A wealthy New York couple thought they had discovered the ideal nanny for their daughter, but their dream quickly transformed into a nightmare when she reportedly became a nightmare they couldn’t shake off.

Jamie Carano Nordenström and her husband, Philip Nordenström, initially felt fortunate when they employed Barbara Molnar, a seasoned child care professional who responded to their advertisement on the staffing website Nanny Lane.

Living hectic lives as consultants, the Nordenströms welcomed Molnar into their meticulously renovated $1 million Colonial farmhouse in Hillsdale, upstate New York. The home was not only a sanctuary but a symbol of Jamie’s preference for an immaculate environment, complete with white décor, food, and flowers.

Molnar initially appeared to be the epitome of composure and competence. Her ability to speak fluent German was particularly appealing to the Nordenströms, who were eager for their daughter to become bilingual, complementing their native Swedish.

In a conversation with The Cut, Jamie mentioned that Molnar seemed like a perfect match, noting her deep affection for children, her understanding of infants, and her seemingly kind personality.

Jamie told The Cut that Molnar seemed a natural fit, as she was ‘absolutely in love’ with children, understood babies, and appeared to be a kind person. 

But things started to go wrong after Molnar asked to move into an annex property at their home in December 2024, despite only working there part time.  

Jamie, a Democrat and member of the Hillsdale town board who had campaigned for affordable housing, said she allowed Molnar to move in rent-free, partially to avoid any paperwork and headaches.

Chaos ensued.  

Jamie Carano Nordenström and her husband, Philip Nordenström, said their blissful lives were upended after hiring an elderly nanny who refused to leave when they fired her for a string of bizarre behavior 

Molnar defied a ban on pets by secretly moving in a Labrador. 

She’s also accused of exploiting the Nordenströms goodwill by asking them to let her son visit her from boarding school for Christmas, then letting him stay for a month.

The Nordenströms noticed Molnar beginning to leave trash lying around the house and not pick up her dog’s poop, it is claimed. 

Molnar’s annex began to stink of fried food. 

But the situation reached breaking point in early June, when Jamie said she returned with her husband and baby from a vacation to find strangers’ cars parked on her front lawn. 

A group of teenagers were swimming in the family pool. Jamie said she found her fridges were filled with burgers and dog hair had clogged up her vacuum. 

Jamie was too exhausted to argue and went to bed – only to be woken up by the sound of Molar loudly banging pans.  

Astonishingly, Molnar is said to have lost her temper when confronted and accused Jamie of embarrassing her son in front of his friends

The couple’s nanny, Barbara Molnar, allegedly refused to leave their guesthouse after being fired, before soaking the inside with urine, throwing a pool party for her teenage son without permission, and filing restraining orders 

Jamie said she fired Molnar after the incident, but says she attempted to do so in a sensitive way by paying her through to the end of the month and offering to help her find a new place to live.

Molnar is then said to have given Jamie chapter and verse on her rights as a squatter, making her employer’s blood run cold.  

‘You don’t know the law,’ Molnar allegedly said 

‘This is my home, my furnished apartment. This is my designated parking space.’ 

Jamie recalled: ‘We knew, at that point, that she had engaged with us to gain access to our home.’ 

Deep background checks ran by the couple found that although Molnar had no criminal record, she had a history of disputes with landlords and employers, and Jamie recalled: ‘Everyone said she was dangerous, to pay her off.’ 

‘We made a decision at the beginning that we weren’t going to give into her extortive practices,’ Jamie added. ‘We weren’t going to let her take over our home.’ 

This included a landlord in Chatham, around 20 miles from Hillsdale, saying that Molnar and a man she was with paid only three months’ rent for over seven months, before trashing the place when they left.

The nanny allegedly refused to leave the guesthouse (pictured), and Jamie said Molnar invoked New York’s lenient squatter’s laws to avoid eviction 

Molnar allegedly snuck in her dog (seen together) and told Jamie that the guesthouse was ‘my home’, and the consultant admitted: ‘We knew, at that point, that she had engaged with us to gain access to our home’ 

 Another landlord in upstate New York said Molnar owed him over $27,000, and another claimed that Molnar made up allegations that she was discriminated against for being ‘fat’ when they tried to move her out. 

Jamie said the landlord told her that Molnar told him she would ‘do anything to keep a roof over her head’, and when she moved out, they found writing on a wall reading: ‘Thanks for putting us on the street, you greedy old hag!!! I’ll send you a postcard.’ 

Jamie said she was terrified over fears Molnar was an unstable con artist living under her roof.

Their relationship grew strained, and both women recorded each other numerous times as they faced standoffs in Jamie’s home over why Molnar hadn’t moved out yet. 

In one text exchange shared to The Cut, Molnar told her: ‘I am interviewing for several jobs and once that is secured, I promise you, I cannot get away from you and this place fast enough.

‘You are now night and day, 180 degrees from the kind and generous person you were when we started.’ 

In a court filing, the Nordenströms described Molnar as ‘a professional con-artist, with a well-documented history of ingratiating herself with well-off individuals, unlawfully occupying their property in bad faith, and then refusing to leave and abusing the protections afforded by eviction laws.’ 

Police were also called to the property on multiple occasions as relations between the warring factions worsened.  

Jamie seen filming Molnar as her former nanny records her back, as both women got into a months-long legal battle where they filmed each other and filed competing lawsuits in court

A copy of a text exchange between the two women, where Molnar told Jamie to ‘STOP HARASSING ME’ despite refusing to leave their guest house 

Despite lingering on their property for months, Molnar would text Jamie in all-caps: ‘STOP HARASSING ME.’ 

Eventually, a judge ordered Molnar to leave by September 10, and the nanny was hit with a temporary order of protection from the Nordenströms. 

When she finally left, Jamie said mattresses and comforters were drenched in urine, and rugs were so soaked that the urine had seeped into her floorboards. 

Molnar told The Cut that her life as a nanny was far from her previous lifestyle, and said she was once the one who had housekeepers and nannies. 

‘I’ve lived in castles and probably had more things than (Jamie),’ she said. 

She said she had lived a life of luxury on Park Avenue and with wealthy wine tycoons in France, and was even scouted as a model and worked for the Parisian fashion house Guy Laroche. 

Her ex-husband Pasquale Fabio Granato opened New York celebrity haunt Serafina Fabulous Pizza, and Barbara said he ‘went out of his mind’ after becoming ‘the king of New York overnight.’ 

She said she was assaulted, and was later awarded $2 million in a divorce settlement – money that she claimed was stolen by him when they reconnected years later. 

Jamie said she and her husband Philip, both successful consultants in New York, felt like ‘we lost this summer of our lives’ due to the bizarre saga 

Molnar said she and her son were left homeless for some time, and claimed that she became an FBI informant to try get the millions back, but never managed to. 

Jamie and Molnar gave conflicting accounts over what they had agreed to when she worked for the couple as a nanny, including being paid up to $40-an-hour, with $15 going toward rent, which Jamie says never happened. 

Molnar insisted that she was allowed to throw the pool party while Jamie and Philip were away on vacation, saying: ‘She never said you can’t have anybody over when we’re not here. So how would I know that?’ 

In August, Molnar filed a wrongful-termination lawsuit against Jamie, who countered that it was ‘baseless and frivolous and AI-generated’, and told the court that Molnar was mentally unstable. 

‘I still fear that she might come back,’ Jamie said. ‘Or try to interact with me or my daughter.’ 

In court, a judge went on to hit both Molnar and Jamie with restraining orders, which forced Jamie to give up vintage heirloom guns that her family had been gifted. 

Now, with Molnar out of their home, Jamie said she hoped to use the strange saga as a warning to other affluent couples who could be targeted by those looking to take advantage of squatter laws, as she alleged that Molnar did. 

‘It’s like we lost this summer of our lives,’ she said.