Billionaire playboy, 91, dies weeks after marrying sixth wife
A well known playboy who has “dated” a string of famous women, including Kim Kardashian, has died shortly after his sixth wedding.
A billionaire playboy who partied with A-listers and once paid to go on a date with Kim Kardashian has died shortly after marrying his sixth wife.
Austrian entrepreneur Richard Lugner has been confirmed dead aged 91 at his villa in Doebling, northwest of Vienna.
Lugner had only two months ago married Simone Reilaender, 49 years his junior, but was suffering severe back pain and exhaustion, The Sun reports.
Emergency services rushed to his home on Monday but were unable to revive him.
The tycoon gained fame through high-profile dates, paying huge sums to the likes of Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton to take his arm at swanky events.
He also partied with former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell and supermodel Grace Jones, who joined him at the annual Vienna Opera Ball.
The widowed Simone now runs his shopping mall in Vienna with Lugner saying just last week that she’d be the “sole boss” of his business empire.
He said: “My wife wears the pants now. She should support me actively. From now on, we will share my work.
“At some point, when I am no longer here, she will be the sole boss.”
In June, he was rushed to hospital with crippling back pain but brushed the incident aside, saying it was caused by a tough bike workout.
A month later on July 12, he was admitted to Vienna General Hospital with a ruptured heart valve.
Surgeons found his mitral heart valve was leaking, with blood consequently flowing the wrong way around his body.
Lugner’s funeral arrangements were already set, with the billionaire previously revealing he even had his gravestone ordered.
Lugner said: “I wanted to have everything arranged. My heirs should know what to do.”
Lugner married actress Simone at a star-studded ceremony in Vienna in June.
Newlywed Simone made it clear that their 49-year age difference didn’t hold them back on wedding night.
She boasted to local media: “We had a very long wedding night. Longer than the wedding day.”
Lugner was known as a big player in the construction industry before opening his first mall “Lugner City” in Vienna in 1990.
He attempted to move into politics twice as an independent – his first failed run coming in 1998, before a presidential crack that would’ve made Joe Biden proud in 2016 aged 84.
He ruled himself out of the political arena after drumming up just 2.26 per cent of the vote.
His first marriage lasted from 1961-1978, and his second from 1979 to 1983.
His third wife died aged just 34 years old due to complications after cosmetic nose surgery.
He tied the knot with his fourth wife, Christine Lugner, from 1991 to 2007.
In 2016 Lugner married Playboy model Cathy Schmitz – the pair had a 57-year age gap.
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Schmitz, known as the naked model Crazy Cathy, married the property and construction mogul when he was 81 at Vienna’s Schönbrunn palace.
She was just 24-years-old.
He leaves behind four children.
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