Patricia Mell "Patti" Blagojevich (born April 9, 1965), née Mell, is the former First Lady of Illinois and wife of

Rod Blagojevich Rod R. Blagojevich ( ; born December 10, 1956), often referred to by his nickname "Blago", is an American politician who served as the 40th governor of Illinois from 2003 to 2009. A member of the Democratic Party, Blagojevich previously worked ...

, the former

Governor of Illinois The governor of Illinois is the head of government of Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its we ...

, who was impeached and removed from office. She served as First Lady of

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

from January 2003 to January 2009. She is the daughter of former

Chicago City Council The Chicago City Council is the legislative branch of the Law and government of Chicago, government of the Chicago, City of Chicago in Illinois. It consists of 50 alderpersons elected from 50 Wards of the United States, wards to serve four-year t ...

Alderman

Richard Mell Richard F. "Dick" Mell (born May 5, 1938) is an American politician. A Democrat, he served on the Chicago City Council from 1975 to 2013. He retired in 2013 and was succeeded by Deb Mell, his daughter. Early life Mell was born and raised in Musk ...

and the sister of former Alderman Deb Mell.

Personal life

Blagojevich was born Patricia Mell, the daughter of former Chicago

alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). The term may be titular, denotin ...

. She earned her

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

from the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

. Her sister Deb Mell served in the Illinois State House of Representatives from 2009 to 2013, and on the Chicago City Council from 2013 to 2019. She is friends with ex-professional basketball player

John Salley John Thomas Salley ( ; born May 16, 1964) is an American former professional basketball player. He was the first player in NBA history to win championships with three franchises (since joined by Robert Horry, Danny Green, and LeBron James), as ...

First Lady

As First Lady of Illinois, Blagojevich supported the illiteracy eradication initiatives and the Illinois Pediatric Vision Initiative. In 2009 she was fired from a $100,000-a-year fundraising job after controversy regarding alleged taped statements.Patricia Blagojevich fired from fundraising job
" ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...

''. Thursday January 22, 2009. Retrieved on January 22, 2009. Blagojevich was also subpoenaed in February 2009 for documents related to her husband's

political campaign A political campaign is an organized effort which seeks to influence the decision making progress within a specific group. In democracy, democracies, political campaigns often refer to election, electoral campaigns, by which representatives a ...

and her work as a real estate agent.

''I'm a Celebrity...Get Me out of Here!''

In 2009, after her husband was removed as

, Blagojevich appeared as a contestant on

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 ...

reality show, '' I'm a Celebrity…Get Me out of Here''. She placed fourth on the show.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blagojevich, Patricia 1965 births Living people First ladies and gentlemen of Illinois Illinois Democrats People from Chicago American real estate brokers Participants in American reality television series Rod Blagojevich University of Illinois College of Liberal Arts and Sciences alumni