The Untold Truth Of Geraldo Rivera

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

The following article includes mentions of sexual misconduct allegations.

Veteran TV journalist Geraldo Rivera has been working in the news since the early 1970s. Throughout the longevity of his career, the former "Eyewitness News" reporter once palled around with the likes of the late John Lennon, was dubbed one of People's "50 Most Beautiful People" in 1991, and even won a Peabody Award before he took his career to the national stage. That's not to mention his estimated $20 million fortune, as of this writing, according to Celebrity Net Worth.

But in more recent years, the former "Geraldo" host-turned-conservative Fox News journalist has developed a habit of making headlines for the wrong reasons. From scandalous selfies and life-threatening mistakes to his rather complicated relationship with former President Donald Trump, we've read between the lines to bring you the surprising and lesser-known ups and downs involving this famous television personality. Tune in below for the untold truth of Geraldo Rivera.

Many celebrities write memoirs as a way to control their own stories. That wasn't exactly the case with Geraldo Rivera, and the resulting autobiography, 1991's "Exposing Myself," came to be "the colossal error of my adult life," as the journalist later admitted to People.

According to New York Magazine, Rivera essentially jumped the gun at writing it after hearing an unauthorized book about him was in the works, and seemingly rushed to air his dirty laundry rather than have someone else do it. Throughout the book's 496 pages, Rivera shares the ups, downs, and romances of his private life — leaving no stone unturned. He detailed romances and affairs with Marian Javits, Bette Midler (more on this below), Liza Minnelli, and others, as reported by People. Decades later, he took to Twitter (via CBS News) to express his regret and embarrassment over what he dubbed a "tawdry" book.

As "Geraldo" producer Marty Berman told New York Magazine, "His agent, his wife, and I all told him not to do it. What he did to himself was worse than anyone would have done. If a movie star wrote it, that would be one thing. But for a newsman, it wasn't gallant. It was macho-a**hole."

In Geraldo Rivera's aforementioned memoir "Exposing Myself," he describes a scandalous relationship with Bette Midler, including this encounter (via The Washington Post): "We were in the bathroom, preparing for the interview, and at some point I put my hands on her breasts."

Midler also recalled that moment during a 1991 interview with Barbara Walters — an interview that resurfaced in 2017 as Rivera began speaking out in defense of "courtship" and the "flirty business" of news on Twitter on behalf of Matt Lauer. According to Midler, "Geraldo and his producer came to do an interview with me in the '70s — the early '70s, and this was when he was very, sort of, hot. And he and his producer left the crew in the other room, they pushed me into my bathroom, they broke two poppers and pushed them under my nose and proceeded to grope me." The term "poppers" refers to a recreational form of alkyl nitrites, which trigger temporary muscle relaxation and a head rush when inhaled. Midler continued, "I did not offer myself up on the altar of Geraldo Rivera. He was ... he was unseemly."

In response to the ensuing backlash and resurfaced allegations, Rivera tweeted, "Although I recall the time @BetteMidler has alluded to much differently than she, that does not change the fact that she has a right to speak out & demand an apology from me, for in the very least, publically embarrassing her all those years ago. Bette, I apologize."

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

In July 2013, Geraldo Rivera found himself on the wrong side of the headlines once again, this time for an eye-opening selfie. The newsman posted a half-naked bathroom selfie on Twitter, which instantly made the rounds on social media, per Yahoo! News. The steamy picture shows Rivera standing in the bathroom mirror holding a white towel over his private parts. His chest is exposed, and hair combed back. The caption reads, "70 is the new 50."

What possessed him to post such a pic? Rivera offered a head-scratching explanation about how that racy image hit the internet. "I did a great show on Black-on-Black crime and race relations and the Trayvon Martin fallout and federal charges ... and I get home and there's no one to talk to, everyone's asleep," Rivera told radio station 95.5 FM (via the New York Daily News). "This weekend, it was tequila. I never do tequila when I'm alone, but I had this new bottle that someone had given me for my birthday. By the second one, my fate was sealed." 

Rivera apparently woke up the next day, discovered his selfie was breaking the internet, and at the behest of his kids, he took it down. Posting the selfie "seemed like a great idea at the time," Rivera said.

Geraldo Rivera's big mouth landed him in hot water in Iraq back in 2003. According to CNN, while covering the war for Fox News, he gave away his exact location on television while embedded with the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division. In fact, he reportedly drew a map in the sand while on camera to detail the troops' position. His decision to share sensitive information endangered the lives of Rivera and everyone in the military unit. 

The unit's commander believed Rivera "had compromised operational information by reporting the position and movements of troops," a Pentagon spokesperson named Bryan Whitman told Reuters (via CNN). After that admittedly serious lapse in judgement, Rivera was reportedly escorted out of the combat zone and "dropped at the Kuwait border," as Whitman continued. However, as the TV journalist claimed in his subsequent apology statement (via his website), "My network and I decided it would be best to voluntarily withdraw to Kuwait to review the situation."

Rivera continued to admit that he "should have been more careful," noting, "I was told I violated one of the rules set up by the Pentagon for reporters embedded with the military. ... The review showed that I did indeed break one of the rules related to embedment. I'm sorry that it happened and I assure you that it was inadvertent. Nobody was hurt by what I said. No mission was compromised."

Geraldo Rivera isn't afraid to get down and dirty. He was famously roughed up during an on-air fight with white supremacists in 1988. Rivera, who was hosting his own talk show called "Geraldo" at the time, suffered a broken nose in the mayhem, reported The New York Times. "These racist thugs are like roaches who scurry in the light of exposure,” he later said. Despite his injury, Rivera reportedly decided not to go to the hospital because he had two more shows to tape. He also opted not to press charges, saying, ”I do not want to be tied up with the roaches."

It turns out this wasn't the first time Rivera got physical with white supremacists. Four years later, he was arrested on a misdemeanor battery charge after getting into yet another scuffle, this time with a member of the Ku Klux Klan, per The Buffalo News. According to the outlet, Rivera — who "suffered a badly bitten thumb and cuts" during the incident — had attended a KKK rally in Illinois to tape a segment of his show.

"I didn't get all this way letting little Nazis push me around," he later said (via GazetteXtra), noting that he'd been called racist and anti-Semitic slurs by the man in question, before their fight broke out. Rivera explained, "Obviously, because of my history with some of these organizations, I expect hostility and some suspicion, but I'm not accustomed to an out-and-out assault." Rivera posted bail a few hours after getting booked.

If you or a loved one has experienced a hate crime, contact the VictimConnect Hotline by phone at 1-855-4-VICTIM or by chat for more information or assistance in locating services to help. If you or a loved one are in immediate danger, call 911.

Geraldo Rivera found himself in a very strange predicament when he left the hospital with a mangled foot following back surgery in 2010. According to the New York Post, Rivera attempted to settle a malpractice lawsuit in 2015 between himself and Manhattan's Hospital for Special Surgery. He claimed the hospital somehow destroyed his foot, although it's not exactly clear what happened. Meanwhile, the hospital's lawyer claimed Rivera injured himself in his recovery room by kicking the door of a refrigerator. "I can't jog anymore," Rivera told the Post. "I can't even play tennis, ski. ... I promise any settlement I get, I promise I'm donating 100 percent to charity."

Since the incident, Rivera has shared countless photos of his foot and has continued to blame the hospital for the injury. In 2013, he underwent surgery to correct his crippled toes. In one photo on his Twitter page, Rivera is seen on crutches getting into a car with the caption: "Heading home! Thanks Mt. Sinai Hospital. No thxx Hospital for Special Surgery for botched original job."

In 1986, Geraldo Rivera put his career and reputation on the line with a highly anticipated TV special entitled, "The Mystery of Al Capone's Vaults." According to the Chicago Tribune, the program was a two-hour live event, broadcast to millions in 14 countries, promising to reveal buried treasure in the basement of a Chicago hotel. "It was an amazing high-profile program — maybe the highest-profile program I've ever been associated with in that it became coffee-table conversation," Rivera told the paper in 2016, 30 years after the footage aired. "So there was a tremendous amount of anticipation, enthusiasm, anxiety and nervousness." 

But as the show progressed, it became increasingly clear that Rivera may be taking audiences on a wild ride that could end empty handed. "There was a terrible, terrible sinking feeling, 'My God, the whole world is watching,'" Rivera recalled. Unfortunately, that was exactly what happened: The entire exploration turned out to be a bust! When the vault was finally opened, Rivera found an old stop sign and several empty gin bottles. He promised critics that if he turned up empty handed, he'd sing a song. He kept his promise, singing the first line from "Chicago," before walking off camera.

"My career was not over, I knew, but had just begun," Rivera wrote his memoir five years later (via Entertainment Weekly). "And all because of a silly, high-concept stunt that failed to deliver on its titillating promise."

Geraldo Rivera has penned a number of books over the years, and while not all of them have been super successful, it's a feat nonetheless. His career as a writer began in the '70s with Willowbrook, an exposé about conditions at a school for children with mentally disabilities, as well as "Puerto Rico: Island of Contrasts" and "A Special Kind of Courage," the latter of which is a collection of profiles about young Americans who acted bravely in moments of crisis. In 2008, the TV journalist published "His Panic: Why Americans Fear Hispanics in the U.S.," and a year later, he released "The Great Progression: How Hispanics Will Lead America to a New Era of Prosperity."

As a follow-up of sorts to 1991's "Exposing Myself," Rivera released another memoir in 2018 called "The Geraldo Show." It garnered praise from a diverse reading audience that varied from Sean Hannity to Richard "Cheech" Marin. As the man himself wrote in the book's Amazon blurb, "During my half a century in public life, my image and reputation have had more ups and downs than the 'Cyclone' roller coaster at Coney Island. ... At the vigorous twilight of a long and largely improvised life lived in plain sight, I have little left to prove. Faced with a series of random chances, for better and worse, what I made of my life is what I made of those chances. Time has enlightened and humbled me."

Geraldo Rivera put his business cap on and nearly stole the show on his longtime pal Donald Trump's series "Celebrity Apprentice" in 2015 (more on their complicated friendship below). After weeks of grueling tasks and outrageous demands, he placed second on the reality business competition, bested by fellow talk show host Leeza Gibbons. Rivera earned an impressive $725,000 for his charity, Life's WORC, an organization that helps those dealing with disabilities and autism.

"It was a nail-biter right to the end," he said on "The Wendy Williams Show" following his elimination. "I don't think anyone except Donald Trump knew how it was going to turn out." Rivera also dished on the "jerk" side of his personality, saying, "I saw it as someone who had to be aggressive and energetic and competitive ... because I had a big bullseye on my back. ... When you fight that way it's not always attractive."

Throughout his career, Geraldo Rivera has fostered a reputation for chasing a story like a member of the Jets or the Sharks about to take a bat to his opponent. This brings us to a 1989 interview with the Los Angeles Times where he alluded to the gangs he was in when he was younger. "The Corner Boys and, after I got my driver's license, the Valve Grinders ... our graphic was a valve with wings on it," he told the outlet. In his book "Exposing Myself," Rivera reflected on this period of his life, describing the Corner Boys as "mild-mannered." He recalled, "We had one rumble, and it had to do with a football defeat, or an insulted girlfriend." 

It's difficult to verify such a claim, since street gangs aren't exactly notorious for documenting membership rosters, but it's been a theme that Rivera often uses as a reference point in much of his work. Easy allusions to that reference include his infamous live coverage of opening gang leader Al Capone's empty safe, as well the live altercation with skinheads on his own controversial show. Over the years, however, the novelty has since worn off, as Rivera's definitely a law-and-order guy, as evidenced in one commentary on a crime spree in San Francisco and gun violence in Chicago. 

"The difference ... between chaos and civilization is rules," Rivera said on Fox News. "When you break the rules and there are no consequences, then you descend into chaos." 

One of Geraldo Rivera's most stable jobs has been with Fox News, a channel that skews heavily to the right side of the political spectrum. Fans of the more left-leaning celebrity might wonder how, since 2001, he's been able to put up with an environment that spit-shines pedestals for its contingent of Republican cheerleaders like Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham. As it turns out, Rivera's doing so well there, that he agreed to a multi-year contract in 2021. "I'm delighted that FOX News continues to embrace this old soldier in the vivid twilight of my kinetic career," he said in a statement released by Fox News.

So, expect Rivera to continue locking horns with the news channel's stalwarts. While tackling what Donald Trump would have done about the Russian invasion of Ukraine in March 2022, for example, Rivera asked "The Five" panelist Jeanine Pirro, "How do you know that Putin wasn't playing Trump?" This question caused his colleague to lose her temper. In 2021, Rivera made Carlson's blood boil over his sensationalist commentary on immigration and the U.S.-Mexico border. "I'm mad about exaggeration and hype," said Rivera, sending his colleague into outrage overdrive. That same year, he also questioned Hannity's thought process when sending texts to Trump's chief of staff Mark Meadows during the Capitol riot. "I beg you, Sean, to remember the frame of mind you were in when you sent that text on January 6th." Hannity wasn't impressed.