Jamie-Lynn Sigler has described her marriage to AJ Discala as a 'big mistake' and suggested that he took money from her. The Sopranos actress was just 20 years old when she married her first husband in 2003. Initially, she relied on him for support, but she soon realized they were not compatible and divorced two years later.
According to Us Weekly, Sigler writes 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 split, Sigler admitted she had not 'disentangled' financially from AJ. A family friend who worked as an accountant looked into their finances and discovered 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.'
The MesSy podcaster admitted she never discovered where the money went and has chosen to move on. She wrote: '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 her memoir, the 44-year-old star recounts meeting AJ and dismissing suggestions that her former financial manager, now 55, had romantic feelings for her. She said: 'AJ was 10 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.'
However, one night 'changed everything' when AJ placed his hand on her 'upper thigh' in the back of a car. She wrote: '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.'
Sigler also suggests that some of her Sopranos co-stars did not support the relationship, noting that the late James Gandolfini failed to attend 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, Sigler looked at her then-partner's phone and discovered messages between him and his ex. She reacted angrily but was more upset 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.'
