The Untold Truth Of Victoria Caputo And Larry Caputo, Jr.
There are mediums on television, and then there are mediums made for television. Theresa Caputo, with her mile-high hair and a tall personality to match, is arguably the most entertaining medium to have crossed the airwaves, and viewers can't get enough of her wackiness. She allows cameras into her home while filming TLC's Long Island Medium and does not shy away from sharing Caputo family drama, and showing the manner in which her career affects her relationships. This revealing glimpse into Caputo's private life has introduced the star's fans to her family members, which makes us feel like we know her (now-ex) husband, Larry, and their kids, Victoria Caputo and Larry Caputo Jr.
For reality stars in particular, fame is a mixed bag. In an interview with Southern Connecticut State University (via YouTube), Victoria said being recognized in public can be difficult. "I do appreciate how much people love me, love my mom, love my family...[but] I literally have to watch every move, every step I take, because people are just judging me everywhere."
Snippets of the Caputo kids' lives have been featured on Long Island Medium, but fans don't know much about Victoria and Larry Jr. outside of what they see on TLC. We dug up some things you probably don't know about them to round out a fuller picture of their lives.
Victoria and Larry Jr. had a relatively normal childhood
Victoria Caputo said in her SCSU interview, "Life growing up for me was normal. I grew up like any kid would. I went to school. My mom cooked me dinner. You know ... I just had a normal life." She described a schedule of quality time with friends and family, interspersed with school activities and sports. "TLC does not exaggerate anything about our family," Victoria added. "We are who we are. And we like to express that. We're very loud. We're funny... There's nothing hiding, and they don't make it look like we're crazy. We're just crazy." Sounds like a normal family to us!
Viewers submitted questions to Larry Caputo Jr. at the Season 5 premiere of Long Island Medium about Caputo family life (via YouTube). Asked whether Theresa gives him advice from the great beyond, Larry Jr. said, "She generally doesn't give me, you know, medium advice. She gives me mom advice. She gives me motherly things a mom would tell a son." In response to a question about his friends' reaction to Theresa's gift, he said, "Like me, my friends have grown up knowing my mom talks to dead people. They don't really know much different than I do. You know, they had a friend whose mom talks to dead people. Nothing weird about that. If they do think they're creeped out, they've never told me." Anything can seem normal to children if it's all they know.
Kids of a medium can't really hide their misbehavior
There was one notable exception to Victoria Caputo and Larry Caputo Jr.'s "normal" family life. We tend to think of kids as being the sneaky ones in a family, but the Caputo kids had a sneaky mom! In order to keep Victoria and Larry Jr. out of trouble, Theresa would pretend Spirit was feeding her information about their whereabouts and activities.
She wrote in her book, There's More to Life Than This: Healing Messages, Remarkable Stories, and Insight About the Other Side from the Long Island Medium, "As a mom, being a medium always worked well with keeping my kids in line. I never really knew what was going on with them, but I'd tell them that I'd send my guides with them when they went out so they'd stay out of trouble. Victoria and my son, Larry, never thought about doing anything bad because they probably thought Spirit would rat them out." Theresa even admitted to calling them under the guise of checking on them because her Spirit guides were concerned, when she really just wanted to make sure they were alright because she was "a nervous mom." People say Theresa is crazy? She's crazy like a fox!
Victoria Caputo said yes to the dress
There will be no more speed dating nights for Victoria Caputo, on or off of Long Island Medium! Victoria is now all grown up, and she's even found her lobster! She started dating her now-fiancé Michael Mastrandrea in the summer of 2017, and the couple got engaged in February 2019. The couple had planned for a September 2020 wedding, but the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted those plans, causing the lovebirds to postpone their nuptials. The soon-to-be bride posted new "save the date" photos on Instagram in June 2020, noting their big day is now planned for May 2021.
The postponed wedding date might have stalled their legal union, but the couple has continued to move forward in their lives together. Caputo shared in a May 2020 Instagram post that the two had bought a house together.
Victoria's TLC family helped her prep for the big day, featuring her on sister show Say Yes to the Dress in an episode filmed in May 2019. Proud mom Theresa shared photos from the day at Kleinfeld Bridal, where Victoria and Theresa fell in love with two different dresses! Say Yes to the Dress posted a clip of Theresa's impromptu reading on Twitter as a teaser for the episode. And, of course, just about everyone in the store ended up in tears of joy seeing Victoria looking beautiful in a wedding dress.
Larry Jr. and Victoria took their parents' divorce pretty hard
Divorce is especially difficult under public scrutiny, and trouble in the Caputos' marriage was evident during Season 8 of Long Island Medium. In one scene, Theresa Caputo broke down into tears during a reading and had to walk off camera to collect herself. She later admitted in a confessional that the outburst of emotion was due to troubles in her marriage. In another episode from the same season, Theresa revealed she had been trying to figure out how things with Larry Caputo had gotten so bad. The Caputos legally separated in December 2017 and filed for divorce in April 2018, after 28 years of marriage.
Publicly, the kids have remained relatively mum about the divorce. Theresa explained in April 2018 episode of her show (via Good Housekeeping) that she was giving Victoria and Larry Jr. space to process it. "They know that they can come to Larry and I, you know, if they ever want to talk about it," she said. "[We] kind of just left it in their hands."
The Long Island Medium matriarch revealed to Extra's Billy Bush in February 2021 that she has found love again and is in "an exclusive relationship." She says the public nature of her life complicates dating because people "want their privacy and I have to respect that." While we don't know much about her new beau, Theresa told People the TV Show Victoria and Larry Jr. approve.
Their father is still actively involved in their lives
Larry Caputo moved to Los Angeles after he and Theresa Caputo separated, and he seems to be enjoying his new life as a single man. His social media posts show him on a Harley, in shirtless mirror selfies showing off his gym bod, and dapperly dressed in shots promoting his new wine. E! reported that Larry posted a now-deleted photo to Instagram with a woman he referenced as his "baby boo." About six months prior, TMZ reported Larry was dating a woman he supposedly met through Long Island Medium, when she reached out to Theresa for a reading. Joining the thousands of Americans springing lucky critters from shelters during the COVID-19 quarantine, the most recent addition to the company Larry keeps in Cali appears to be the dog he recently adopted!
While Larry might be living his best life thousands of miles west of Victoria Caputo and Larry Caputo Jr., he hasn't let the physical distance get in the way of their relationship. He still shows up to for major events and is an active participant in their lives, including the above Instagram post from August 2019, celebrating Victoria's fiancé's birthday. Theresa even told Extra that things with Larry are "fantastic" and "great," and that he's been an active part of planning Victoria's wedding. Keeping it friendly for the sake of the kids is a sign of great parenting, no matter how old the little ones are when the split happens.
Victoria and her mom love to get glam
Victoria Caputo graduated from the (now-closed) Cactus Academy of Paul Mitchell beauty school in 2015 and is now a professional stylist. According to her bio at Salon Entourage, her specialty is hair coloring, especially highlights and Balayage. She even has a second Instagram account, The Long Island Balayage, dedicated solely to her hair coloring craft. Thanks to her large social media following, Victoria also is an internet influencer, which creates lucrative opportunities for a side hustle promoting beauty products. In 2019 and 2020, her posts have shown her partnership with Fab Fit Fun.
Victoria even gave Theresa a makeover for TLC's YouTube channel, and she also likes to share pictures of their mother-daughter glam days (above), which shows off her talent with cosmetics. Victoria can beat a face to gorgeousville! During the makeover video, Theresa said to her daughter, "You don't think my hair is like an art? It's like a sculpture!" Art, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. The bigger the hair, the closer to God.
Victoria was a competitive gymnast
Since the age of four, Victoria Caputo has competed in gymnastics. Her athletic career culminated Southern Connecticut State University, where she was on school's gymnastics team for three years. Prior to that, she was "ranked first in the state, first in the region, and second in the nation" as a high school athlete, according to her SC Gymnastics bio. In an interview with the SCSU, Victoria explained why she chose the school: "The team and the coaches really caught my eye, and I came to visit the campus, and I just fell in love." She left SCSU before her senior year, however, to pursue cosmetology.
Theresa wrote in There's More to Life Than This: Healing Messages, Remarkable Stories, and Insight About the Other Side from the Long Island Medium about intervention from the Spirit world in healing Victoria's knee injuries as a teenager. "The time Gram helped heal Victoria from a gymnastics injury is one of my favorite stories ever." Her deceased grandmother was a seamstress and button collector, and the surgeon who repaired Victoria's ACL had used a button in her surgery, which was much less involved than anticipated. The scheduling of the surgery had allowed for Victoria to have physical therapy to help her heal naturally, as opposed to the quick, complicated surgery initially indicated.
Larry Jr. has a longtime girlfriend
Larry Caputo Jr. has been dating his longtime girlfriend, Leah Munch, since they both attended undergraduate school at College of Mount Saint Vincent, where she now works as the Director for Public Relations, Marketing, and Program Development, according to what appears to be her LinkedIn. An early public interaction from the two is an exchange another's Twitter accounts is in 2011, which would have been during their college years, and from the plethora of family and couples photos posted to the Caputos' social media accounts, it looks like Caupto and Munch are as happily coupled as Victoria Caputo and Michael Mastrandrea.
As The Sun revealed, though, fans of Long Island Medium still flirt with Larry Jr. despite his decidedly not-single status. Recent comments to his social media posts from fans coo that he's "handsome" and manly, and they sometimes ask if he's by chance single again. With Larry Jr. and Victoria enjoying close relationships with both of their parents, despite the divorce and the kids' now being adults, the Caputos seem like one big, crazy, unconventional family — just like most of the rest of us!
Athletics apparently run in the Caputo family
The Caputo family members are all sports minded! Theresa Caputo and Larry Caputo are both fit as a fiddle (they even had a fitness competition on Long Island Medium), Victoria Caputo was a competitive gymnast, and — not to be outdone — Larry Caputo Jr. was the captain of the Division III lacrosse team during his senior year at the College of Mount Saint Vincent in the Bronx, NY (where he graduated in 2012 with a bachelor's degree in communication and media studies). And, according to his proud mama, Larry Jr. has even won two Regional Sports Emmys!
Unfortunatley, another family affair with the Caputos is ACL surgery. Not only did Victoria have it, but both Larry Jr. and Theresa have had their ACLs surgically repaired as well. No one in the family seems to have commented about the reason for Larry Jr.'s surgery in the fall of 2019, but we do know Theresa's July 2018 surgery was needed after she lost a fight with a wave in Hawaii (via Life & Style).
Victoria and Larry Jr. struggled somewhat to appreciate their mom's gift
Larry Caputo Jr. doesn't seem the least bit bothered by his mother's gift, or her career, but he does cringe a bit when it comes to approaching strangers in public. During the Long Island Medium Season 5 premiere Q & A, Larry Jr. said, "There's nothing more annoying, at first, when someone you know, your mother, interrupts somebody's day with personal questions. It's embarrassing! But the reactions that the people have after the fact — it's something that you have to be there to experience yourself to really explain the joy that she really does bring to people on a daily basis."
Victoria Caputo has had similar experiences. In After This: When Life Is Over, Where Do We Go?, author Claire Bidwell Smith (who is actually somewhat skeptical about Theresa Caputo's authenticity) describes an encounter Theresa had with a stranger on an episode of Long Island Medium. She was shopping with Victoria and approached someone in the meat department of a grocery store. Smith says Victoria "balked with embarrassment...but then [Theresa's] messages to the woman were so moving and healing that her daughter couldn't help but admire her." It seems even those who doubt Theresa's gift can't deny the joy she brings to people seeking closure or solace about a loved one's passing.