By: Ellen Cans
Billionaire businessman, and executive chairman of The Estée Lauder Companies, has found himself in the news for more than the makeup and skincare that his company sells.
William Lauder, 60, was featured in an article by the NY Post for a legal battle with his former mistress. Lauder is reportedly trying to kick out New York socialite Taylor Stein, 54, from the $7 million Bel Air mansion he gave her. The legal battle is being played out in Los Angeles Superior Court. In it, he demands that she leave the 6,000 square foot home which boasts six-bedrooms, five-bathrooms and a pool.
In May 2007, Lauder and Stein had a daughter together, who is now 13-years old and whose name is being withheld. As per the Post, the secretive Lauder did not wish his personal life to end up in “the gossip press,” so he sent the mother and baby to Aspen to stay under the radar. Under a 2007 agreement, Lauder agreed to pay Stein $1 million each year, provided that she kept it a secret that he was the father of her child, and if she agreed not to wittingly come within 100 yards of any member of the Lauder family in New York, Palm Beach, or Aspen.
As reported by the DailyMail, their child apparently wrote a post on social media, in which she described her parents as “divorced”. Lauder holds that this public post violated his demands for strict secrecy and cancels their agreement. The incident has resulted in dozens of intensely redacted court filings and multiple attempts to seal the current case. The suit was originally opened by Lauder in 2018, and they seemed to have reached a truce in 2020, until the feud was reignited a month later in December 2020 by the daughter’s posting.
Now, in turn, Stein is accusing the billionaire of backing out of a court-brokered arrangement to support them, and also alleges that he is harassing her by hiring a high-profile private detective to spy on her. Stein is the daughter of the late legendary NYC nightclub entrepreneur Howard Stein. Her grandfather, Ruby Stein, was a loan shark who was murdered by the Westies gang, and had his decapitated body found floating in Jamaica Bay in 1977.
Neither Lauder nor Stein responded to requests for comment from the Post.
