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'Shark Tank' star Barbara Corcoran faked her own death to surprise friends at 70th birthday party
By Brie Stimson
Published January 28, 2026
What a way to go.
For her 70th birthday, Barbara Corcoran decided to turn the tables on her friends after she found out they had planned a surprise party for her.
"I had the best party of the century, no doubt about it," the "Shark Tank" star told Damien Scott of Boardroom.
"My friends were going to give me a surprise party, and I got wind of it from my good girlfriend. So, when Liz told me they were planning a surprise party, I said, ‘I'm going to turn the tables and surprise them.’"
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Barbara Corcoran faked her own death for her 70th birthday party (Barbara Corcoran/Instagram; Christopher Willard/Disney via Getty Images)
The 76-year-old said all her friends were upstairs at her house waiting for her to return from the airport, and her brother told them that she would be entering her house from downstairs.
"They walked into the living room and found me dead in a coffin," Corcoran revealed. "I had set up the whole room as a funeral parlor — the chairs, the nuns, the priests, the rabbis, everybody there. And they all said what they liked about me, thinking I was dead and what they didn't like about me."
She joked that she "wanted to kill" her 9-year-old daughter at the time because she asked, "When do we get the money?"
Daymond John kisses Corcoran on the forehead while she lies in her coffin. (Barbara Corcoran/Instagram)
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"But, you know, everybody talked about me. How many times, how many people, if anyone, do you know who hears what people say about them after they're dead?" she told Scott.
Despite the unusual circumstances, Corcoran insisted her friends really thought she had died.
"I could hear the gasps," she said. "I had my eyes closed, and I didn't move a second. … Everybody was aghast that I was dead. They really thought I was dead, and I laid there dead for 10 minutes. It was great."
Barbara Corcoran jumping out of her coffin after her birthday surprise. (Barbara Corcoran/Instagram)
Barbara Corcoran wore a red dress by Carolina Herrera. (Barbara Corcoran/Instagram)
Even death couldn’t stop her from looking her best though.
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The businesswoman was decked out in a red Carolina Herrera gown and had her makeup done for the occasion.
And after 10 minutes, "I got up and danced."
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Barbara Corcoran with fellow "Shark Tank" stars Robert Herjavec, Kevin O'Leary and Daniel Lubetzky at the New York premiere of "Marty Supreme" in December. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)
The next morning, she said, her doorman told her it was all over social media that she had died.
"But I thought that was my best report card," she joked.
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Corcoran shared several photos of the party on her Instagram in 2019 that included fellow "Shark Tank" star Daymond John kissing her on the forehead in her coffin and Robert Herjavec snapping a photo of her.
"Surprise 70th!!" she captioned the post. "I surprised my guests laid out in a coffin on Saturday. After 90 friends and family paid their respects, I popped out of the coffin in a red Carolina Herrera gown to the Diana Ross song ‘I’m Alive!’, and danced the Tango. What the heck, you only die once. You might as well be around for it!"
https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/shark-tank-star-barbara-corcoran-faked-her-own-death-surprise-friends-70th-birthday-party