Who is Karen Backfisch-Olufsen? Meet Jim Cramer's ex-wife
Jim Cramer's first wife, Karen Backfisch-Olufsen, was with him before the fame and fortune. She was the brains behind the success of his hedge fund, Cramer & Co., which made them a formidable trading couple. A 1989 Fortune Magazine issue called them 'Mr. and Mrs. Aggressive' while comparing them to Warren Buffett.
Source: UGC
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Key takeaways
- Jim Cramer and Karen Backfisch-Olufsen were married for over two decades and welcomed two daughters.
- Karen handled trading at their hedge fund, Cramer & Co., before she reportedly retired in the 1990s to care for the kids.
- Olufsen got most of the money Jim earned from trading when they divorced in 2009.
Karen Backfisch-Olufsen's profile summary
| Full name | Karen Backfisch-Olufsen |
| Place of birth | United States of America |
| Nationality | American |
| Marital status | Divorced |
| Ex-husband | Jim Cramer (1988-2009) |
| Children | Two: Cece Cramer, Emma Cramer |
| Profession | Hedge fund trader |
| Social media | InstagramFacebook |
| Known for | Trading and being Jim Cramer's first wife |
Karen Backfisch-Olufsen helped Jim Cramer make better trading decisions
CNBC anchor Jim Cramer married Karen Backfisch in 1988. They had met a year earlier while working as traders for Michael Steinhardt's hedge fund.
The couple later worked together at Jim's hedge fund, Cramer & Co., and Karen's contribution to the firm helped it survive the 1987 market crash. In his May 2002 New York Magazine article, Jim praised her trading intellect, writing,
I realized that not only could prices not be predicted, they were fixed every day by a process that combined luck and promotion and could only be gamed by someone much tougher and smarter intellectually than I was. Fortunately, that someone turned out to be Karen Backfisch, who not long after the crash, which she had predicted, became Karen Cramer.
Source: Original
Karen Backfisch-Olufsen retired after becoming a mother
Karen reportedly retired from trading in 1991 after welcoming her first child with Jim Cramer. The couple share two daughters, Cece Cramer and Emma Cramer, who grew up in Summit, New Jersey.
Cece keeps a low profile, but her sister Emma is active on social media platforms. Emma graduated from Tulane University in 2016 with a BA in Art History and later studied fashion and apparel design at Parsons School of Design, according to her LinkedIn. In 2023, she established her business known as Folds.
Jim Cramer has maintained a close relationship with his daughters. While talking on CNBC in June 2022, the Mad Money host shared that he does not give his daughters money so that they appreciate what they make and live within their means.
Giving money to my own kids and then having them invest—bad idea. I teach my kids about money by not giving them any money... Volunteer at a soup kitchen or donate money to a charity. This will teach you the true value of money.
Source: Instagram
Jim Cramer and Karen Backfisch-Olufsen's divorce settlement
The couple's marriage lasted 21 years before they divorced in 2009. As part of their divorce settlement in 2010, Jim revealed during his appearance on The Pomp Podcast that he transferred most of the money he made from successful trading to his ex-wife to avoid a dispute.
He also sold their Summit, New Jersey mansion to Karen Backfisch for $1. The pair purchased the five-bedroom, 5,032-square-foot home in 1999 for $2.375 million. Karen placed it on the market and sold it in 2019 for $3.675 million.
In the early 2010s, Karen and Jim were in court on a separate matter involving their former neighbour in Summit, D. Wyatt Stone. The exes reportedly invested $4.1 million between 2000 and 2003 in a real estate redevelopment company known as Stone Foundation.
The Cramer family sued Stone in 2009 after Stone had used their money for his side ventures. The suit was settled in mid-2015.
Source: Instagram
Where is Karen Backfisch-Olufsen today?
Jim Cramer's ex-wife maintains a low-key profile but is often seen spending time with her daughters. Karen has a private Instagram account, @igotyoubabe6070, which is often tagged on Emma's posts. In June 2021, Emma informed her fans that she and her mother had survived a scary road accident.
Last Wednesday, I took a trip to the NY Botanical Garden with my mom and her best friend; it was a perfect, sunny day. Everything changed in a split second on our way home when we were hit from behind by two different cars on the NJ Turnpike. One distracted driver caused a six-vehicle collision.
Source: Instagram
Is Karen Backfisch married?
Karen Backfisch has not introduced another partner since her divorce from Jim Cramer. Her ex-husband moved on a few years later.
Jim Cramer married Lisa Cadette Detwiler in April 2015 at Liberty Warehouse in Brooklyn, New York. The couple met in 2006 through mutual friends in Manhattan. Lisa told the New York Times in 2015 that it was not love at first sight, but she changed her mind about Jim after getting to know him.
I remember saying that there was no way I was going to go out with that bald, screaming man—He had wonderful life experiences to share. And most of all, he placed his children above everything else in life. And after all I had been through, that really hit home with me.
Source: Getty Images
What does Jim Cramer's wife do for a living?
Jim Cramer's wife, Lisa Detwiler, is a real estate broker. She also manages a Brooklyn-based Italian restaurant known as The Longshoreman. Lisa's father, Walter M. Cadette, was an economist at J.P. Morgan, while her mother, Joan Cadette, was an English teacher.
Source: Getty Images
Is Karen Finerman Jim Cramer's ex-wife?
Karen Finerman has never been married to Jim Cramer, but they are co-workers at CNBC. She is a panellist on the network's Fast Money segment, while Cramer runs the CNBC Investing Club and hosts Mad Money.
Finerman's husband is billionaire entrepreneur Lawrence E. Golub, the CEO of Golub Capital. The couple has two sets of twins. Karen's sister, Wendy Finerman, is an Oscar-winning film producer, while her brother, Mark Finerman, is a real estate financier.
Source: Getty Images
Karen Backfisch-Olufsen remains one of the best hedge fund traders years after reportedly retiring. While Jim Cramer proceeded to build a successful media career, his ex-wife chose a private life.
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Source: Briefly News
