In her new memoir, Jamie-Lynn Sigler has branded her marriage to AJ Discala a “big mistake” and suggested he took money from her.
Jamie-Lynn Sigler has branded her marriage to AJ Discala a “big mistake” and suggested he took money from her.
The Sopranos actress was just 20 years old when she tied the knot with her first husband in 2003 and while she initially thiught he was her “lifeline”, she eventually realised their union was doomed and they divorced two years later.
According to Us Weekly magazine, she wrote in her new memoir And So It Is… A Memoir of Acceptance and Hope: “I was only 20, trying to figure out who I was.
“He seemed to me then a lifeline, but I know now he was a big mistake. Untangling those contradictions has taken me years.”
When the couple finally split, Jamie-Lynn admitted she “hadn’t disentangled” financially from AJ and when a family friend, who was an accountant, looked into their figures, they found a six-figure sum was missing.
She wrote: “I didn’t even know how much money I had or what I was worth.
“The forensic accountant broke down what he believed had been happening.
“I would be paid a certain amount per episode for the Sopranos, and that would go into my corporation account.
“The next day, a portion of that money would be moved to our joint account for living expenses. But then a week or so later, a much smaller but still sizable amount of that money from our joint account would be moved to a different account that I didn’t have access to or know about.“
But the MesSy podcaster didn’t know where the money went and she didn’t attempt to find it.
She admitted: “To this day, I don’t know what happened with the money. But I don’t care anymore. That money is a chapter I want closed forever.”
In the book, the 44-year-old star recalled her first meeting with AJ and how she “brushed off” suggestions her former financial manager, now 55, had feelings for her.
She said: “AJ was ten years older than me and had an air of confidence about him.
“He was tall, with dark hair and eyes, handsome, and incredibly charismatic.
“He was one of those people who could strike up a conversation with anyone and make them feel like they’d known him forever. AJ was a natural flirt, but not in a way that felt romantic or inappropriate.”
But then one night “changed everything”, when AJ put his hand on Jamie-Lynn’s “upper thigh” in the back of a car.
She said: “That moment changed everything. By the time we reached the hotel that night, we weren’t just manager and client anymore. Overnight, AJ became my everything.”
However, she suggested some of her Sopranos co-stars didn’t support the relationship, with the late James Gandolfini failing to “show up” to their wedding.
She wrote: “I can’t say for certain why. He’s not here, so I can’t ask him. But Jim had always shown up for me.
“The Jim I knew wouldn’t have just skipped my wedding without a word or an excuse. Part of me wonders if maybe he didn’t want it for me.”
On one occasion before they married, Jamie-Lynn looked at her then-partner’s phone and discovered messages between him and his ex – but was more angry with herself than with him.
She wrote: “I lost it. I snapped. Seeing red, I opened the shower door and started screaming.
“The words streamed out of my mouth, and I can barely remember them. I told him to leave. I fired him and I broke up with him in one sentence.”
Jamie-Lynn Sigler brands first marriage a mistake
