When Steward Health Care started collapsing, everyone looked for someone to blame. They found Dr. Ralph de la Torre. But as the headlines grew darker—talking about unpaid bills, shuttered hospitals, and private jets—a secondary search started trending: people wanted to know about the woman standing next to him.
The story of the Ralph de la Torre wife isn't just some tabloid gossip. Honestly, it’s a weirdly perfect window into the "healthcare oligarch" lifestyle that eventually triggered a Senate subpoena and a massive bankruptcy.
The Two Chapters of Ralph de la Torre’s Personal Life
Ralph de la Torre has been married twice. His first wife was Wing Cheung. They met back when he was a rising star in surgical training at Massachusetts General Hospital. It was a different era for him—before the private equity billions and the 190-foot superyachts. They had twin sons together, but that marriage eventually ended.
Then came the second chapter.
If you’ve seen the photos from 2024 or 2025 of a younger woman at high-end equestrian events, that’s Nicole Acosta (sometimes referred to as Nicole Costa). She is his second wife, and she’s roughly 30 years younger than him. Their wedding wasn't some quiet courthouse affair. They got married in an incredibly lavish ceremony on the Amalfi Coast in Italy.
Why does this matter? Because while that wedding was happening, the hospital system de la Torre ran was already drowning in debt.
✨ Don't miss: Why the Tractor Supply Company Survey Actually Matters for Your Next Visit
Nicole Acosta and the $3 Million Horse
Most people searching for the "Ralph de la Torre wife" end up finding details about her equestrian career. Nicole is a serious competitor in the world of elite dressage. We’re talking about the Global Dressage Festival in Wellington, Florida—the kind of place where people wear $1,000 boots and smoke cigars while watching horses that cost more than most people's houses.
Specifically, Nicole competes on a horse named Dante SPH.
Here’s a detail that’ll make your head spin: that horse was reportedly sold at auction in 2014 for about 2.8 million euros (which was roughly $3.5 million at the time). While it’s not public exactly what the de la Torres paid for it later, it’s not exactly a "rescue pony."
- The Contrast: While Acosta was training her elite horse at a facility near their ranch in Waxahachie, Texas, Steward hospitals were reportedly running out of basic surgical supplies.
- The Lifestyle: The couple split time between a $40 million yacht (the Amaral), a massive ranch, and luxury properties in Madrid and Dallas.
The $10 Million School Gift Controversy
It wasn’t just horses. The family’s name was all over the Greenhill School in Dallas, an elite prep school where de la Torre’s children attended. In 2022, the de la Torre Family Foundation pledged a $10 million gift for a new STEM center.
On the surface, it looks like standard billionaire philanthropy. But investigators later found that the construction of that science center was overseen by CREF, a company where Ralph de la Torre held a 40% ownership stake.
🔗 Read more: Why the Elon Musk Doge Treasury Block Injunction is Shaking Up Washington
Basically, the money went from the foundation to the school, and then back into a company de la Torre partially owned. It’s these kinds of "circular" financial moves that eventually led to the 2025 lawsuits to claw back millions from the former CEO.
Why the Public is So Obsessed
The fascination with Nicole Acosta and the de la Torre lifestyle isn't just jealousy. It’s about the E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) of the person running our hospitals.
When a CEO is buying $30 million yachts and funding an elite equestrian career for his wife while the nurses in his hospitals are complaining about non-functional elevators, the "trust" part of that equation disappears.
The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), led by Bernie Sanders, didn't just want to talk about medical charts. They wanted to know how $81.5 million in dividends—money that could have paid for hospital air conditioning—ended up in Ralph’s personal accounts right before he bought that yacht.
What Really Happened with the Bankruptcy?
In May 2024, Steward Health Care filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. By 2025, the situation turned into a full-blown legal war. The company (now under new leadership) actually sued Ralph de la Torre to get money back.
💡 You might also like: Why Saying Sorry We Are Closed on Friday is Actually Good for Your Business
They alleged that Ralph and his inner circle "pilfered" the company’s assets. They claimed he used Steward like a personal piggy bank to fund a "jet-setting lifestyle" that included:
- Two private jets (worth about $33 million each).
- The $40 million superyacht.
- Elite horse training and equestrian expenses.
Honestly, it’s a mess. Ralph eventually resigned in late 2024, but the legal fallout is still raining down in 2026. He’s even faced criminal contempt of Congress charges for refusing to testify about where all that money went.
Actionable Insights for the Curious
If you’re following this story, here is what you need to keep an eye on:
- Watch the Clawback Suits: The 2025 lawsuits in the Southern District of Texas are the real deal. They are trying to recover $1.4 billion. If they win, those luxury assets—the yacht, the ranch, maybe even the horses—could be liquidated.
- The Federal Investigation: The Department of Justice is looking into whether any of these transfers constituted fraud.
- Hospital Closures: If you live in a community served by a former Steward hospital, the ownership has likely changed. Check your local provider's new parent company to see if they are non-profit or another private equity firm.
The saga of Ralph de la Torre and his wife Nicole Acosta is a reminder that in the world of high-finance healthcare, the personal and the professional are never actually separate. Every million spent on a dressage horse is a million that didn't go into a community hospital.
The legal system is still untangling who owes what, but one thing is certain: the era of the "Healthcare Oligarch" is under a very bright, very uncomfortable microscope.
Keep an eye on the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas filings. That’s where the actual truth about the de la Torre fortune—and how it was spent—will finally be laid bare.