This time the secret was actually secret.
After a marriage to Jeff Zucker that was at the center of “the worst-kept secret in TV,” Caryn Zucker has remarried in an ultra hush-hush ceremony.
For years it was an “open secret” that famed media exec Jeff was strikingly close to his PR guru, Allison Gollust, and rumor was rife that he could even have been stepping out on Caryn.
Former “Saturday Night Live” supervisor Caryn and CNN boss Jeff split in 2017, once again stirring up scuttlebutt in newsrooms around town that the Gollust gossip my have taken a toll on the marriage.
Then in 2022, CNN began an investigation into star anchor Chris Cuomo’s role in his brother Governor Andrew Cuomo’s sexual harassment scandal, which turned up evidence that Jeff and Gollust were indeed candoodling.
Though the pair said that their relationship had turned romantic only after the marriage to Caryn ended, she was fired by the news network and he resigned after failing to disclosure the romance to bosses.
Perhaps the unrelenting scrutiny on her first marriage made Caryn long for a more low-profile relationship — because were told media insiders were shocked to learn that she quietly married Baltimore Orioles owner and Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein on Friday.
The couple were wed by Chief Justice John Roberts at the Supreme Court.
Photographer Tony Powell said in an Instagram post, “Just photographed the best-kept wedding secret of the year. And when I say secret, I mean I didn’t even find out it was a wedding until 15 minutes before it started.”
A rep confirmed the wedding and said their family was present. Caryn shares four kids with Jeff, including journalist Andrew.
A source tells us there is buzz that the couple are honeymooning in Europe.
The high-profile pair, who somehow managed to keep their relationship mostly private over four years of dating, recently held a book party in New York for Ben Mezrich’s new tome “Checkmate.”
The couple also attended philanthropic events like the Kennedy Center Honors in 2023 and 2024, the Mark Twain Prize For American Humor in 2023, the World Monuments Fund’s Hadrian Gala at the Metropolitan Museum in 2025 and the Prostate Cancer Foundation Gala in the Hamptons in 2022 and 2025.
Rubenstien is worth an estimated $4.1 billion and is part of the Giving Pledge, in which the super rich publicly promise to donate at least half of their wealth.
According to a 2024 Washington Post article, he has donated some $900 million to charities and has given to the National Gallery of Art, the Library of Congress, and the Smithsonian. He donated $18.5 million in 2016 to restore the Lincoln Memorial.
Rubenstein has purchased several historical documents including rare copies of Magna Carta, The Emancipation Proclamation, and Declaration of Independence, which he has loaned to museums.
In January 2025, then President Joe Biden presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House.
He served as the chairman of the Kennedy Center for 14 years, donating $111 million over the years. He announced his intention to step down in January 2025. He was asked by the board to stay on until September 2026, but was fired by Donald Trump in February 2025, with the President saying Rubenstein did not “share our vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture.”
He was formerly married to Alice Rogoff.
Caryn is also a well known philanthropist who served on several boards like the Fresh Air Fund.
