How old was Erika Jayne when she met Tom Girardi? Singer's estranged husband sentenced to 7 years in prison for wire fraud
Singer and reality TV star Erika Jayne's estranged husband, Tom Girardi, was recently sentenced to seven years and three months in prison after being found guilty on four counts of wire fraud.
This came months after a Los Angeles court found Girardi guilty of embezzling settlement money from his former clients in August 2024. The former attorney, aged 86, allegedly suffers from Alzheimer's disease but was deemed fit to stand for trial.
For the unversed, Erika Jayne had filed for divorce from Girardi in 2020, years before his conviction and sentencing. The couple, who is legally married for nearly 25 years, met in the late 1990s, when Erika Jayne was 27 and Tom Girardi was around 60. They tied the knot in 2000.
Girardi's sentencing was announced on June 3, 2025, with the former lawyer also ordered to pay $2.3 million to his victims and a $35,000 fine. Following his sentencing, California's US Attorney’s Office issued a news release that read:
"Girardi sent lulling communications to the defrauded clients that, among other things, falsely denied that the settlement proceeds had been paid and falsely claimed that Girardi Keese could not pay the settlement proceeds to clients until certain purported requirements had been met."
“These bogus requirements included addressing supposed tax obligations, settling bankruptcy claims, obtaining supposedly necessary authorizations from judges and satisfying other debts,” the statement added.
Tom Girardi had been convicted of funnelling over $15 million of his former clients' money through his now-defunct law firm, Girardi Keese, between October 2010 and late 2020. According to The New York Post, most the the victims were related to the passengers aboard the ill-fated Boeing 737 Lion Air flight, which crashed into the Java Sea in 2018, leaving no survivors.
Erika Jayne was previously named as a defendant in the embezzlement lawsuit
Erika Jayne had initially been named as one of the defendants in the embezzlement lawsuit against her estranged husband in 2020. However, her name was dismissed from the case, with the singer and reality TV star saying she had no idea about Girardi's illegal activities.
According to Page Six, the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star disclosed her initial reaction when she heard about her estranged husband's guilty verdict during the show's season 14 finale in March 2025. During a conversation with her co-star Kyle Richards, Jayen said she "never saw this coming," adding:
“I could have never saw this coming. Tom was loved, he was admired, he was accomplished. And this is how his story ended. I don’t know that I’ll ever get over that.”
Erika Jayne also revealed that she had been feeling good prior to the verdict. However, the ruling made her feel like “the walls started to close in."
“It immediately took me back a couple of years when everything was just out of control. My drinking, my medication, it was just all of this pressure. And I thought, ‘Oh, my God. It’s happening again. It’s happening again.’ I literally felt like I was being dragged down, like I was being dragged under the ground,” she added.
Erika Jayne also revealed that she found it "very difficult" to separate her estranged husband from the man who was found guilty of wire fraud. However, she also declared that she did not have to apologize for her mixed feelings, adding that only she and Girardi knew the details about their relationship and marriage.
According to Page Six, Erika Jayne previously denied the allegations that she either knew or was involved in the embezzlement plot orchestrated by her estranged husband, Tom Girardi. She was dismissed from the lawsuit in January 2022.
