Missy Rothstein: The Full Story of Bam Margera’s Ex-Wife

Missy Rothstein became a familiar face to MTV viewers in the mid-2000s, first in small film roles and then as the calm center of a very loud reality television world. Born Melissa Rothstein, she is an American model, photographer, actress and reality television personality who is best known to many people as the first wife of skateboarder and stunt performer Bam Margera.

Her own story is quieter than the headlines around that marriage. She grew up in Pennsylvania, studied communications, worked in front of the camera and behind it, and then, after her divorce in 2012, she largely stepped away from public life. That choice is a big part of why people still search for her name today. This article sticks to the documented public record and marks the points that remain unconfirmed.

Quick Facts

Early Life and Education in Pennsylvania

Melissa Rothstein was born on June 3, 1980, in Springfield, Pennsylvania. Published biographies say she was raised by her mother, Marian Rothstein. Details about her father and about any siblings have not been confirmed in reliable public sources, so they are not presented here as fact.

She attended West Chester East High School. That school connection matters in her story because it is where she first knew Bam Margera. The two were friends long before they were a couple, and long before either of them appeared on MTV. Several accounts describe them as childhood or high school friends who stayed in touch as Margera’s skateboarding and television career grew.

After high school, Rothstein enrolled at Pennsylvania State University and studied communications. Most published profiles say she earned a bachelor’s degree in communications. The exact graduation year is reported differently by different biography sites, with some giving 2001 and others giving a nearby year, so the year itself should be treated as unconfirmed. What is consistent across sources is the subject she studied and the university she attended.

Growing up in Pennsylvania also placed her close to the West Chester scene that produced the CKY crew, the group of friends around Margera, Ryan Dunn and Brandon DiCamillo. That circle made low budget films and videos long before television fame arrived, and Rothstein’s first screen work came directly from that world.

First Screen Work and the CKY World

Rothstein’s first credited acting role was in Haggard, released in 2003. The independent comedy was written and directed by Bam Margera and starred Ryan Dunn, Margera himself and Brandon DiCamillo. Rothstein played the role of Beth. The film was made on a small budget, but it reached a loyal audience that already followed the crew through their videos and through the Jackass era on television.

In 2005 she appeared in episodes of Viva La Bam, the MTV reality series that followed Margera, his family and his friends around West Chester. Her appearances were small, but they introduced her to a much larger audience. At that time she and Margera were still described publicly as friends, and Margera was coming out of a long earlier relationship.

Her other film credits from this period are limited and should not be overstated. She appeared in Bam Margera Presents: Where the #$&% Is Santa? in 2008 and in Minghags in 2009, a comedy directed by Margera and DiCamillo. She also appeared in the 2010 documentary Bam Margera: Serious as Dog Dirt and in a music video for the band CKY in 2009, according to published film listings. She has no widely documented acting credits after about 2010, and she has not recently appeared in a film or television series.

Alongside acting, Rothstein worked as a model and later as a photographer. Published profiles consistently list modeling and photography among her occupations, although the details of her photography work, such as clients or exhibitions, are not well documented in public sources. That part of her career is therefore described here only in general terms.

Bam’s Unholy Union and the Wedding

The project that made Rothstein a household name among MTV viewers was Bam’s Unholy Union. The reality series aired in 2007 and followed Margera and Rothstein in the weeks leading up to their wedding. It worked as a follow on series to Viva La Bam, but the tone was different. Instead of pranks alone, the show focused on wedding planning, family reactions and the pressure of organizing a large event on camera.

Rothstein and Margera became engaged in 2006. Published accounts say Margera proposed at a Cartier store in a shopping mall, a detail that was widely repeated at the time, although the fine details of the proposal come from entertainment reporting rather than from any official record.

The wedding took place on February 3, 2007, at the Loews Hotel in downtown Philadelphia. Reports from the time put the guest list in the hundreds and noted that the couple honeymooned in Dubai with friends. The series covered both the build up and the celebration, and it remains the main reason many viewers feel they know Rothstein personally, even though a reality show only ever shows an edited version of a relationship.

During the same period, Playboy approached Rothstein about a photo shoot connected to the wedding, with Margera involved as a guest photographer. That episode was discussed on the show itself and in entertainment coverage at the time. It is part of the public record of that era, but it was a short chapter in a much longer life.

Marriage, Separation and Divorce

After the wedding, the couple lived in the West Chester area, and Rothstein continued to appear in projects connected to Margera’s circle. Within a few years, however, reports began to describe strain in the marriage.

In a 2010 radio interview, Margera said publicly that the couple were living apart and seeing each other about once a week. That interview is one of the clearest public signs that the marriage was in difficulty, because it came from Margera himself rather than from tabloid speculation.

The marriage ended in divorce in 2012. Published biographies commonly give November 1, 2012, as the date the divorce was finalized, but that exact date is not confirmed in a primary public document available for this article, so it is best described simply as a divorce completed in 2012 after a separation that had been reported since 2010.

As for the reasons, entertainment reporting at the time linked the split to Margera’s drinking and to problems in the relationship. Rothstein herself has said very little publicly about the divorce, and she has not built a public career out of discussing it. Readers should treat detailed claims about private arguments or alleged affairs as unconfirmed unless they come from the people involved. What is documented is simpler: a long friendship, a televised wedding, a separation reported in 2010 and a divorce in 2012. The couple had no children together.

Life After the Spotlight

After 2012, Rothstein largely withdrew from media life. She did not join another reality series, she did not become a regular talk show guest, and she has kept a very low public profile compared with many people who appeared on MTV in the same years.

Published profiles say she continued with photography and modeling work, but she has not promoted that work in a highly public way. There is no verified, widely reported new television or film project attached to her name in recent years, and claims on social media or on low quality biography sites about a comeback or about a new public relationship are unconfirmed.

Her estimated wealth is another point where care is needed. Several celebrity biography sites estimate her net worth at about 1 million dollars, and a few give a higher figure. None of these numbers comes from a financial disclosure by Rothstein herself, so any figure should be read only as an online estimate, not as a confirmed fact. Her documented income sources over the years were modeling, acting, reality television and photography.

That quiet present is, in its own way, the most notable part of the story. Many reality television personalities from the 2000s stayed in the spotlight for as long as possible. Rothstein did the opposite. She had a short, intense period of fame that was closely tied to one relationship and one television network, and then she returned to private life in Pennsylvania as far as the public record shows.

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FAQs

When was Missy Rothstein born?

She was born Melissa Rothstein on June 3, 1980, in Springfield, Pennsylvania, according to published biographies.

When did Missy Rothstein marry Bam Margera?

They married on February 3, 2007, at the Loews Hotel in Philadelphia. Their wedding planning was filmed for the MTV series Bam’s Unholy Union. They divorced in 2012.

What is Missy Rothstein known for?

She is known for the film Haggard in 2003, for appearances on Viva La Bam, for co-starring in Bam’s Unholy Union in 2007, and for her work as a model and photographer.

What does Missy Rothstein do now?

The documented record is thin. She has kept a low profile since her divorce in 2012, and published profiles link her to photography and modeling. Any more detailed claim about her current life is unconfirmed.

Final Thoughts

Missy Rothstein’s full story is not really a story about fame. It is a story about a Pennsylvania student who knew a future television star at school, stepped into his film and television world for a few years, married him in front of MTV cameras, and then chose privacy when the marriage ended.

That choice makes her harder to write about, because there is less verified material to use. It also makes her story easy to respect. She never turned her divorce into a long public feud, and she never sold a new version of herself every year. For viewers who remember Bam’s Unholy Union, she remains the steady presence at the center of a chaotic show. For everyone else, she is a useful reminder that a person can be well known for one chapter of life and still keep the rest of that life for herself.

Featured photo: Bam Margera – photo by Thomas Love from Leigh-on-Sea, United Kingdom, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons