Julia’s secret billionaire family life!
She’s made a name for herself in comedy, but the Seinfeld star’s also an heiress
Comic actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus is world famous for her roles in Seinfeld and Veep, but few fans know about the billionaire background she’s spent years downplaying.
Despite being born into a shipping family dynasty, the 61-year-old actress and her comic husband Brad Hall – who celebrate 35 years of marriage next month – lead a remarkably normal life in Santa Barbara with sons, Henry, 29, and Charlie, 25.
“She may not like it, but she’s been a billionairess since the day she was born,” a longtime family friend tells Woman’s Day.
“But Julia and Brad have no airs and graces whatsoever. They only have what they need and spend what they have. Part of Julia is embarrassed by her family’s wealth.”
The actress is said to be worth $310 million due to her successful TV career, but that’s almost loose change compared to the wealth accumulated by the family business!
SHIPPING WEALTH
Julia’s French great-greatgrandfather Leopold founded the Louis Dreyfus Group in 1851, a shipping conglomerate that still generates around $80 billion a year in income in more than 100 countries.
Julia’s late father Gerard (also known as William) expanded the business into the US, with ventures in real estate, energy and telecommunications. Despite the family’s wealth, it’s almost comical how Julia tries to hide it.
“The reports of my father’s wealth are, in fact, greatly exaggerated in the press,” she insisted in 2018. “He’s referred to as a billionaire and I’m referred to by some heinous term like ‘billionaire heiress’.
“It’s incorrect! My father – unfortunately – was never a billionaire. Far from it.”
She has insisted it’s the business that has the money, not her family, but when her father died in 2016 aged 84, he left behind $4.42 billion, which was divided between Julia, her siblings and stepmother.
“Part of Julia is embarrassed by her family’s wealth and she’s worth a lot more than she’d like anyone to know,” says our insider. “But that’s because she’s always wanted to make her own fortune and no one can argue she hasn’t done that.
“In the first season of Seinfeld, no one had a clue she came from such wealth. She could buy Jerry Seinfeld if she wanted to. As you can imagine, Jerry’s nose was out of joint when he found out halfway through the first season, which could be why she’s always so keen to downplay it.
“She avoids any conversation about money, but Julia has a good team running her financials and while she doesn’t hide anything from the taxman, she does like to hide her billions from acting circles.”
The friend adds, “To be fair to Julia, she genuinely does wish she was ‘Julia from the block’. She’s always been a softie for people worse off than her and bears a lot of guilt over her privileged background. “She’s famous for her girlnext-door image, which is a far cry from shipping dynasties.
“With today’s ‘cancel culture’, the last thing she wants is to be seen as one of the elite because she really isn’t. She might have a bank balance some can only dream of, but she’s as down-toearth as you can get.”