Who is Eric Villency?
Eric Villency is a New York-born American businessman and interior designer, best known as the CEO of Villency Design Group, a high-end furniture and product design firm, and as the father of Ronan Anthony Villency, the son Kimberly Guilfoyle has from their brief marriage.
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Quick facts
- Full name: Eric Scot Villency
- Born: New York City, 1975
- Education: University of Wisconsin
- Occupation: Businessman, interior and product designer
- Known for: CEO of Villency Design Group; designer of the Peloton bike and the SoulCycle stationary bike
- Children: 1, Ronan Anthony Villency
Their story
In 1932, Villency's grandfather, Maurice Villency, started a furniture company in New York City. His father, Robert Villency, serves as chairperson of that pioneer furniture design company. Eric Villency attended the University of Wisconsin, and after graduating took over the CEO position of his grandfather's company, which was later renamed the Villency Design Group.
The business he inherited was a legacy furniture house; he repositioned it as a broader design firm serving high-end clients and luxury markets. In 2002, he opened the Maurice Villency flagship store on 57th Street in Manhattan. In 2006, he started Villency Atelier, a workshop focusing on custom design and fabrication for design professionals.
What he built
His most widely recognized design work sits not in the home but in fitness studios. He designed the Peloton indoor bike and the SoulCycle indoor fitness bike, and created fitness equipment for Rumble. He was named "The Wizard of Wellness" by Well + Good, and Inc. Magazine named him one of the most influential designers to watch. He has also written pieces for Huffington Post, The New York Times, Details, Best Life and Women's Health.
Personal life
His first marriage was to Kimberly Guilfoyle in 2006; they separated in 2009. Their son, Ronan Anthony Villency, was born in 2006 and is the child Guilfoyle brought up in the previous answers here. His second marriage was to Caroline Fare in 2013; they split in 2017.
Follow-ups
Is Kimberly Guilfoyle American? Where are her parents from?
Kimberly Guilfoyle, the U.S. Ambassador to Greece, is American, born in San Francisco, California, to a Puerto Rican mother and an Irish-born father.
Her mother, Mercedes Guilfoyle, grew up in Puerto Rico, and her father, Anthony "Tony" Guilfoyle, hailed from Ireland. Tony was born in Ennis, County Clare, Ireland, moved to the United States in 1957 at 20, served in the U.S. Army for four years, and afterward worked in construction before becoming a real estate investor. Mercedes taught special education.
Mercedes died of leukemia when Kimberly Guilfoyle was 10, leaving Tony to raise her and her younger brother as a widowed father. Without her mother, Kimberly grew closer to her father and the Irish side of her family, and she has described a cherished trip to Ireland to meet her grandparents, Nancy and Patrick "Paddy", on the Shannon River.
Family and heritage are clearly a source of pride for her: she has called herself "a proud Latina" on Instagram, a nod to her mother's Puerto Rican roots. She drew some criticism for calling herself a first-generation American, since her mother was from Puerto Rico and therefore already an American citizen. She is a first-generation American on her father's side, the one who immigrated from Ireland.
Her father Anthony also left a mark on San Francisco politics, earning the nickname "The Godfather" in local circles and playing an important role in Gavin Newsom's 2003 mayoral campaign.
Was she on any reality TV?
Kimberly Guilfoyle, the U.S. Ambassador to Greece, was not a reality TV cast member: her television career was built entirely in news and legal commentary, not reality programming.
Her path to TV started in law, not entertainment. In, Guilfoyle moved to New York to host the program Both Sides on Court TV. She also worked as a legal analyst on Anderson Cooper 360°.
She joined Fox News in February 2006 as host of the weekend show The Lineup, which was eventually canceled, but she remained a regular contributor for the network and in 2011 was picked as co-host of The Five. In 2014, Guilfoyle began hosting and then co-hosting Outnumbered. She also made appearances on America Live, Red Eye, and The O'Reilly Factor.
Some clickbait articles online claim she appeared as a cast member on The Celebrity Apprentice, a reality competition show hosted by Donald Trump in which celebrities competed to raise money for charity. Those claims don't hold up: Guilfoyle's name does not appear in the actual cast lists for any season of that show, and her own public biography doesn't include it. It's worth being skeptical of those sources.
The closest she came to unscripted television was a joint appearance with Donald Trump Jr. on The View in 2018, which was a talk show interview rather than a reality format.
So the short version: 14 years at Fox News, a legal career before that, and a political career after. No reality TV.
The books
Kimberly Guilfoyle is the link between two of American politics' most prominent figures: she was married to Gavin Newsom, the Democratic Governor of California, and later engaged to Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of President Donald Trump.
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