Sunny Hostin’s Husband Emmanuel Named in Lawsuit: Everything We Know

Sunny Hostin and Dr. Emmanuel Hostin Joy Malone/Getty Images

Sunny Hostin’s husband, Emmanuel “Manny” Hostin, made headlines after he was named in an insurance fraud lawsuit.

According to legal documents viewed by Us Weekly on January 7, 2025, Emmanuel is one of almost 200 defendants included in a lawsuit filed with the New York Eastern District Court.

The orthopedic surgeon, based in New York, is accused of federal insurance fraud and “getting kickbacks by performing surgery and … billing a company that insured taxi companies and Uber and Lyft drivers,” as reported by the Daily Mail.

Emmanuel’s attorney has denied all the allegations on behalf of his client.

In addition, Sunny has defended her husband and claims that the plaintiff, American Transit, an insurance group that primarily works with ride-share drivers, has “a history of filing frivolous claims.”

Keep reading for an overview of the ongoing case:

Who Is Dr. Emmanuel ‘Manny’ Hostin?

Emmanuel is an orthopedic surgeon based out of New York City with nearly 29 years of experience. He graduated from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 1996 and is the owner of Hostin Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine, a practice the surgeon established in Manhattan in 2006.

Married to Sunny since 1998, the couple share son Gabriel, a student at Harvard University, and daughter Paloma, a student at Cornell University.

What Is Dr. Emmanuel Hostin Being Accused of?

According to the lawsuit viewed by Us, Emmanuel is accused of allegedly and “knowingly” providing “fraudulent medical and other healthcare services including arthroscopic surgeries to Covered Persons through Hostin Orthopaedics.” The surgeon is also accused of fraudulently billing American Transit for the costs.

Emmanuel allegedly perpetrated this fraud “in exchange for kickbacks and/or other compensation which were disguised as dividends or other cash distributions.” He denies the allegations.

What Has Dr. Emmanual Hostin Said About the Lawsuit?

Emmanuel addressed the allegations via his attorney, Daniel John Thwaites, who told the Daily Mail that his client “denies each and every allegation.”

Thwaites added that the lawsuit is a “blanket, scattershot, meritless lawsuit by a near-bankrupt insurance carrier.”

“It is meant to intimidate and harass doctors from collecting for care given to American Transit insureds and their passengers,” Thwaites continued. “American Transit has rushed into the lawsuit without ever conducting an examination of Dr. Hostin or expressing any concerns to his lawyers. The real story here is about an insurance carrier abusing the legal system to limit and restrict health care benefits to its insureds and their passengers, and write off its proper obligations.”

What Has Sunny Hostin Said About the Lawsuit? 

Sunny Hostin Gary Gershoff/Getty Images

In a statement to Entertainment Weekly, Sunny slammed the “frivolous civil lawsuit” against her husband and approximately 200 other doctors.

“In an attempt to poison the well of public opinion because it does not have a valid case against my husband, American Transit instead used my celebrity status to start a disgusting media smear campaign against my husband, which included me and our children,” she said. “They plastered pictures of our family all over tabloid publications.

American Transit is harassing me and my family in a frantic attempt to not pay its bills. Our family will not be intimidated and harassed. We remain unbowed.”

Hostin confirmed she retained Mark Geragos as her attorney and has “put American Transit on notice and will file a $5 million counter lawsuit for their defamatory claims, an amount that is likely to increase as the reputational damage that American Transit has intentionally caused is difficult to quantify at this time.”

“Further, we demand that they withdraw these false allegations, pay my husband what he is owed and issue a public apology,” Sunny continued. “Insurance companies like American Transit make an already broken healthcare system nearly impossible for Americans to navigate and get good healthcare by engaging in despicable tactics like harassing doctors. Let me be clear, where I come from, American Transit will receive a PHD from FAFO University.”