Giuliani’s $18,000 cigar bill helps ignite divorce battle
United States
The spending habits do not hint at a man concerned about his cash flow: US$165,000 (NZ$244,000) on limousines and hotels, US$12,000 (NZ$18,000) on cigars and US$7000 (NZ$10,000) on his favourite collectibles: fountain pens. And that is just since April.
Last week Rudy Giuliani, 74, took a rest from working as the president’s lawyer to have his own finances and extramarital flings picked apart as he and his third wife, Judith Nathan, began their bitter divorce battle. Between them it will be their sixth.
In a matter of months the former New York mayor has blown US$ 900,000 (NZ$1.3 million) on personal expenses, including US$286,000 (NZ$424,000) on his alleged former mistress, the state supreme court in Manhattan was told. However, his lawyer argued that he no longer had enough money to keep funding Nathan’s Us$232,000-a-month lifestyle. The stakes are big: Giuliani’s fortune has previously been estimated at US$45M and the couple did not have a prenuptial agreement.
Giuliani’s lawyer, Faith Miller, admitted that his client had made US$9M in 2017 but argued that he had earned ‘‘just shy of US$5M’’ so far this year, and highlighted that his work for Donald Trump was unpaid.
Nathan, 63, married Giuliani in 2003 after meeting him in an Upper East Side cigar bar. She is seeking US$63,000 a month as well as expenses for housing, care for her elderly mother and country club fees. The couple belong to 11 country clubs and are arguing about who will hobnob where.
She filed for divorce after he was spotted at a hotel with Maria Rosa Ryan, 53, a hospital administrator who is the mother of his assistant, Vanessa. The pair allegedly spent the night together in a US$524 suite after eating a steak dinner and watching The Godfather. Giuliani denied any romance, saying there was ‘‘no proof’’ they had sex and that they would be ‘‘crazy to do stuff like that’’.
Nathan argues that Giuliani spent US$90,000 on jewellery for Ryan, as well as US$58,000 flying her and her daughter around by private jet. Giuliani’s lawyer disputed the claims and asserted that his client had spent upwards of US$1M on Nathan since the divorce filings. – The Times