The divorce of New York real estate mogul Harry Macklowe and his wife, Linda, after 57 years of marriage, is turning into “The War of the Roses,” according to sources.
Page Six exclusively reported in May that Harry, 79, announced to his wife that he was moving in with his girlfriend of at least two years, Patricia Landeau, president of the French Friends of the Israel Museum, located in Jerusalem.
Comparing their increasingly contentious divorce to the 1989 movie starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner, about a wealthy couple fighting over their possessions, a source tells us that Linda “controls their billion-dollar art collection and fully expects to keep it. But he’s going to fight that.
They’re going to fight over everything. They’ve been fighting for 57 years.”
Harry and Linda do not have a prenup, setting the scene for an epic divorce battle. Both sides have prominent divorce attorneys to go into battle with: Harry is represented by Bob Cohen, while Linda has hired John Teitler.
We’re told their marriage of nearly 60 years ended in divorce because Harry was going public with his girlfriend, Landeau, who is also married, and whose estranged husband lives in France.
The source told us, “The girlfriend was out there telling everybody they were a couple — he was parading her around the Hamptons and more recently in St-Tropez. It became embarrassing.” Page Six also reported that Harry has hidden Landeau in a Park Avenue apartment for as long as two years.
The source adds that the bitter feelings shared by the estranged couple go back to when Harry was forced to sell the jewel in his real estate crown, the General Motors Building, in 2008 as he sought to get out from a reported $7 billion in debt. The source said, “All the art and the marital property was in Linda’s name, and she refused to sell any of it to bail him out.” But another source countered, regarding the supposed marital disagreement over the GM Building sale, “That is completely untrue.”
Harry’s attorney didn’t respond, while a rep for Linda declined to comment.