Behind the sleek sunglasses and effortless glamor inextricably linked with the Ray-Ban name lies a messy family feud that is anything but stylish. “My father gave us everything, but not love,” declared Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio, one of the heirs to the family empire in a podcast interview with Italian rapper Fedez that invited comparisons with the TV drama Succession.
As well as the revelations about his relationship with his father, the eccentric 31-year-old billionaire also boasted of sleeping with more than 2,000 women and owning two yachts, while joking that he had debts of around $1.1 billion. But it is his increasingly public dispute with Francesco Milleri, the man his father entrusted with running Ray-Ban’s owner, the Paris and Milan-based group EssilorLuxottica, that could have the most profound consequences.