Nancy Putkoski: Biography and Everything You Need To Know About Anthony Bourdain’s Ex-wife

October 1, 2021

Nancy Putkoski: Biography

Nancy Putkoski biography
Full Name: Nancy Putkoski Spouse: Anthony Bourdain (ex-husband)
Birth Place: Fort Lee, New Jersey Children: None
Date of Birth: April 8, 1955 Education: Dwight-Englewood High School, Vassar College

Nancy Putkoski is an American woman, whose claim to fame was being the first wife of celebrity chef and TV personality Anthony Bourdain. She is notoriously private, and as a result very little is known about her early life, family and upbringing.

She was born on April 8, 1955 in Fort Lee, New Jersey. This is also where she was raised in a Christian, conservative family.

Nancy attended Dwight-Englewood high school in New Jersey, before moving to New York in 1974. Here, she attended Vassar College – a liberal arts institution in Poughkeepsie, New York. She graduated in 1978.

Nancy Putkoski relationship and marriage

Nancy Putkoski met and started dating her future husband Anthony Bourdain at Dwight Englewood high school, where they were both students. They then proceeded to the same college, Vassar College.

In a past media interview, Bourdain revealed that he was so smitten with Putkoski that he graduated a year early to follow her to Vassar College. He was one of the first few men to matriculate at the institution at the time.

“They had just started admitting men and so when I arrived at 17, I found myself a rarity. I was an unprepared, immature young man in the company of very many female wolves, who pretty much taught me the way of the world.”

Anthony however was not keen to complete his studies here, dropping out after just 2 years to pursue his cooking passion at the Culinary Institute of America, which was just 15 minutes drive away.

That meant that though they were no longer in the same school, they were not very far from each other. They would continue dating and then get married to each other.

In 2000, Anthony Bourdain was offered a TV deal after his best-selling book “Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly” was published.

Not one for publicity, Nancy identified television and showbiz as a danger to their marriage. “I felt like the whole world was opening up to me. I’d seen things. I’d smelled things. I desperately wanted more. And she saw the whole thing as a cancer,” Bourdain once explained.

The travel and work schedule that ensued eventually drove a wedge between them, leading to their separation in 2004 and divorce in 2005.

Nancy then dropped completely under the radar, and not even her ex-husband’s suicide in 2018 would bring her out in public.

During their marriage, Nancy and Anthony did not have any children. Anthony would however marry Ottavia Busia, with whom they had a daughter; Ariane Bourdain.


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