Richard Belzer - Personal Life

Personal Life

Belzer's first two marriages were to Gail Susan Ross (1966–72) and boutique manager Dalia Danoch (1976– c. 1978), both of which ended in divorce. In 1981 in Los Angeles he met 31-year-old Harlee McBride, a divorcee with two daughters, Bree and Jessica. McBride, who had been seen in Playboy magazine four years earlier as part of that year's sex-in-cinema feature, in conjunction with Young Lady Chatterley, was appearing in TV commercials for the auto maker Ford and acting in free theater, when she met Belzer at the suggestion of a friend. The two married in 1985. He owns property in the south of France, where he and his wife live when Belzer is not working in the United States.

Belzer survived testicular cancer in 1983. His HBO special and comedy CD Another Lone Nut pokes fun at this as well as his status as a well-known conspiracy theorist.

On March 27, 1985, just days prior to the inaugural WrestleMania, Belzer requested on his cable TV talk show Hot Properties that Hulk Hogan demonstrate one of his signature wrestling moves. After being asked by Belzer, Hogan put Belzer in a front chin-lock, which caused Belzer to pass out. When Hogan released him, Belzer hit his head on the floor, sustaining a laceration to the scalp that required a brief hospitalization.

Belzer sued Hogan for $5 million and later settled out of court. On October 20, 2006, on Bubba the Love Sponge, it was claimed (with Hogan in the studio) that the settlement totaled $5 million, half from Hogan and half from Vince McMahon. During his June 23, 2008 appearance on Sirius Satellite Radio's The Howard Stern Show, Belzer suggested that the real settlement amount was actually closer to $400,000. He used the incident in his HBO special Another Lone Nut as part of his stand-up routine.