Dead Billionaire’s Mistress’s Four Frozen Embryos Revealed Amid Over $100M Legal Battle
The mistress of late billionaire Bruce Wasserstein has four other daughters on ice as frozen embryos – despite her death in 2009.
Erin McCarthy had a daughter with the powerful ex-Lazard chairman before his death, Sky, now 15, then a second daughter, Rose, five years ago – and now four more female embryos remain on ice, revealed court documents.
The revelation comes as Sky and her mother McCarthy are suing for more than $100million of her fortune describing the teenager as ‘Cinderella’ and her incredibly wealthy step-siblings as ‘evil stepsisters’.
Lawyers for Sky and McCarthy say they are studying how to secure legal rights for Rose and the four frozen girls, which raises the possibility of more bitter litigation.
The late Lazard chairman and owner of New York Magazine, Wasserstein, who died aged 61, left behind six children. Then Rose was born in 2018, nine years after her death, making a total of seven children.
He also left a widow, two ex-wives and a mistress and four lavish residences: a townhouse in London, an apartment in Paris, a 17-acre estate in Santa Barbara and a sprawling 27.5-acre beachfront estate. beach in East Hampton known as Cranberry Dune, valued at over $120 million.
If McCarthy – who claims Wasserstein had agreed to raise all of her cryopreserved children with her – decided to give birth to the remaining four children, it would bring their joint brood to six children, so the potential ice family would be larger than her existing children with other women.
The brood includes adults Pamela, Ben and Scoop with ex-wife Christine Parrott and teenagers Jack and Dash with second wife Claude Becker.
After Bruce’s death, Claude took in Lucy, the daughter of his late sister Wendy.
Sky’s solicitor, Power family and divorce lawyer Bill Zabel said: “We are exploring whether the four embryos have any legal rights – we know they are all girls – should they be transferred and become individuals.”
McCarthy, 45, underwent fertility and IVF treatment at the Weill Cornell Center for Reproductive Medicine. She signed documents agreeing to the unused cryopreserved embryos being discarded in 2027, when she turns 55.
Wasserstein also signed the documents agreeing that the embryos “have rights of survival” and that they would be fully owned by McCarthy in the event of death.
This week we exclusively revealed that attorneys for McCarthy and Sky are suing Wasserstein’s other children for over $100 million, dramatically portraying themselves in court as “Cinderella” while claiming her half-siblings are the “evil stepsisters”.
Documents filed Tuesday in New York Surrogate Court specifically allege that Sky’s half-sister Pamela Wasserstein – the 45-year-old chairwoman of Vox Media, owner of New York Magazine – is a ‘bully’ who allegedly colluded to prevent him from getting his full inheritance.
“This campaign against Sky has been pursued with particular zeal by Pam [Wasserstein]who is Sky’s trustee despite a plethora of disputes and personal dealings,” Sky’s lawyers said.
“Pam, through her bullying, ostracism and neglect of Sky…makes even the behavior of Cinderella’s evil stepsisters Drizella and Anastasia seem sweet. But there is no prince charming in the Wasserstein family who comes to save Sky.
Sky’s lawyers are asking for a settlement to be determined at trial for more than $100 million and other damages for his “ostracism”, as well as the appointment of an independent trustee for his estate.
Sky is already sitting on an estimated $170 million legacy. She lives with her mother and sister Rose in a neighborhood of Central Park West.
The Post previously reported that Wasserstein’s other children accused McCarthy of driving their family apart and accused him of breaking into Cranberry Dune in the middle of the night when Sky was a baby, yelling, “Your father is a bastard” to his youngest sons.
McCarthy denies breaking and entering.
A spokesperson for the executors and trustees of Mr Wasserstein’s family trust said: “Erin McCarthy gave birth to Rose approximately seven years after the death of Bruce Wasserstein. Under Mr. Wasserstein’s trust and estate documents, such a child would not be a beneficiary.