Pic shows: Richard Lugner with his wife Cathy, alias Spatzi, and her daughter¿.
The Playboy bunny wife of an Austrian billionaire more than half a century older than her has moved to take over control of his business empire after ousting his daughter from a job as general manager.
Wealthy Richard Lugner, 82, revealed that his daughter Jacky, 21, who was being groomed to take over the business empire had now stepped aside – citing differences over the way the operation should be run with his new wife.
Revealing the news of his daughter’s departure Lugner said: “My daughter Jacky was working for me in my company and was about to take over a large part of my role. But she went on holiday, and she just never came back. Instead she told me that she didn’t want to have anything to do with it any more. As far as I know she is now working with her husband and they have an agency helping people to book celebrities.”
He said his daughter’s decision to step aside from taking over as the future manager of his business, including the Lugner City shopping complex in the heart of the Austrian capital Vienna, had left his plans for the future and he himself bitterly disappointed.
And he admitted that the row between his new wife and daughter was the reason behind it: “The sad fact is that they just can’t stand each other, they don’t even speak to each other.”
Lugner wed German TV presenter and former Playboy model Cathy Schmitz, 25, last September after a brief courtship that lasted just seven months. Known in Austrian media as “Little Sparrow”, Cathy replaced Anastasia “Pussycat” Sokol, 23, who was several girlfriends on from Jacky’s mother Christina Lugner, known in Austria as “Little Mouse”.
Jacky has been a vocal critic of her father’s playboy lifestyle that included spending up to 500,000 GBP to get celebrities like Kim Kardashian to step out with him at high society events such as the posh Vienna Opera Ball. His dates have also included Geri Halliwell, Paris Hilton, Dita von Teese, Carmen Electra, the Duchess of York and Pamela Anderson.
But when he opted to allow the TV cameras in to do a reality TV show that showed him chasing a succession of ever younger women, his daughter Jacky stepped out, announcing that she no longer wanted to be in the Lugner media spotlight as he attempted to find the right one to settle down with. Despite the fact that she had sat on the lap of Sophia Loren as a baby, and at the age of 13 had lunch with Paris Hilton, she said she’d had enough of the media spotlight, and announced she would no longer be taking part.
She said instead that she wanted to concentrate on running the family business, and when he linked up with his last girlfriend Anastasia “Pussycat” Sokol, 23, she moved to distance herself from what was going on, while at the same time continuing to run the family firm.
The relationship worsened however when Lugner announced after a brief seven month courtship, most of which was televised as part of an Austrian TV series known as “The Lugners”, that he was to marry Little Sparrow Cathy. His daughter Jacky said she did not plan to go to the wedding.
And Lugner, never known for being tactful, responded by saying that he did not care, because his favourite daughter was already going to be at the wedding as a bridesmaid. He was actually referring to his stepdaughter and Cathy’s daughter with another man, which was reported to have been the final nail in the coffin in his relationship with Jacky.
Jacky’s mum Christine Lugner, herself a minor celebrity in Austria after appearing on the local version of “I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here” and other TV shows, slammed her ex-husband’s behaviour saying: “It is really crossing the boundary of what’s acceptable to make a statement like that. As a mother I’m certainly not prepared to accept that Richard attacks the daughter that we have together with statements like that. I am distancing myself from it in the strongest way possible.”
But the public row only ended up forcing Richard Lugner and Little Sparrow closer together to present a united front against criticism from his previous wife, a former supermarket cashier in one of his shops, and his daughter Jacky.
Jacky had earlier said that she wanted no contact with her father’s women. She said she regarded private matters as being something which should be kept private.
She said: “For me being a Lugner is about working hard and not resting after every victory, but learning and then moving on to become even more successful.”
But stepping down, with her mother taking her side in the dispute, left a vacuum which allowed the former Playboy model to completely take control, after wrestling for months with Jacky over the way the business was run.
It left control of the Empire in the hands of Cathy, a former Playboy Bunny at the Playboy Club in the western German city of Cologne who was the cover model of German Playboy in 2013.
Cathy said that Jacky had been invited to the wedding at Vienna’s Schoenbrunn Palace, and when asked if she would be attending or had passed on good wishes said: “I have not heard anything from her at all. It’s a great shame.”
And she then went on to criticise Jacky for trying to interfere with her marriage to Richard. She said: “I don’t think it’s okay to go about playing games like this. That’s why I am being careful because I don’t intend to put myself out over such a silly little tart.
“I suppose I shouldn’t say that really about her, but I don’t want to put my marriage at risk.”
In what was seen as a veiled criticism of Jacky Lugner, her father revealed for the first time that the business had debts of around 65 million to cover and that Cathy was coming in to sort things out.
The debt is still a drop in the ocean given that Lugner’s property portfolio alone is worth hundreds of millions, but nevertheless he says things need to be taken in hand and the family trust which manages the family fortune now has a new director, ‘Little Sparrow’ Cathy, in the place of ex-wife ‘Little Mouse’ Christina.
He said: “She is taking care of things online and has a good view about the financial situation and how the cash flow is working. She is sorting out the debt and making sure the bills are paid at the end of the month.”
He said that he had still not decided who his successor would be after Jacky stood down but confirmed that he was considering putting Cathy in the job officially, although it was also a possibility he might use one of his sons, Alexander, who at the moment still has his position on the trust alongside Cathy, or alternatively his grandchildren from his second son Andreas.
He said whoever he chose needed to be someone who would ensure the business continued and that it did not end up “going to the dogs”.
Over allegations that she had only married him for his money he said: “I have a younger woman, and she has a man with a lot of money. But we have other characteristics that make us who we are, and if each of us are happy with that, then as far as I’m concerned what’s wrong with it?”
He says that marrying him was never going to be a get rich quick option anyway, saying: “I was only recently at the doctors and they said I’m absolutely in tiptop health.”
He plans to still be centre stage at the Opera Ball this year and has already signed up Italian actress Elisabetta Canalis to join him in his exclusive box.
Cathy, who was trying to make her name as TV presenter in Germany before she crossed paths with the billionaire, admits that she loves the luxury lifestyle that comes with being Richard’s wife, but that it is not the reason she married him.
She said: “When we met I thought he was a nice guy. I knew he was rich, I am from Germany – he is very famous person.
“Of course it’s nice to life a luxury life. But it’s not very important to me.
“Before I met him I was pushing my own career on the television. But I had to make a decision between love and my career.
“[And] I am not the first woman that is much younger than him – none of his wives were as old as him.”
While many would struggle to understand what an octogenarian and a woman in her twenties could have in common, Cathy maintains that it is a match made in heaven.
She said: “I have a good teacher as he has been married four times before.
“I dated a lot of young boys they are only looking out for themselves. They like football and many women.
“I have a lot of fun with him [but also] I have a six-year-old daughter to look after I need a man.”
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