The rise and fall of the “wealthiest divorcee in history” has been extraordinary. A former nude model for her first husband’s Knave magazine and star of adult films such as “The Nine Acres of Nakedness,” Patricia Kluge is the daughter of an Englishman and a Scots-Iraqi. She married her second husband, the late John Kluge, chairman of Metromedia and once the richest man in America, in 1981 after belly dancing for him at a dinner party in New York. As part of her plan to dovetail herself into the top drawer of American society, the couple built a 24,000 square foot mock 18th century English-style mansion, Albermarle, in Virginia and stuffed it full of Chippendale furniture. She got this as part of her $100 million divorce settlement in 1990 and wisely invested part of the payoff in a highly successful business trading football cards but then vanity struck. The Kluge Estate Winery project that she started with her third husband, William Moses, bankrupted the pair in June 2011 and the Bank of America foreclosed on her properties. A lifeline came from “longtime friend” Donald Trump who purchased the vineyard and employed her, but even he’s now uttered the words: “You’re fired!” and sent her packing. Of her newfound predicament Kluge commented: “What did we lose? Material things, nothing too important. When something like this happens you really see who your friends are, those you can rely on, and we have many friends.” Here is a lady with fortitude that can only be described as admirable. It’s probably best, however, to keep her away from the cash register.
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5 comments
Her dignity is impressive but her housekeeping abilities are questionable. I keep the finances or myself and Mr Bone in order whilst he concentrates on his work in the House. Unlike Nadine Dorries, I know the price of a pint of milk and a loaf of bread. If Mrs Kluge could not manage to keep even a percentage of the $100m she was “given”, she really needs help.
I am gobsmacked that she has not yet received a peerage and in the House of Lords. She must be honoured for her contributions to sleaze and smutt. She knows how to blow money…….
Easy come easy go. I am sure she will make it again some how. And if she is true to her philosophy, she genuinely won’t care if she doesn’t. But it’s true what she says about friendships. I’m sure she was emotionally treading water with the friends who evaporated with the wealth.
Kluge’s attitude is commendable on one hand and on the other hand she appears to be in total denial. To have been ‘given’ such an incredible amount of money and then to have lost it all shows, I fear, how she truly feels about herself. Success breeds Success and (I try not to state the obvious) this is why Donald Trump is no longer ‘present’ in her circle. We subconciously surround ourselves at any given time with people who reflect back to us our own position in life – emotionally, financially, etc. If I lost Donald Trump from my circle of friends I would have to seriously consider how I am managing my life. If you haven’t truly worked for your success then you haven’t learnt what it takes to get to the top, all the hard work, sweat, blood and tears etc. You can’t value something that you were ‘given’ and there in lies the issue…It appears she gave herself away far too cheaply in the beginning!
She is not the first porn actress to strike it rich – but – she was not smart enough to keep it.