Rizer Rises Again

June 3, 2005 — -- She has a face you may recognize and a name that may only ring a bell. But once you hear how her multimillion-dollar fortune was squandered at the hands of her stepfather, you won't soon forget her story.

Maggie Rizer grew up in Watertown, N.Y., a world away from New York City, home to fashion magazines and runways. In Watertown, which has the feel of Hometown, USA, her teen years had the normal Americana trappings. She was a star on her local field hockey team and in 1996, she graduated from Watertown High, college-bound without any thought about modeling. But Maggie's early childhood wasn't exactly out of Norman Rockwell.

Her parents divorced when she was young after her father told her mother he was gay.

"I'm very proud of my dad," Rizer said. "But, growing up in a small town in northern New York it's not the easiest thing.

"I remember kids in school used to pick on myself and my sister a lot for our dad being gay, and it was hard but it just, it's OK, you know."

Familial normality was restored to the household when Maggie's mother married John Breen, a Watertown insurance man.

"I had a very good relationship with my stepfather," Rizer said. "I've known him since I was 2."

When Maggie was out of high school, her mother took what Maggie calls a shot in the dark and sent a photo of her daughter to a major modeling agency. The rest, as they say, is runway history.

"Maggie is one of the leading models in the world, and most definitely one of the leading American models," said John Demsey, global president of Estee Lauder/MAC Cosmetics. "She has been on the cover of Italian Vogue. Been shot by all the world's leading photographers. And is generally considered to be the top of the top."

Rizer admits that her modeling career "kind of all fell into place."

"I'd already done the shows in New York and Paris and I then I was in Milan and I got my accounting statement and I was like, I couldn't believe how much money I made -- $30,000 and I was like wow, in one week, I can't believe it," she said.