What To Know
- Bill Maher has a net worth of $140 million, largely due to his $10 million annual salary from HBO’s Real Time and his cautious approach to spending.
- He attributes his wealth partly to never marrying, avoiding costly divorces and extravagant hobbies, and has openly discussed his bachelor lifestyle.
- Despite never being married, Maher has been linked to several women, including Coco Jonsen, who unsuccessfully sued him in 2005.
Bill Maher has built quite a resume over the past 45 years, starting as a stand-up comedian in 1979 before launching a successful television career with Politically Incorrect and Real Time with Bill Maher. In that time, the HBO host has amassed quite a fortune.
According to Celebrity Net Worth, the 69-year-old comedian has a staggering net worth of $140 million. A significant portion of his earnings comes from the reported $10 million salary he receives for hosting HBO’s Real Time, a role he’s held since 2003. Before that, he hosted Politically Incorrect on Comedy Central from 1993 to 1997 and on ABC from 1997 to 2002.
Maher, who sold his minority stake in the New York Mets in 2020, opened up about how he “got so rich” during an October 2024 episode of his Club Random podcast. While interviewing fellow comedian Nikki Glaser, he admitted he is a “cautious” person and doesn’t spend his money on frivolous things. He also confessed that never being married helped.
“I don’t do stupid things,” he explained, per Newsweek. “People are always like, ‘How did you get so rich?’… [I] never got married, no divorces, no alimony, no stupid hobbies. I don’t collect cars and motorcycles and jewelry and art — and none of that would give me any pleasure.”
He added, “So it was all gravy money, you know…I just I don’t need to live like that. Just comfort.”
Maher joked about marriage in the bio on his official website, writing, “I’m the last of my guy friends to have never gotten married, and their wives—they don’t want them playing with me. I’m like the escaped slave—I bring news of freedom.”
Despite never being married, Maher has been linked to various romantic partners over the years. In 2003, he began dating flight attendant Coco Jonsen; however, the relationship ended in turmoil. After breaking up in November 2024, Jonsen sued Maher for $9 million, accusing him of causing her “pain and suffering” and using “insulting, humiliating, and degrading racial comments.”
Bill Maher and date Coco Johnsen attend the 2003 Tony Awards Dinner; Evan Agostini/Getty Images
Jonsen’s suit also alleged that Maher had made her quit her airline job and had promised to marry her and give her children, in addition to buying her a house in Beverly Hills. Maher denied the claims, with his lawyers stating he is a “confirmed bachelor, and a very public one at that.”
The lawsuit was dismissed on May 2, 2005.
Other women Maher has been romantically linked to include author and former hip hop model Karrine Steffans, Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe co-host Cara Santa Maria, and Canadian singer Anjulie Persaud.
Most recently, he raised eyebrows after attending a party with 31-year-old Noor Alfallah, the Kuwaiti-American film producer who previously made headlines for her relationships with the much-older Mick Jagger and Al Pacino. She and the then 82-year-old Pacino welcomed a son in 2023.
Maher and Alfallah were spotted together at the Vas J Morgan and Michael Braun 2025 annual Halloween party in Los Angeles, California, on October 31.
Alfallah has previously shutdown rumors of her dating the Real Time host, telling TMZ in 2024, “Bill’s my friend, just my friend… He’s great, though, but we’re just friends.”
As for Maher, he has admitted to liking younger women. While a guest on Dana Carvey and David Spade‘s Fly on the Wall podcast back in January, Maher said, per Parade, “I think a great show would be one of us—mostly, probably, me—doing The Golden Bachelor, but—like our real lives—not with an age-appropriate woman.”
He added that dating “age-appropriate” women is “boring,” noting that his fictional reality show pitch would feature “an age-inappropriate woman.”