The Bizarre Way Dr. Oz Met His Wife Lisa

Too bad he didn't make her a crudité platter. Dr. Mehmet Oz, cardiologist and former media star, celebrated his 40th wedding anniversary to wife Lisa Oz in June 2025, despite some awkward moments getting to the altar. In a 2018 interview with Yahoo! Life, the couple explained that their first date didn't have the most auspicious start. Dr. Oz took Lisa to a steakhouse, which turned out to be the wrong move. "I said, 'This is so nice of you. Thank you so much, I really appreciate it ... I'm a vegetarian,'" Lisa shared. The doctor, who "thought a vegetarian also ate vegetables" in addition to meat, was soon set straight.  

The couple's first meeting was "kind of like an arranged marriage," as Dr. Oz put it. Their fathers, both surgeons, knew each other, and brought their children along on a group family dinner. But instead of getting to know Lisa, the doctor chatted up her mother instead. "I ... realized, if I get Mom to buy into me as a reasonable suitor, I can get Lisa to come on a date with me," he recalled. That was easier once Lisa realized Dr. Oz wasn't the restaurant's maître d', as she thought when she first saw him. "I was like, 'Wow, that waiter is so hot,'" she revealed. The dinner was enough of a success that it led to the steakhouse date, but Lisa had a condition first; she told the doctor that she would only go out with him if he wasn't seeing other women. Now, of course, Dr. Oz's over-the-top loyalty to Donald Trump is second only to his devotion to his wife. 

Dr. Oz has kept busy since his successful talk show ended in 2022. He tried his hand at politics with a run for Pennsylvania State Senate that same year, winning the Republican nomination, but losing to John Fetterman. (His campaign ad griping about the price of "crudité" vegetables exposed him as a privileged celeb trying to relate to Joe Average). Still, Dr. Oz's conservative stance on key political issues earned him the favor of President Trump, who named him the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services shortly after taking office for the second time. 

Supporting him all the way was his wife, Lisa Oz, a former actor who opted to give up her career so she could help her husband develop a media presence. She was instrumental in the launch of his first TV show, and was active in "The Dr. Oz Show" during its long run. The two also created HealthCorps, a charity which helps teens in several states improve their physical and mental health. Lisa and Dr. Oz share one son, three daughters, and five grandchildren; daughter Daphne has three daughters and a son, while her sister Zoe welcomed baby Ozzie in November 2024.

For all Dr. Oz's emphasis on healthy living, it was Lisa who had to steer him in the right direction when it came to eating well. She once told Prime Women, "It's funny, because when I met Mehmet he had, let's just say, a less than optimal way of eating. Everything he talks about is integrative wellness and whole organic foods, and he got that all from my family." Thanks to his wife, the doctor has passed along wisdom about eating fiber-filled veggies on his Instagram account.