Barbara Ann Corcoran (born March 10, 1949) is an American businesswoman, investor, syndicated columnist, and television personality. She founded

The Corcoran Group Corcoran Group is an American real estate firm founded in 1973 by Barbara Corcoran. History Barbara Corcoran, a former diner waitress, founded her own real estate company in 1973 with a $1,000 loan. In 2001, Barbara Corcoran sold her company ...

, a real estate

broker A broker is a person or entity that arranges transactions between a buyer and a seller. This may be done for a commission when the deal is executed. A broker who also acts as a seller or as a buyer becomes a principal party to the deal. Neither ...

age in New York City, which she sold to NRT for $66 million in 2001 and shortly thereafter exited the company. One of the show's original "Shark" investors, Corcoran has appeared in all 15 seasons of

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

's ''

Shark Tank ''Shark Tank'' is an American business Reality television#Investments, reality television series that premiered on August 9, 2009, on American Broadcasting Company, ABC.Hibberd, James (May 10, 2012)Dancing,' 'Bachelor,' and a bigger 'Shark Tank ...

'' to date. As of January 2023, she has made 130 deals on the show, the largest being a $350,000 investment for 40% of Coverplay. Corcoran is a columnist for ''

More More may refer to: Computing * MORE (application), outline software for Mac OS * more (command), a shell command * MORE protocol, a routing protocol * Missouri Research and Education Network Music Albums * ''More!'' (album), by Booka Shade, ...

'', ''

The Daily Review ''The Daily Review'' (sometimes referred to as ''The Review'') is a daily broadsheet newspaper, serving Bradford County, Pennsylvania, Bradford and Sullivan County, Pennsylvania, Sullivan Counties of Pennsylvania. Its main office is in Towanda, ...

'', and ''

Redbook ''Redbook'' is an American women's magazine that is published by the Hearst Communications, Hearst magazine division. It is one of the "Seven Sisters (magazines), Seven Sisters", a group of women's service magazines. It ceased print publicatio ...

'', writes a weekly column in the New York '' Daily News'', and has written several books. She has been featured on ''

Larry King Live ''Larry King Live'' is an American television talk show broadcast by CNN from June 3, 1985 to December 16, 2010. Hosted by Larry King, it was the network's most watched and longest-running program, with over one million viewers nightly. Ma ...

'' and

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

's ''

Today Today (archaically to-day) may refer to: * The current day and calendar date ** Today is between and , subject to the local time zone * Now, the time that is perceived directly, present * The current, present era Arts, entertainment and m ...

'' show, and hosts ''The Millionaire Broker with Barbara Corcoran'' on

CNBC CNBC is an American List of business news channels, business news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group, a unit of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The network broadcasts live business news and analysis programming during the morning, Day ...

Early life and education

Corcoran was born in

Edgewater, New Jersey Edgewater is a borough located along the Hudson River in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 14,336, an increase of 2,823 (+24.5%) from the 2010 census count of 11,5 ...

, the second of 10 children in a working class

Irish-Catholic Irish Catholics () are an ethnoreligious group native to Ireland, defined by their adherence to Catholic Christianity and their shared Irish ethnic, linguistic, and cultural heritage.The term distinguishes Catholics of Irish descent, particul ...

family. Her mother, Florence, was a homemaker. Her father, Edwin W. Corcoran Jr., bounced from job to job throughout Corcoran's childhood. At times, her family relied on deliveries of free food from a friendly local grocer. Corcoran remembers her father as a man who occasionally drank too much and treated her mother with disrespect and condescension, particularly when he'd been drinking. Corcoran struggled throughout her schooling, and was labeled the "dumb kid" by her teachers and classmates. She later learned that she had

dyslexia Dyslexia (), previously known as word blindness, is a learning disability that affects either reading or writing. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, reading quickly, wri ...

, and has stated that the bullying "drove her to work harder and learn the skills she needed to succeed". She attended a local Catholic elementary school and started high school at St. Cecilia High School in Englewood. After flunking several courses during her freshman year, Corcoran transferred to

Leonia High School Leonia High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school serving students in ninth through twelfth grade from the Borough of Leonia in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, operating as part of the Leonia Public Schools. S ...

, where she graduated as a D student. Corcoran graduated from

St. Thomas Aquinas College St. Thomas Aquinas College (STAC) is a private college in Sparkill, New York. The college is named after the medieval philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas. It was founded by the Dominican Sisters of Sparkill, whose headquarters are in th ...

with a degree in education in 1971, faring better than she had in her previous schooling.

Career

After graduating from college, she taught school for a year but soon moved on. She had worked a total of 20 jobs by the time she was 23, including a side job renting apartments in New York City. While she was a waitress, her boyfriend convinced her to work for a real estate company. She wanted to be her own boss, and in 1973, while working as a receptionist for the Giffuni Brothers' real estate company in New York City, co-founded The Corcoran-Simonè with her boyfriend, who lent $1,000. She split from her boyfriend seven years later after he told her he was going to marry her secretary and she then formed her own firm, The Corcoran Group. In the mid-1970s, she also began publishing ''The Corcoran Report'', a newsletter covering real estate data trends in New York City. In 2001, Corcoran sold her business to NRT for $66 million. In September 2017, Corcoran was announced as a contestant for

season 25 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

of ''

Dancing with the Stars ''Strictly Come Dancing (widely known as Dancing with the Stars)'' is an international television franchise based on the format of the British TV series '' Strictly Come Dancing,'' itself a successor to the show ''Come Dancing'' (1950–1998) ...

,'' where she was partnered with

Keo Motsepe Keoikantse Motsepe (born 24 November 1989) is a South African dancer. His dancing styles are Latin and Ballroom. He is known for being the first black professional dancer on the ABC show ''Dancing with the Stars''. Life and career Motsepe sta ...

. In 2017, Corcoran's Shark Tank deal with The Comfy, an oversized wearable blanket, turned her $50,000 investment into $468 million. She accomplished this by refusing any more help to the brothers following supply chain issues following the Covid-19 pandemic. She was then bought out. Formerly known as Barbara Corcoran Venture Partners, today Forefront Venture Partners invests in high-growth, revenue-generating, early-stage companies.

Personal life

Corcoran lives in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

with her husband, Bill Higgins, a retired Navy captain and former

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

agent who participated in the

Gulf War , combatant2 = , commander1 = , commander2 = , strength1 = Over 950,000 soldiers3,113 tanks1,800 aircraft2,200 artillery systems , page = https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-PEMD-96- ...

. The couple married in 1988. Corcoran gave birth to their son in 1994, via

in vitro fertilization In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a process of fertilisation in which an egg is combined with sperm in vitro ("in glass"). The process involves monitoring and stimulating the ovulatory process, then removing an ovum or ova (egg or eggs) from ...

, with an egg donated by her sister Florence. The couple later adopted a daughter. In 2001, she purchased a 2,700-square-foot apartment in a

co-op A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democr ...

building on

Park Avenue Park Avenue is a boulevard in New York City that carries north and southbound traffic in the borough (New York City), boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. For most of the road's length in Manhattan, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the wes ...

for $3.5 million. In 2015, she purchased a penthouse unit on

Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan in New York City. The avenue runs south from 143rd Street (Manhattan), West 143rd Street in Harlem to Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. The se ...

for $10 million. In 2017, she purchased a double wide trailer home in California for $800,000. In 2019, for her 70th birthday, she held a mock funeral. Her hobbies include

skiing Skiing is the use of skis to glide on snow for basic transport, a recreational activity, or a competitive winter sport. Many types of competitive skiing events are recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and the International S ...

and going to the beach. She lost her home, the $800,000 double wide, in the Pacific Palisades wildfire, in January 2025.

Selected bibliography

* (co-authored with

Bruce Littlefield Bruce Littlefield is an American author, businessman, actor, model, and TV contributor. He is the regarded as an American "lifestyle authority". He has been called a "Modern Day Erma Bombeck", a "Garage Sale Guru", the "Flea Market King" and is ...

) * * (co-authored with Bruce Littlefield)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Corcoran, Barbara 1949 births Living people American people of Irish descent 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American businesswomen 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesswomen 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American women writers American business writers American women business writers American columnists American finance and investment writers American financial commentators American businesspeople in real estate American television hosts American women chief executives Businesspeople from Bergen County, New Jersey Businesspeople from New York City Participants in American reality television series Primetime Emmy Award winners Leonia High School alumni People from Edgewater, New Jersey St. Cecilia High School (New Jersey) alumni St. Thomas Aquinas College alumni Television producers from New York City American women columnists Writers from Bergen County, New Jersey Writers from New York City American women non-fiction writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers American women television producers Women business and financial journalists American women television hosts Television producers from New Jersey Writers with dyslexia American writers with disabilities Television personalities with disabilities Shark Tank