Rachel Uchitel Honors 9/11 Fiancé 25 Years Later

Rachel Uchitel commemorated the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks by honoring her fiancé, James Andrew “Andy” O’Grady, who was killed in the World Trade Center’s South Tower. Uchitel, then a Bloomberg TV producer, recalled speaking with O’Grady by phone and watching his building collapse while colleagues watched her react in stunned silence. O’Grady, a 32-year-old managing director at Sandler O’Neill & Partners, had become engaged to Uchitel weeks earlier, and they were planning their wedding. In her memorial video and Instagram message, Uchitel described the agonizing days spent searching hospitals and hoping he had survived before confronting the devastation at Ground Zero. She said the uncertainty and fear over what he experienced during the 56 minutes before the tower collapsed continued to shape her life.