A bitter, high-stakes divorce is playing out across three states between private equity executive and Jeffrey Epstein associate Jeffrey Leeds and his much younger wife, Elizabeth, with explosive accusations surfacing about affairs, sex toys, and millions of dollars allegedly squandered.
At stake is a $100 million in real estate, a $22 million, 14-room apartment at the iconic 740 Park Avenue on Manhattan's Upper East Side, a $23.5 million estate in Southampton with 11 bedrooms and 12.5 bathrooms, and a $35.6 million mansion in Palm Beach, according to records. Leeds, 69, has accused Elizabeth, 49, of having a long affair with Miami businessman Alberto Alejandro Tawil, 66, who got her pregnant.
Affair, Sex and Divorce
"You sneaked out the day I left to f–k that idiot loser," the husband wrote a scathing email he sent Elizabeth in February 2025 included in their ongoing Palm Beach County divorce filings. In another heated message, he described the unnamed man as a "loser grifter and real estate mogul."
He also alleged that his wife funneled marital funds into the relationship, claiming she poured more than $275,000 into one of Tawil's businesses in Mozambique, paid for a household staff of 21, and spent money on what he called "erotic gifts," according to court documents.
"Just leave us alone and come visit every now and then. You're a part time-mother anyway," he once texted her, referencing their two kids.
"Stop leaving your 'watercolors' of c–ksucking around where the kids can see them and your crotchless underwear on the floor for everyone to see and your anal lubricant around," he added bitterly.
Leeds — whose name appears dozens of times in the Justice Department's Epstein document release — was also quoted in a now-notorious 2002 New York Magazine profile of Epstein titled "Jeffrey Epstein: International Moneyman of Mystery."
"You may read about Jeffrey in the social columns, but there is much more to him than that," Leeds gushed about the pedophile. "He's a talented money manager and an extremely hardworking person with broad interests."
In one email, influential publicist Peggy Siegal described Leeds as a "smart investor" who "knows politics," while in another message, Next Model Management founder Faith Kates wrote to Epstein about Leeds.
"Did u know your friend jeffrey leeds got married friday?" she wrote on March 18, 2012, three days after his wedding to Elizabeth. "Finally."
Too Close to Epstein
Epstein's former girlfriend, Eva Dubin — a physician and onetime model — also exchanged messages with the financier about Leeds. "Jeff Leeds says hello," she emailed in September 2012. Leeds has not been accused of any misconduct in connection with Epstein.
"Mr. Leeds had no professional or personal relationship with Epstein," his lawyer, Peter Trombadore, said in a statement. "No one has suggested otherwise. Any such claims would be utterly false and defamatory."
The two "may have met in passing, though Mr. Leeds has no recollection of any such meeting," the attorney said, adding that Leeds "never went to Mr. Epstein's office or any of his homes, was never on his plane or his island."
In her own filings in Palm Beach County, Elizabeth accused her estranged husband of waging what she called "financial warfare" against her and of harassing her friends — including Tawil and New York jeweler Anne Baker — with what she described as unnecessary and intimidating subpoenas.
Jeffrey, in turn, alleged that the jeweler sold Elizabeth several high-end pieces, including a $125,500 diamond and platinum chain, a $98,000 Georgian diamond necklace, and a $68,000 emerald-cut diamond bracelet, and suggested the jeweler likely knew about the alleged affair.
Elizabeth also claimed her husband "stalked" her and that he yelled at and followed her during one of their children's school events.
"Throughout these proceedings the husband has sent text messages . . . of naked photographs he has taken of her to harass and embarrass her," she claimed in court papers.
She also claimed that he stole her personal journal and photographed its contents.
"I had a loving and long-term relationship . . . a loving relationship with someone I have known for a long time and I had a miscarriage," she said of her relationship with Tawil during a July deposition.
The Leeds are now embroiled in legal battles across Florida, Wyoming, and Manhattan, as their deeply acrimonious breakup has stretched on for months.
The couple married in March 2012 in Manhattan, in a ceremony officiated by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. At the time, Jeffrey reportedly gave Elizabeth $1 million to spend as she pleased. His firm, Leeds Equity Partners, manages more than $4 billion in assets.
Jeffrey filed for divorce in Palm Beach, Florida, in January 2025. Just days later, Elizabeth — who had relocated to Wyoming with their two young children about four months earlier — filed her divorce.
