Does Chris Laurita Still Own Blk Water Updated 04/2026

If you’ve ever scrolled past a jet-black bottle of water on Amazon and done a double take, you’re not alone. BLK Water, the inky alkaline beverage that once sat proudly on the shelves of The Real Housewives of New Jersey set, is one of the more fascinating brand stories to come out of American reality television. And right at the center of it is Chris Laurita, a name that carries equal measures of business savvy, courtroom drama, and reality TV infamy.

So let’s get straight to it: does Chris Laurita still own BLK Water? The short answer is complicated. The long answer is worth every word.

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Who Is Chris Laurita, Really?

Before diving into the black water itself, it helps to understand the man behind it. Chris Laurita is a New Jersey-based entrepreneur and television personality, best known to American audiences as the husband of Jacqueline Laurita, an original cast member on The Real Housewives of New Jersey (RHONJ). He appeared on the show starting in its early seasons, quickly becoming one of the more recognizable “househusband” figures on Bravo.

Chris was not just a camera-friendly spouse. He was a legitimate businessman with a background in the fashion industry. His company, Signature Apparel, reported earnings of more than $250 million between 2005 and the year it filed for bankruptcy in 2009, which speaks to the kind of commercial scale he was used to operating at. He knew branding, distribution, and marketing long before a black bottle of water ever entered the picture.

His connections to Caroline Manzo’s family, through her brother relationship, placed him at the crossroads of the broader Manzo-Laurita television universe, one of RHONJ’s defining dynasties during its peak years.

How BLK Water Was Born: A Trade Show, A Canadian Family, and a Bold Idea

The origin story of BLK Water is one that has been told, retold, and fiercely disputed. But the most widely cited version goes like this.

The concept of black water was first created by a Canadian family around 2008. The drink was concocted as a mix of fulvic acid with spring water to be taken as a health supplement. It was brought to the mainstream market in 2011 after the formation of the company Blk.

In 2010, Caroline’s sons, Chris and Albie Manzo, and her brother Chris Laurita, joined forces with sisters Jacqueline and Louise Wilkie to create BLK Water LLC. The drink combines water, fulvic acid, and minerals that give the water its dark appearance.

According to the Wilkie sisters’ account, the drink had personal and emotional origins. The sisters created the alkaline water brand to help their mother after seeing her battle cancer with radiation and chemotherapy. They claimed the drink cured their mother’s cancer.

But how did the Manzo-Laurita family enter the picture? Albie and his uncle Chris Laurita discovered it last year at the food show in New York. The family thought the black water was a pretty cool product, so they decided to package it and sell it. Albie Manzo described meeting the sisters glowingly, saying: “They were the nicest people I’ve ever met. Then we started drinking the water every day and I felt completely different, physically. I was sold.”

After researching product and ingredients, Chris saw great potential for the product, and with support from the Laurita/Manzo family, formed a business relationship with the original owners. The business venture created blk. Beverages and the first product to launch was the original fulvic-enhanced water, blk.

The reality TV platform was a rocket ship for the brand. The company grew through viral marketing by product placement on The Real Housewives, and later using influencers to sell the product on platforms such as TikTok. For a niche product, it was a masterclass in celebrity-driven marketing.

What Exactly Is Inside That Black Bottle?

For the craft beer fan who experiments with sours, the wine drinker who loves reading about terroir, or the cocktail enthusiast who has tried everything from activated charcoal drinks to kombucha cocktails, BLK Water is a genuinely interesting product from a beverage science perspective.

BLK Water is a blend of purified water and a patented fulvic mineral complex. It is infused with Fulvic, a Polyphenol containing 77+ trace minerals, electrolytes, antioxidants, and amino acids. It contains 0 calories, 0 sugars, 0 caffeine, and is gluten free, vegan, soy free, keto friendly, and non-GMO. It maintains an alkaline pH of 8.0+.

The black color comes not from dyes or artificial coloring but from a chemical reaction:

Once fulvic trace minerals are extracted from nature and added to the alkaline water, the water naturally changes into a darker color. There are no artificial dyes or colorings.

Fulvic minerals help the human body effectively break down, absorb, and transport key nutrients. Unlike other supplements, fulvic acid works with your body at a cellular level. Adding it to your diet can revert damaged cells, promote healthy cell growth, and increase the bioavailability of the nutrients you consume.

From a health claim standpoint, the brand makes several assertions that beverage consumers should know about:

BLK Water features powerful electrolytes and high pH to increase hydration and restore balance. It is packed with nutrient-rich fulvic acid and humic acid that supply the electrolytes, antioxidants, and amino acids the body needs to rehydrate efficiently.

As per a study published in the BMC Plant Biology journal in April 2024, fulvic acid is found to have antioxidative properties, helping combat free radicals in the body, which leads to the reduction of oxidative stress and lowers the risk of chronic diseases.

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That said, it’s worth noting that many of BLK Water’s specific health claims are not independently verified by the FDA. The brand itself acknowledges this on its packaging. For the health-conscious drinker looking for a functional beverage that complements their lifestyle, it’s a conversation starter more than a cure-all.

BLK Water vs. Traditional Hydration: A Quick Comparison

For those who are used to cracking open a cold beer, sipping a glass of red wine, or mixing a cocktail on a Friday night, it helps to put BLK Water in context with what it’s competing against (or complementing).

For the social drinker who is also health-conscious, BLK Water fits comfortably in a lifestyle that includes both weekend cocktail hours and weekday wellness routines. Think of it as the amaro of the water world: visually striking, functional, and with a story behind every sip.

The Question Everyone Is Asking: Does Chris Laurita Still Own BLK Water?

Here is where the narrative gets murky, and it’s important to lay out exactly what is publicly known versus what remains uncertain.

Despite the ongoing lawsuit, Jacqueline and Louise maintain they’re the company’s founders, and Chris, Albie, and Chris Laurita still own the brand. This reporting from Distractify, published in August 2024, represents one of the most recent updates on ownership.

However, other outlets tell a subtly different story. Even though the brand is still available to buy, no one from the RHONJ cast currently has any involvement. This claim from TheThings, published in December 2024, draws a distinction between legal ownership and active day-to-day involvement.

The truth appears to sit somewhere between those two positions. The Manzo-Laurita family may retain nominal ownership stakes in the brand while having stepped back from operational roles. Albie and Chris Manzo, the sons of former RHONJ matriarch Caroline Manzo, have moved on. The two sons opened two restaurants in Hoboken, NJ. The business that the Manzo brothers once called their passion has almost completely fallen by the wayside in favor of their new ventures.

Similarly, Chris Laurita’s own attention shifted. Chris Laurita announced a new product: a mini popcorn called The Little Kernel. Already, tiny adorable popcorn has more shelf appeal than black bottled water.

So in the most practical sense, while ownership documents may still list Chris Laurita’s name, the brand has taken on a life of its own, powered by new retail partnerships and a TikTok-driven generation of health-conscious consumers who may have never seen a single episode of The Real Housewives of New Jersey.

The Lawsuit That Never Seems to End

Any honest conversation about BLK Water must include the legal storm that has followed it since day one.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, names BLK Brands LLC and its owners, reality TV stars Chris Manzo, Albie Manzo, and Chris Laurita, as well as Jacqueline and Louise Wilkie, as defendants. The suit alleges that the Wilkies entered into an agreement with Creative Thinkers to bottle BLACKWATER, a specialty health water infused with a proprietary blend of fulvic and humic acid. Instead of working with Ivan Solomon, the owner of Creative Thinkers, the Wilkies stole the idea and trademark and marketed the product with the Manzo-Laurita family.

Creative Thinkers, a Canadian company, claimed they had introduced the water process in 2009 and shared it with the Wilkie sisters under a non-disclosure agreement. The Manzo-Laurita family is said by Creative Thinkers to have used the mark on their international reality TV show to promulgate a false story about the origins of this water. Creative Thinkers alleges breach of contract, trademark infringement, fraud, and other counterclaims.

The counternarrative BLK presented was that the Manzos and Lauritas encountered the Wilkies organically at the New York Fancy Foods Show and formed a legitimate business partnership. In June 2010, at the New York Fancy Foods Show, the Housewives stars entered the picture. There, the Wilkie sisters met the Manzo-Laurita family.

Fascinatingly, this legal saga has dragged on for well over a decade with little resolution. The lawsuit remains ongoing after more than ten years. The most recent coverage suggests the case has not progressed much since 2011.

What does this mean for the ownership question? As long as the lawsuit remains unresolved, any ruling in favor of Creative Thinkers could fundamentally alter who actually has the right to the brand, its formula, and its commercial future.

Chris Laurita’s Broader Financial Saga

Understanding the BLK Water question also requires understanding the larger financial picture of Chris Laurita’s life, which is one of the more dramatic entrepreneurial tales in recent reality TV history.

Before BLK Water entered the picture, Chris had been running Signature Apparel, a menswear company that, at its height, was an impressive commercial operation. The company boasted earnings of more than $250 million between 2005 and the year the bankruptcy was filed in 2009.

The collapse of Signature Apparel was catastrophic on multiple levels. A year after the filing, the Lauritas were accused by company investors and the bankruptcy trustee of draining the struggling company of almost $8 million to finance the lavish lifestyle they presented on RHONJ, including private jets, limousines, extravagant parties, premium automobiles, designer clothing, and lavish vacations.

By 2017, the legal reckoning arrived in full force. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Robert E. Grossman for the Southern District of New York ruled that Chris Laurita was liable for fraud, negligent misrepresentation, and tortious interference with contractual relations for diverting some of Signature Apparel’s assets. Laurita was also found liable for breach of his fiduciary duty.

The financial damage continued rolling in for years. The court ordered him to repay $7.8 million to creditors, further exacerbating his financial troubles.

Most recently, a judge ordered Christopher and Jacqueline to pay a default judgment of $760,000. The law firm Seidman and Pincus LLC was awarded $342,000, along with $419,000 in interest. The two attorneys from the firm had represented Jacqueline and Chris in the messy bankruptcy case involving Chris’ clothing company, Signature Apparel Group. This ruling came in mid-2025, indicating that Chris Laurita’s legal and financial entanglements are ongoing even now.

In 2024, Chris Laurita’s net worth is estimated at approximately $500,000. His financial journey has been a roller coaster, with his involvement in Signature Apparel and reality TV influencing his wealth. His financial standing is lower due to his legal issues and business bankruptcy.

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In this context, BLK Water was not just a lifestyle brand venture. For the Lauritas, it represented a very real attempt to rebuild financial credibility while still in the public eye.

Is BLK Water Still Available to Buy?

Yes, and quite easily at that. In 2023, Hiru Corporation announced a new co-packing agreement with BLK, a distinctive alkaline water brand featuring fulvic and humic acids, which give the water its dark color. BLK is available at major retailers like Walmart and online through Amazon, appealing to younger consumers via social media and athlete endorsements.

The product line has expanded considerably since those early RHONJ days. blk. Beverages announced the first brand extension, blk.+, which includes the same fulvic-enhanced, all-natural mineral water, but now offers one of four new natural flavors, including black lemonade, mango splash, tropical punch, and blueberry acai.

There are also concentrated drop products, which allow consumers to add fulvic minerals to any beverage, including, theoretically, a cocktail or a glass of wine. The mineral drops are described as ideal for on the go, allowing a few flavorless drops to be added to a protein shake, drink of choice, or even as a mix-in to a favorite salad. That kind of versatility is exactly what health-minded social drinkers have come to expect from functional beverage brands.

The Market BLK Water Is Competing In Right Now

BLK Water didn’t just survive the RHONJ era. It found itself in a growing market category. The Black Alkaline Water Market is valued at USD 1.18 billion in 2024 and projected to reach USD 2.87 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 13.53% during the forecast period of 2024 to 2032.

BLK. (blk. International LLC) remains one of the most recognized names in this space, benefiting from a well-established brand and global distribution channels.

The competition is no joke. The functional beverage sector is growing at an estimated annual growth rate of 8% in 2024, indicating a broader shift in consumer preferences that is favorable for black alkaline water.

Major brands are watching this space carefully. In 2024, Gatorade launched the Gatorade Hydration Booster, a new electrolyte powder mix tailored for daily hydration. This is the world BLK Water is navigating, a category that once seemed like a quirky reality TV gimmick now occupying legitimate shelf space next to mainstream hydration giants.

For beverage lovers who pay attention to what’s trending behind the bar and on the health shelf, this is a brand that has proven staying power beyond its celebrity origins.

Why the Ownership Question Matters for Consumers

If you’re an American who cares about where your food and drink come from, the BLK Water ownership question isn’t just tabloid gossip. It reflects something real about how celebrity-driven brands work, and don’t work.

When a product is built on a story, whether that’s a cancer recovery narrative, a reality TV platform, or a family’s entrepreneurial drive, that story becomes part of the product itself. If the story is legally contested, as BLK Water’s origin story has been since 2011, then every bottle you buy carries that complexity with it.

The broader consumer lesson: If Creative Thinkers can prove their formula was stolen, that would affect all the owners of BLK Water, which includes Chris Laurita, Chris Manzo, and Albie Manzo. A successful lawsuit outcome for the Canadian company could, in theory, reshape who profits from every bottle sold going forward.

In the meantime, BLK Water continues to be bottled, shipped, and consumed by thousands of Americans who may have come to it through a TikTok reel, a Walmart aisle, or a nostalgic memory of Bravo drama on a Tuesday night.

What Happened to the Other Key Players?

The full story of BLK Water involves a cast of characters beyond Chris Laurita alone.

Albie and Chris Manzo moved into the restaurant business in Hoboken, New Jersey, stepping back from the beverage world. Chris also published a children’s book, marking a pivot toward creative pursuits outside the water industry.

Jacqueline and Louise Wilkie have continued to advocate publicly for fulvic acid and the principles behind BLK Water. The sisters maintain they are the true founders of the concept, regardless of the ongoing legal dispute with Creative Thinkers.

Jacqueline Laurita, Chris’s wife and a central figure in RHONJ for many seasons, shifted her public work toward brand partnerships and lifestyle promotion, including the subscription beauty service FabFitFun, showing a talent for brand alignment that arguably exceeded BLK Water’s own celebrity-driven marketing phase.

As for Chris Laurita himself, his public profile has been defined more by legal proceedings than by new product launches in recent years.

The Bottom Line on Ownership, Availability, and What It All Means

To bring this full circle: based on the most current publicly available information as of 2024 to 2025, Chris Laurita’s name remains associated with BLK Water’s ownership, though his active involvement in the brand’s day-to-day operations appears to be minimal, if present at all.

The brand is alive. It is commercially active. It is sitting on Walmart shelves and shipping through Amazon Prime. And it is operating in a market projected to nearly triple in value by the end of this decade.

Whether Chris Laurita collects royalties, holds an equity stake, or has quietly moved on entirely is a question that neither he nor the brand has officially answered in public detail. What is clear is that the Manzo-Laurita family built something that outlasted both their reality TV moment and their internal conflicts, and that is not nothing.

A Final Pour

Here is the thing that tends to get lost in all the courtroom coverage and financial headlines. Somewhere in a warehouse, bottles of jet-black water are rolling off a production line, getting shipped to someone’s doorstep, and landing at a brunch table next to a mimosa or a Bloody Mary. Someone cracks it open, takes a sip, and either raises an eyebrow at the taste or finds it perfectly smooth and refreshing.

That’s the strange, resilient life of BLK Water in 2025. It no longer needs the Housewives. It no longer needs Chris Laurita’s name in a press release. It has, in its own quietly dramatic way, become something that exists beyond its origin story, which is arguably the highest compliment you can pay to any beverage brand built on drama, ambition, and a whole lot of black water.

Sources: https://chesbrewco.com
Category: Drink