Ex-Wife Gets UES Mansion in Explosive Paulson Divorce

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Five years after filing for divorce, the division of the property empire between billionaire hedge funder John Paulson and his ex-wife, Jenica, appears to be at its conclusion.

Jenica received the deed to the former couple’s Upper East Side mansion at 9 East 86th Street, Crain’s reported. The deal valued the 20,500-square-foot home at $30 million, or $1,463 per square foot. The deal was first reported in The Real Deal’s daily deals newsletter.

Jenica used the seven-story, 52-foot-wide prewar mansion as a primary residence for years. John purchased the home from the Town Club in 2004 for $14.7 million, later investing at least $5 million to renovate the property.

Now, the leader of Paulson & Company and former Bear Stearns employee will move forward without the home. He may also be moving forward without further separation battles; his lawyers submitted a certificate of dissolution in the case, while both sides’ lawyers discontinued a commercial lawsuit.

Real estate watchers kept tabs on the divorce for years due to the size of the couple’s real estate holdings and the lack of a prenuptial agreement to protect the $20 billion the money manager made by shorting the housing market before the 2008 crash.

The couple, who married in 2000, reportedly spent more than $100 million on properties in New York, Southampton and Aspen between 2004 and 2012. In 2008, they spent $41.3 million for three parcels of land on Southampton’s Lake Agawan and built a 15,000-square-foot home on the 10-acre property.

In 2010, John paid $2.85 million for a two-bedroom spread at 641 Fifth Avenue‘s Olympic Tower. And two years later, the couple bought the Hala Ranch in Aspen, once owned by Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan, for $49 million.

Things between the former couple took a particularly ugly turn in 2022, when Jenica filed a $1 billion lawsuit accusing John of using trusts to shield assets such as homes. Jenica also accused John of improperly enriching himself through a condo purchase in Puerto Rico.

Many of the details of the split are sealed under New York state law.

— Holden Walter-Warner