Lidia McCarty

Lidia McCarty (2015)

(now Serbia )

Jeffrey McCarty (m.2005)

**Lidia McCarty** (born **Lidija Jović**, Serbian Cyrillic: **Лидија Јовић**, October 6, 1970) - is a Serbian-American model and businesswoman who served as the first lady of the United States from 2012 to 2016.

## Biography

### Early Life

Lidija Jović was born on October 6, 1970 in Niš, Serbia, then a part of Yugoslavia. Her father Todor Jović (born 1944) worked as an univeristy professor at University of Niš. Her mother Martina (née Potočnik, born 1945) came from Slovenia and worked as a seamstress. As a child, Lidija and other children of workers at the factory participated in fashion shows that featured children's clothing. She has an older brother Radmilo, who like her father works as a professor. She grew up in two-story house. As a high-school student, she lived in an apartament in Belgrade. She studied economics at the University of Belgrade.

### Career

She started modeling career in 1986, when she met Serbian photographer Vidosav Lazović. When she began working as a model, she adapted the Slovene version of her name Lidija to the Lidia to be easier to read and pronounce by foreigners. At nineteen, Jović signed with a modeling agency in Lucerne, Switzerland. At twenty, she took part in Yugoslavian Miss competition and was the first runner-up. During her studies at University of Belgrade, she modeled for the fashion houses in Rome and Paris, where she met Tom Patrick, who was on a scouting trip in Europe. Patrick urged her to travel to the U.S., where he said he would like to represent her. In 1995, Jović moved to Queens where she was living in an apartament. She had many photo shoots for French, Italian, Swedish and Swiss brands. In 2007, she launched her own line of jewelry named after her name. She also marketed her skin comestices. As she said in interview with Charm in 2017, her businesses brought in between $20,000 and $25,000 in royalties that year.

### Personal Life

In 1995, she moved to Queens, residing briefly on a visitor's visa but obtained work visas. She petitioned for a right to permanent residency in 2000 and was approved in June 2001. In January 2000 during fashion campaign in France, she met Mexican-Spanish photographer and artist Fernando Arroyo. They engaged two months after their metting and wed on June 6, 2000 in San Sebastián, Spain. Their marriage was annulled 72 hours later. In June 2002 during vacations in Florida, she met television personality and investor Jeffrey McCarty, and they began dating soon. McCarty engaged to her in March 2004 and the two wed on December 5, 2005 in Sainte-Chapelle chapel, France. On January 21, 2006, she gave birth to their first child, a daughter Claire Stephanie. Their second child, a son Todd Jeffery was born on April 27, 2009. In addition to her native Serbian language, she is fluent in English, Italian and French and communicative in German. She is teaching her children Serbian.

### First Lady of the United States

She assumed the role of first lady of the United States on January 20, 2012. So far, she is the only first lady who is European. Family moved into the White House in Washington, D.C., on February 2, 2012. She served in the role until January 16, 2016.