THE woman behind one of Hollywood’s most infamous films has revealed the truth is far darker – and far more terrifying – than anything that made it onto the screen.
Nadine Macaluso, 57 – the real-life ex-wife of Jordan Belfort and the woman Margot Robbie embodied in The Wolf of Wall Street – has told The Sun that one of the movie’s most iconic scenes never happened.
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Nadine Macaluso met Jordan Belfort as a young modelCredit: Nadine Macaluso
Nadine has told The Sun that some of the most iconic scenes in the movie didn’t even happenCredit: Nadine Macaluso
Nadine Macaluso, who was 22 when she first met Jordan admits she was afraid he might kill her at some pointsCredit: Nadine Macaluso
The 57-year-old is now coming out with her real storyCredit: Nadine Macaluso
Despite being the blueprint for Robbie’s character, Nadine claims she was never consulted – and was never paid.
Producers even asked to use her real name, but she refused.
Speaking to The Sun, Nadine said she told producers when they asked to use her real name: “I make no money, I have no creative input, you can’t use my name.”
Yet her trauma was splashed across the big screen anyway. And nothing stung more than seeing a fictional version of her suffering rewritten for blockbuster drama, she says.
The film transformed their chaotic, abusive marriage into a carnival of sex, drugs and mayhem – but Nadine says even the wildest scenes barely scratched the surface of the truth.
Some were exaggerated beyond recognition. Others were pure inventions.
And some moments, she says, were far worse in real life.
A fan-favourite scene showing Margot Robbie hurling water in DiCaprio’s face after discovering he’d cheated is also a Hollywood invention, Nadine says.
She added: “In the movie, he’s moaning about a hooker’s name “Venice”.
“In the film she gets angry at him and throws water in his face. That never happened. I probably should’ve thrown water in his face every day, but I didn’t.”
In reality, she says, she had no clue Belfort was cheating.
“I had no idea he was cheating, he kept it very hidden from me,” she said.
“I found out through the book and the movie. In our relationship we never fought about women, we only fought about drugs.
“That’s why in the movie it’s so funny to me that the whole time we’re fighting about cheating but it was never about that.”
When she confronted him about the lies added to the film, he brushed it off.
“You know what Nadine, it’s great for storytelling,” she claims he told her.
One of the most talked-about moments in the film is the “nursery scene”, where Naomi storms into her baby daughter’s room during a violent fight with Belfort.
In the movie, Naomi flees to the nursery clutching their child after Belfort punches her during a Quaalude-fuelled row.
Belfort charges into the room, grabs the baby from her arms, and later attempts to drive away with the child while still heavily high.
It’s one of the film’s most shocking sequences – but Nadine says it’s pure fiction.
“That scene where I’m all sexy in the nursery, that never happened either – I wish I was that sexy,” she says.
The scene where Margot Robbie splashes Jordan with water never really happenedCredit: Alamy
Naomi flees to the nursery clutching their child after Belfort punches her during a Quaalude-fuelled rowCredit: Alamy
It’s one of the film’s most shocking sequences, Nadine says it’s pure fictionCredit: Rex Features
The entire confrontation, she says, was fabricated.
Nadine claims she had no input on the script and was never asked to verify accuracy.
She says she only realised how she’d been portrayed once the film was already finished.
The nursery moment remains one of the standout scenes in Martin Scorsese’s blockbuster, but Macaluso is firm that Hollywood heightened the chaos far beyond reality.
“It was not fun to see my trauma glorified for the whole world of entertainment,” she says.
While Hollywood dialled up the spectacle, Nadine says it dialled down the true horror.
The real abuse, she says, was darker and more dangerous.
She reveals the moment that led to one of the most violent incidents – when Belfort reportedly kicked her down the stairs.
In the film the scene shows Nadine’s character, Naomi, threatening Belfort that he would never seen the kids again.
She exposes: “Although he got very violent with me, I never said that to him. I never said you’re never going to see your kids again because that’s just not who I am”
“It’s actually because I told him, ‘If you don’t go to rehab, I’m going to leave you’.”
The violence and drug intake, she says, were far worse than portrayed.
“I kept saying to him, you need to go to rehab, I’m not going to sit here and watch you kill yourself,” she explained.
“There were times that I really did think he was going to kill himself.”
They have two children together and also share two grandchildrenCredit: Nadine Macaluso
The pair tied the knot in 1991 only a couple years after they met at a party in the HamptonsCredit: Nadine Macaluso
While Hollywood dialled up the spectacle, Nadine says it dialled down the true horrorCredit: Nadine Macaluso
The violence and drug intake, she says, were far worse than portrayedCredit: Nadine Macaluso
Even though she wasn’t paid or consulted creatively, Nadine met Robbie before filming so the actress could perfect her Brooklyn accent.
Robbie was 22 – the same age Nadine had been when she first met Belfort – and she nervously confessed her fears about the role.
Nadine recalls: “She was explaining to me about how she didn’t want to get naked and she didn’t want to talk to them about it.”
Her advice was blunt, and devastatingly honest.
“I told her, that feeling right there, you being afraid to speak your truth to power, that’s what I felt every day in my marriage,” Nadine says.
“So, embody that, and you will really portray what is needed from your character.”
Nadine instantly saw her younger self mirrored in the actress.
“She was great, she was feisty, she was a young woman who fell madly in love with somebody, just like I did, and really wanted to protect her children,” she said.
Nadine says she always “knew something was wrong” in the relationship – but leaving Belfort felt impossible.
Her mother, she says, saved her.
When Belfort proposed, Nadine remembers telling her mum, who responded: “You know you don’t have to do that?”
But Nadine was in love and when she finally tried to escape, the violence escalated.
He allegedly burned her clothing and jewellery, hurled abuse and lashed out physically.
After he allegedly kicked her down the stairs, Nadine finally left him.
“The reason why I left him was because he got arrested – I was finally safe,” she says.
Then came the twist she never saw coming.
“My mother tricked me,” she explained. “She took me to a divorce attorney and forced me to get a divorce with him.”
But that was the moment she finally broke free.
The pair share two children – and now two grandsons.
Against all odds, Nadine says: “Ironically, we get on quite well.”
She insists she never poisoned the children against him, adding: “It wasn’t my job to keep them from their father, I’m just not that type of woman.”
She kept them informed from the ages of three and five.
“When they would ask me, why did you leave dad? I would say well your dad did drugs and he was abusive – I would always talk to them about what’s happened,” Nadine says.
Her daughter is now a therapist and her son works with Belfort.
She says their relationship with their father is “excellent”.
Nadine now coaches around 500 women escaping narcissistic and abusive relationships.
Her new book, Run Like Hell, is a guide for women trapped in trauma bonds – the same psychological chains she says kept her tied to Belfort.
“It’s been very important to me to take my narrative back,” she says.
And now, at last, the woman the world once knew only as “the Duchess of Bay Ridge” – the glamorous trophy wife in a Hollywood fairytale – is finally telling her story on her own terms.
The Sun has approached Jordan Belfort for comment.
Nadine’s daughter is now a therapist and her son works with BelfortCredit: Nadine Macaluso
She says their relationship with their father is “excellent”Credit: Nadine Macaluso
Nadine is finally telling her story on her own termsCredit: Nadine Macaluso