The husband of Sunny Hostin has had a difficult start to the year.
Orthopedic physician Dr. Emmanuel “Manny” Hostin is currently involved in a court battle that may have significant ramifications.
Asunción “Sunny” Hostin is well-known as a respected lawyer, author, and legal expert in addition to her well-known role as co-host of ABC’s The View. It was in a chapel when they first met.
Born on October 20, 1968, Sunny’s path has been immensely inspiring. She has been nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for her work on The View and is ABC News’ Senior Legal Correspondent.
But her personal life has been just as intriguing.
Sunny and her husband, Dr. Emmanuel “Manny” Hostin, have been lifetime friends for almost two decades. The two met at a Maryland church when Manny was a student at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he graduated in 1996.
Sunny recalled that she had gone to church after a run and that she “certainly wasn’t dressed to attend service that day” when she first spotted her future spouse.
“He looked stunning, dressed in a well-tailored suit,” she said. She wanted to meet him, so she followed him to a bagel cafe in the area after the ceremony and struck up a conversation.
Two years later, in 1998, they got married.
The couple currently lives in a lavish mansion with ten bedrooms and ten bathrooms in Purchase, New York.
Five miscarriages
Over the years, they have gone through many highs and lows together, including Sunny’s open struggles with infertility. The couple was lucky to have two children, Gabriel and Paloma, after five miscarriages and IVF treatments.
She felt obliged to talk about this to let ladies know they’re not alone and that it’s nothing to be ashamed of.
Throughout it all, she has had the support of orthopedic surgeon Manny. But as a health and self-care precaution, Sunny stated that she wanted to get a breast reduction, lift, and liposuction in the summer of 2022. “I feel like a better version of myself,” she told PEOPLE about the transformation.
However, not everyone immediately embraced it. Her husband, Manny, had concerns, and two years earlier, he and her co-host on The View, Joy Behar, had convinced her to reconsider. After Behar had cautioned her about the risks of anesthesia, Manny reassured her, saying, “You’re beautiful.” You look good. You look good.
followed her instincts.
However, Sunny ultimately followed her instincts. She scheduled the appointments just two days prior to the operation without telling Manny. “I wasn’t asking for input or permission,” she explained. “I needed to take care of myself and I have total control over my body, so I was just telling him.”
Now she feels more confident than ever. “I feel great—I prance around nude all the time at my house,” she said.
Manny’s career as a sports physician and surgeon is just as prosperous as Sunny’s, who enjoys the limelight while balancing her roles as a book author, legal analyst, and television host. By building a loving, ambitious, and family-oriented life together, they have shown that they are partners in all areas of life, not just marriage.
Nevertheless, despite their accomplishments, recent events have tainted their years of happiness.
The legal storm
After being named as one of 199 defendants in a major insurance fraud case brought under the RICO Act in New York, Manny found himself entangled in a legal battle in January 2025. Manny and the others are suspected of accepting bribes to conduct surgery and of sending fraudulent invoices to a company that covers drivers for Uber, Lyft, and taxi services.
The case, filed on December 17, 2024, claims that Hostin “knowingly provided fraudulent medical and other healthcare services, including arthroscopic surgeries.”
According to reports, American Transit, the insurance company, was billed “in exchange for kickbacks and/or other compensation which were disguised as dividends or other cash distributions.”
The trial was described as a “blanket, scattershot, meritless lawsuit by a near-bankrupt insurance carrier” by Hostin’s attorney, Daniel Thwaites, who responded to the charges in January by telling DailyMail.com that his client “denies each and every allegation.”
Thwaites went on to demand damages of over $450 million, saying, “It is intended to intimidate and harass doctors from collecting for care provided to American Transit insureds and their passengers.” He defended Hostin’s reputation, calling it “impeccable,” and pointed out that American Transit had filed the lawsuit without fully investigating Dr. Hostin or speaking with his legal counsel.
Thwaites went on, “The real story here is about an insurance company abusing the legal system to limit and restrict health care benefits to its insureds and their passengers and write off its proper obligations.”
The federal lawsuit filed in Brooklyn names 54-year-old Dr. Emmanuel “Manny” Hostin as the owner of Hostin Orthopaedics. The practice is housed in an eighth-floor office near the Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan on Lexington Avenue.
The insurance company, American Transit, is seeking more than $450 million in damages. According to American Transit, in return for a “investment” interest in Empire State Ambulatory Surgery Center, Hostin steered a “steady stream” of patients there.
“Empire State ASC regularly paid to or for the benefit of Hostin, which were actually unlawful kickbacks for referrals,” according to court documents.
