What Jill Zarin's Daughter Ally Is Doing Today

Ally Shapiro spent her later teen years sharing her living space with a camera crew, thanks to her mother Jill Zarin's decision to sign on for "The Real Housewives of New York City." Shapiro became one of the supporting characters on the popular Bravo series, and while she wasn't filmed nearly as much as her mother, it was enough for her to realize early on that the reality TV lifestyle has some major pitfalls. "While filming the show you never think, 'Wait, all of my friends are going to see this ... oh, and my teachers, enemies, BOYS, family, etc.,'" she told Intelligencer in 2009.

Shapiro's early introduction to the celebrity world was anything but ordinary. In 2007, the Daily News published a piece about an extreme, all-liquid detox diet that the then-14-year-old student decided to try before filming began on "RHONY," which was being called "Manhattan Moms" at the time. "This wasn't about weight," Zarin told the publication. "Allison wanted to erase the blackboard, to detox her body and start over."

After the show started, Shapiro took advantage of the numerous opportunities being on TV afforded her, including having a photo session for Seventeen's prom issue filmed in 2010. However, while some children of "Real Housewives" stars have pursued modeling careers — Yolanda Hadid's famous daughters, Gigi and Bella Hadid, for example, as well as Lisa Rinna's girls, Amelia Gray and Delilah Belle Hamlin — Shapiro decided to use her notoriety to go a different route.

Ally Shapiro has always had an artistic eye. When she was still in high school, she told Intelligencer that fans were already purchasing some of her photography, adding, "One of my dreams is to own a gallery with my photographs in it!"

Jill Zarin told The Daily Dish that Shapiro attended Vanderbilt University, but at some point after she graduated, Shapiro had a heart-to-heart with her mom about what she really wanted to do with her life. She decided to turn her love of art into a career by getting her Master's degree at Sotheby's Institute of Art in London, and she graduated in 2019. "When she becomes an art dealer, check her out," Zarin said.

Shapiro landed a job at an auction house, but she found herself without work not long after the pandemic hit. Then a friend's mother taught her how to tie-dye plain white face masks, and a trying time became the opportunity of a lifetime. "I casually posted them to my IG stories and you guys went WILD. In a few hours I created a Google doc and started taking Venmo's of $85-$100 for a pack of tie dye masks," Shapiro wrote on Instagram. Her mom helped her turn her pandemic pastime into a fully realized business, Jill + Ally, and by May 2022, the mother-daughter team was profiled by Forbes. "I wouldn't trade this adventure and learning experience for anything," Shapiro said.

The demand for fashionable face masks lessened as mask mandates were lifted in many places, but by that time, Ally Shapiro and Jill Zarin had expanded their business empire to include apparel and home décor. Shapiro clearly didn't need reality TV to be successful, but her mom hadn't left that world behind; after Zarin lost her full-time "RHONY" gig in 2011, she continued to make appearances on the show, and she starred in "The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip" in 2022. In a 2020 interview with Us Weekly, Zarin revealed that she would also like her daughter to return to reality TV to film what would undoubtedly be an emotional moment: Shapiro meeting her biological dad for the first time.

"100 percent get the cameras rolling for that one," Zarin said. "I know someone will call me now." The revelation that Shapiro's father was a sperm donor and that this was kept a secret from her for years certainly sounds like a storyline that the Bravo bigwigs would salivate over. On the "Juicy Scoop" podcast, Shapiro revealed that she found out the truth when she read an email from her stepmom.

Shapiro's real-life DNA drama includes a soap opera-worthy plot twist. She thought she knew who her donor dad was, but then she matched with her real bio father on 23andMe. "Clearly, the sperm bank, Repro Lab, mixed up the sperm," she explained on Instagram.