Cindy Adams

Cynthia Adams (née Heller; born April 24, 1930)^[2] is an American gossip columnist and writer. She is the widow of comedian/humorist Joey Adams.

Early life and education

Adams was an only child raised by her mother after her parents divorced.^[2]

Marriage to Joey Adams

Adams began to work as a photographer's model in Manhattan, and met her future husband, Joey Adams, a year later,^[2] when they appeared on the same radio show.^[3] They married on Valentine's Day 1952, and had no children. Joey died in 1999, following a long illness.^[4]

Writing career

Since 1979, Adams has written a gossip column for the

Adams also wrote for local papers, including, eventually, the New York Post at the same time as her husband, who wrote a newspaper column for the Long Island Press on Long Island and later the New York Post. In 1965, she co-wrote an English-language autobiography of Indonesian president Sukarno, about whom she wrote another book two years later, during which he had been toppled by a pro-West general. In 1975, Adams published a biography of Jolie Gabor, the mother of the Gabor sisters. Among those whom she interviewed in 1970 was Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the shah of Iran. Adams later became friendly with Imelda Marcos, the controversial widow of former Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos.^[6][7]

Adams became a

She is known for ending her columns with the catch phrase: "Only in New York, kids, only in New York."[8]

Animal activism

After her husband died in 1999, Adams developed a love for dogs. Jazzy, her Yorkshire Terrier, trailed her in public and became a minor celebrity himself. Adams and Jazzy would often dine together at New York City's finest restaurants, including Le Cirque.^[9] Adams dresses her dogs in expensive designer clothes and jewelry. She wrote a memoir about Jazzy, The Gift of Jazzy, and launched the Jazzy line of merchandise.^{[clarification needed]}

One weekend, Adams put Jazzy in a kennel in upstate New York when she left the city. By the time she returned Jazzy had died.^[10][11] She had a necropsy performed, which showed E. coli bacteria in the dog's system. In an article published in The New York Times, Adams was quoted as saying, "Now this is a dog that I hand-fed. I would lie on my stomach in the kitchen and hand-feed him kosher chicken. We would go to Le Cirque and eat off of Limoges porcelain. Where would he get E. coli?"^[10]

She became a vocal advocate

Adams lives and works from a nine-room penthouse apartment with a 1,000-square-foot (93 m²) veranda on Park Avenue in Manhattan, which she and her husband purchased from the estate of billionaire heiress Doris Duke^[16] in 1997.^[17] Because of the apartment's connection with Duke, Adams hosted the wrap party for the television biographical film Bernard and Doris (2008), about Duke's later years and Duke's relationship with her butler.^{[18][clarification needed]}

Her words after her husband's death included:^[19]

• "My career came because I married Joey."
• "This man gave me everything. Everything I have, I got from him. He introduced me to the world."

Illness in 2010

Adams ceased writing her regular