Meredith Whitney, the CIBC World Markets analyst, has been much in the news recently. Her incisive commentaries on the failings of Citi played a key role in making the position of the bank’s now former CEO, Chuck Prince, untenable.
Telling it like it is has made Whitney a few enemies – she is reported to have received a number of death threats as Citi stock plummeted on her analyses.
Those looking to harm Ms Whitney may want to think twice. Because she is married to a professional wrestler.
Her husband, John Layfield, goes by the ring name of JBL. Billed at six feet six inches tall, and weighing in at 290 pounds, making him even bigger than Chuck Prince, he is a former World Wrestling Entertainment world heavyweight champion. Layfield is now apparently retired from the ring, but continues to work in wrestling as a commentator.
But Layfield is not all brawn. In fact, he works as senior vice president for Northeast Securities, a New York-based financial services firm, as well as being a regular panellist on financial discussion shows on Fox and previously CNBC. Indeed, it was on the Fox News programme Bulls & Bears that Whitney and Layfield first met.
As JBL, according to the WWE website, Layfield’s signature move was known as a "clothesline from hell". We’re not sure what that means, but it sounds painful – and may help explain why Whitney goes where other analysts fear to tread.