Real estate developer Harry Macklowe is leaving his wife Linda for a new girlfriend, according to a report.
If the split ends in divorce, it could shine a spotlight on the developer’s private wealth.
The couple reportedly owns $1 billion worth of art. Linda, a Guggenheim Foundation board member, is widely considered the driving force behind the collection.
According to anonymous sources quoted by the New York Post, Harry Macklowe told Linda last week that he is leaving her for France native Patricia Landeau, who serves as president of the French Friends of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
This isn’t the first high-profile breakup in the Macklowe family. The couple’s daughter, Elizabeth, was in a five-year divorce battle with her now-ex husband, developer Kent Swig.
They reached a divorce settlement in November, which gave Elizabeth the couple’s duplex on 740 Park Avenue.
Harry Macklowe has been a key player in New York’s real estate market since the 1980s.
After defaulting on his loans and losing most of his properties, including the GM building, in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, the developer got back on his feet.
He is currently developing the city’s tallest residential tower, 432 Park Avenue, in partnership with CIM Group and is working on a $1.5 billion residential conversion of office building One Wall Street.
Divorcing real estate mogul Harry Macklowe has been secretly keeping his girlfriend in a Park Avenue apartment for as long as two years, sources tell Page Six.
After Page Six broke the news of the 79-year-old’s impending blockbuster divorce from his wife of 57 years, Linda Macklowe, sources tell us Macklowe put up his French girlfriend Patricia Landeau in an apartment in the Macklowe Properties-owned 737 Park Ave.
A source tells us, “It was no secret in the building that the woman was Harry Macklowe’s girlfriend, and she’s been coming and going for two years. Whether he was living a double life with the girlfriend, or his wife knew about her all along, nobody quite knows.”
Residents in the tony building have included HBO CEO Richard Pleplar, French financier Raymond Svider and Russian princess Kristina Kovalenko.
Macklowe suddenly announced to his wife last week that he was leaving her for the girlfriend, who is president of the French Friends of the Israel Museum, located in Jerusalem.
Multiple sources said Harry was even gallivanting around the Hamptons over Memorial Day weekend with his younger blond gal pal.
Sources said Harry — whose fortune was once estimated at $2 billion — and Linda do not have a pre-nup, setting the scene for an epic divorce battle. Their art collection’s said to be worth $1 billion alone.
When asked about his girlfriend, Harry’s rep declined to comment.
Author Vicky Ward wrote of the Macklowes’ marriage in her 2014 book, “The Liar’s Ball” about the GM Building, “There wasn’t much Linda Macklowe hadn’t seen in her long marriage, a relationship often compared to an Edward Albee play. Both Macklowes have been heard to disparage each other and their marriage forcibly and publicly.
“She has said, ‘I could have had a different life … I should have divorced him.’” He has also complained bitterly. Yet they were inseparable.
“They drive each other crazy and they can’t live without each other,” says a close friend. Until now.