH MAKESPEOPLE LAUGH, IS JUGGLING. I’m not a great juggler, but I do that, and it cracks people up. It’s such a weird, random thing. Also, I’m oddly really good at basketball games [like HORSE] and shooting hoops. It’s a fun party trick. People think they’re going to beat me. Even Dexter Jackson [the former NFL player and MVP of the Super Bowl], he came over once, and I beat him at the basketball game. He wanted a rematch.
I LOVE TO COOK, BUT I’M NOT A VERY GOOD COOK. But I love to cook our Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. It’s my favorite thing, cooking our turkey and all the sides. We have between 22 and 30 people over for the holidays. That’s really fun. Shepherd’s pie is the other thing. Everybodylikes me to make that for them.
I WOULD LOVE TO BE ABLE TO WAKE UP TOMORROW AND FIND THE WORDS AND WISDOM TO END DOMESTIC VIOLENCE. [To] bring everybody together and have people not think that being violent toward each other was an option, [make them see] the collateral damage from that, the toll on kids and men and society. People think it’s a women’s problem, and it’s not.
Tags: Hands Across the BayJulie Weintraub
