August 7, 2009--What's Love Got to Do With It?

As a friend of his said, “It was the antithesis of the way Lionel lived with his first wife. Princess Firyal introduced him to Europe, to Ascot, to royalty. He lapped it up." And he added, "It amazes me.”

Clearly the friend did not know Lionel very well, nor the princess, and certainly not that much about human nature.

From a report in the New York Times (linked below), let me take you back to the beginning of this not-so-fairy-a-tale.

Lionel is now 79 and since 2006 has been incapacitated as the result of cancer surgery and, because of his sons’ intervention, was subsequently declared by the courts to be incompetent. Prior to that, Lionel, Lionel Pincus, was a principal at the blue-chip investment firm E.M. Warburg Pincus where he was a well-respected financier and reliably reported to be the opposite of a conspicuously-spending socialite.

But all that changed when his first wife died. Within a short time the much-younger and glamorous Princess Firyal, very much a socialite who was once married to an uncle of Jordon’s King Abdullah (thus her title) and dated shipping magnate Stavros Niarchos, stepped into Lionel Pincus’ life. And with that for him everything was new again.

Including his real estate portfolio.

Prior to falling head-over-heels for the princess he lived modestly by a very-wealthy-person’s standards. As far as I know he didn’t have a place in the Hamptons nor a duplex on the Upper Eastside. But during his decade-long romance with Princess Firyal he acquired a place for them, a 7,000-square-foot apartment on Fifth Avenue at East 61st Street with a commanding view of Central Park. A splendid place, though they never lived there as a couple.

Now, however, with him so ill and unable to care or make decisions for himself, as with so many New York love stories, it is all coming down to real estate.

The sons want to sell the flat. Because, for among other reasons, it is costing them more than $600,000 a year to carry and maintain it. Their plan is seemingly noble--to take whatever they can get for the place (a lot less than it would have gone for a year or two ago) and give the proceeds to charity. So far so good.

But, and this is a very big “but,” if Mr. Pincus dies before any sale, the apartment goes to . . . Princess Firyal. And she is doing everything she can to slow down the process even though the boys have a buyer.

Before you or I get too cynical about this, if you (or I) were the princess what would you (or I) do? You (or I) might believe in whatever charities the sons want to support; but as a sixty-year-old (as she apparently is), I suspect that though we wouldn’t want to see Lionel Pincus pass on, we’re talking here about a $30 million piece of property.

But not to worry. The princess has the following deal. In writing. If she outlives Mr. Pincus, which is actuarially likely, she will get $35 million in cash and about $8 million a year in “expenses.” Which should help compensate her for her the loss of her beloved and if the sons manage to get approval from the legal authorities to sell the apartment.

Thus the moral:

As with other such urban affairs, have fun while it lasts because you know that in the end she will live happily every after.