Whatever happened to Sally Jessy Raphael?

Remember Sally Jessy Raphael? The talk show icon with those iconic red glasses? Let's delve into her colorful past and find out what she's up to now.

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Born in 1935, she graduated from the prestigious Columbia University and started her career as a Central American correspondent for the AP and United Press. Showing her versatility, she was later hired to host a cooking show in Puerto Rico. While there, she met her second husband, Karl Soderlund, who would be a life and career partner.

Sally Jesse told the story about her iconic red glasses to Emmy magazine in 2019. “One day I looked at the teleprompter and couldn't see it as well as I should have. I saw an ad in the newspaper for an eye exam and glasses. So I went to the store and they tried to upsell me, saying, "Do you want to spend a little bit more? Because the only glasses we have at that price are red." So red it was. Then the red glasses became a thing. At one time people voted on which pair of red glasses I should wear.”

The pair moved back to the states, where Sally Jessy worked in Miami. She said success wasn’t easy, and she bounced around to around 24 radio stations, getting fired from 18! But during that time, she struck a friendship with the iconic Larry King, planting seeds for her later talk show success.

Image: Larry King and Rudolph Giuliani, 1986

'Radio Talknet' was where it all changed. It was pioneering, “America's first coast-to-coast advice program.” It was a call-in show, where her approach to relationship, job, and life advice won her thousands of fans. The show ran from 1981 to 1987.

The famed talk show host became a fan of her radio program. Impressed by Sally's radio prowess, he nudged her towards television. This led to her own half-hour talk show, marking the beginning of a talk show era.

Her TV show debuted in 1983 on KSDK and ran in syndication for a whopping 19 seasons. It was one of the first audience-involved issue-driven talk shows with a woman host. Oprah’s show came three years later.

Image: Sally Jessy Raphael, Nosey, Youtube

Sally never shied away from controversy. From exposing the KKK's agendas to understanding transgender journeys, she addressed topics others wouldn’t dare touch, sparking nationwide conversations. In one instance, she hugged a teenager with AIDS. But she also talked about family issues and featured a lot of drag queens on the show.

Troubling Behavior/ Sally Jessy Raphael, Roku

She was nominated five times for a Daytime Emmy as Outstanding Talk/Service Show Host, winning in 1989.

In 1993, she was asked to present right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh with a Communications' Radio Hall of Fame award. During it, she said she didn’t agree with the award because he calls ”women like me ‘femina-zis.’ Soon after, one of Limbaugh’s staffers published a photo of Sally Jessy without her makeup or glasses.

NBC ended up buying the show, and she told Emmy magazine that she was working for the worst bosses ever. “They're the reason the show is over. I don't think it's great broadcasting to take people who are less educated than you, or a different color than you and make them appear foolish. We had done a show on re-educating teenagers about bad behavior — why it's bad for your parents, for mankind and for you. That show rated well, and then we had to do that show over and over and over again ["Teens Gone Wild Boot Camp"]. That was the beginning of the end.”

Image: Sally Jessy Raphael Full Episode/ Nosey

In the same interview, she recounts the shock of the show being canceled in 2002. She said NBC had told her it would be renewed, but one morning she found out it wasn’t. “They said the ratings were on a slide down, so they'd decided not to continue the show. That took my breath away. I had just told 250 people that they had a job. I've worked since I was six years old. Not being able to work is a killer,” she told Emmy magazine.

In 2019, she told The Daily Mail that she suspects the real reason she was fired was due to her own cancer diagnosis. “All they needed was a 60-year-old that might have cancer. I was stupid enough to tell them,” she said. She overcame her battle with cancer and has been in remission for decades.

Despite the horrible career news, Sally Jesse said she was still working a more personal job — taking care of her husband who had Alzheimer's and Parkinson’s at the time. They were married for 58 years until he died in 2020. One of her daughters died of an accidental overdose in 1992, at age 33.

While Sally Jesse was a gender pioneer, shaping radio and day time TV, when asked by Emmy Magazine her proudest career achievement she said: “Every once in a while somebody will come up to me and say, 'I didn't know about AIDS or breast cancer, and I learned something from you that saved my life.' You can't ask for better than that.”

Image: Interview with Jamie Shrode, diagnosed with AIDS, 5/7/1986/ Rainbow History Project, Youtube

After her show was canceled, she went back to radio, which she said she preferred, hosting ‘Sally Jessy Raphael on Talknet’ on local radio stations and the early internet from 2005 to 2008, when she was 73 years old.

You think old age would stop this pioneering woman journalist? Think again! In 2014, at age 79, she was back on TV with the show ‘Sally Jessy Rides!” where she had a series of wacky interviews, talking to Perez Hilton in a Party Bus, dragqueen Jinkx Monsoon on mobility scooters, and Paul Iacono on a mechanical bull!

Image: Sally Jessy Rides! Jinkx Monsson, Revry

In June 2023, the 88-year-old icon shared some backstage shots of a mysterious project that she said she couldn’t wait to share with her fans (aka Raphaelites).

Image: SJRaphael / X

Besides work, she also seems to be loving life as a grandma, often posting pictures of her hanging with her grandchildren and celebrating their achievements (like graduating college!) To keep up to date with her latest, follow her on Twitter where she’s very active.

Image: SJRaphael / X