going to kill me.” David granted her a monthly
$25,000 allowance, which she fought, claiming
she was used to spending $3 million annually,
itemising flowers at $400 a week, household
staff at $450,000 a year. She had a chef,
a driver, three nannies, three cleaners and
enjoyed “probably” 30 holidays a year.
Even after settling, the couple returned
to court with David claiming she had not
returned several artworks, a Ferrari and a
Porsche. (Mugrabi’s team said everything has
since been returned.) At one point, David
allegedly tried to evict Mugrabi from his
condo where she was living, saying she
hadn’t been paying her $30,000 monthly rent.
Mugrabi filed a police report accusing David
of trying to dump a damaged Warhol and
Basquiat on her. “You can’t help but think
it was a malicious act,” her lawyer said.
The fighting boosted a Covid-weary world’s
gaiety, but for Mugrabi it was hell. “I don’t
think you could ever judge anybody in a
divorce; it would be like judging someone if
one of their family died that day. It’s one of
the worst experiences. The kids are coming
to you, you’re in pain and they’re in pain. It’s
heart-wrenching.”
She starts to cry. “As a mother, you’re told
you’ll only have your child half the time. When
it comes to financials, your spouse is allowed to
take every single thing away from you and then
you have to wade through a distorted, long,
corrupted court system to try to get anything
back. He’s allowed to cut off your credit cards.
He’s allowed to leave you homeless. You have
to beg to get your phone bill paid.”
Now, she’s planning a free advisory service
for women going through divorce. “Because
I didn’t know what to do. My friends didn’t
know what to do. Like, we wouldn’t know to
start hiding money three months in advance.
Who does that? But somebody needs to really
tell you these things, besides your mum, so
you don’t feel like you’re being bombarded
and to really understand how to protect
yourself and your children. Because generally
speaking, when a man wants a divorce, he
does anything. Look at [Jeff] Bezos.”
David called Mugrabi a gold-digger, but,
she sniffs, “I was wealthy when I met David.
I gave him the money to join a golf club.”
Her grandfather was “the first plastic
surgeon in New York. He was the largest
collector in the world of Rolls-Royce cars.”
Her father, Charles Scher, is also a prolific car
collector and eminent plastic surgeon. Her
mother, Jane, a nurse, with a dog calledThe Times Magazine 57York have a very strong connection to it.
I mentored Sammy Cohen – daughter of
Michael Cohen, Trump’s lawyer – when her
dad went to jail and she goes, ‘Libbie, the
V&A is my dream. I went there every day
when I did a year abroad.’ I have not heard
these girls talking about any inspiration they
get from a New York museum. It’s the coolest
thing I’ve ever done in my life.”
Mugrabi pauses. “How come they asked
me to do it?”
Because she’s glamorous? “I am very
glamorous,” she agrees. “But there are many
other people they could have asked. Have
you heard of Lauren Santo Domingo?” She’s
referring to the former US Vogue staffer
and socialite.
Her style is – shall we say – more classic
than Mugrabi’s. “Yes. They’re not going to
want Lauren, because London’s hip. It’s the
coolest. And the people are funny. They have
a sense of humour.”
I mention that museums have struggled
further to find donors after a spotlight was
shone on one of their biggest benefactors,
the Sackler family, because of their heavy
involvement in the opioids crisis. Mugrabi’s
eyes narrow. “Jackie Sackler’s a good friend.
She’s a very nice lady. I couldn’t say a bad
word against Jackie.”
Mugrabi’s rake-skinny at 5ft 7in (she’s
complained that David was shorter than
her, so she couldn’t wear heels), with a tilted
nose, huge lips, tanned skin and longish
blonde-brown hair. She landed in London
at 6am, just a few hours before we meet.
She’d missed two flights she’d been booked on
because she’d been having dinner with David
and their 15-year-old daughter. But aren’t the
exes supposed to hate each other? “I’m very
close with my ex-husband. The guy is the
father of my children. It’s more than friends.
We’re like family.”
She’s visibly trembling as she embraces
me (New York’s fascination with her divorce,
similar to our fixation on Wagatha Christie,
has made her wary), but rapidly she warms
up as we try on the array of baseball caps
(“trucker caps”, she corrects) she’s designed,
available on her website in multiple bright
colours with slogans such as “Queen”, “F***
It” and “Bougie” for $125 each (all are
currently sold out). “They’re very pop art.”
They’re the first offering from Mugrabi’s
new apparel line, L’SCHER, from her maiden
name, Scher (“She wanted to call it ‘Libbie’,
but there was a trademark issue,” her
PR explains), which will soon expand to
encompass sweatshirts, keyrings, bags and
vibrators. “It’s going to be cool, fun accessory
fashion, mixed with chic.”
She gets even more excited showing me the
outfit she’s created from a £20,000 Balenciaga
dress she bought in Miami for the Timesphotoshoot, chopping it up in the changing
rooms to form four separate garments. Weren’t
the sales staff horrified? “No. They asked her
to design for them,” her PR says. “They didn’t
officially ask me; they asked if I would like to,”
Mugrabi corrects.
She wouldn’t, preferring life as a free
agent. Having helped her in-laws acquire
their billions, she’s now intent on reinventing
herself as a designer/philanthropist.
“Philanthropy’s always been big in my family.
In my religion, Judaism, God gives people
money to help the poor. It’s not to hoard it
away for themselves. I’m trying to educate my
children to do what’s true to my roots.”
It’s a refreshing outcome after some deeply
unpleasant years. These officially began in
2018 at the family’s nine-bedroom Hamptons
estate, when Mugrabi, mother of Mary, 15, and
Joseph, 13 (“And I’m Jewish!” she yelps when
I remark on the names. “But it was David’s
parents’ names and I’m a good rule-follower”)
discovered David, naked and asleep with his
head on the breast of an also naked brunette
in the TV room.
Divorce papers were served. The ensuing
two-year mudfest featured such highlights as
Mugrabi accusing David of removing at least
$180 million worth of art from their Hamptons
home before it was classified as assets, and
the couple “wrestling” over a $500,000 Keith
Haring sculpture she – in turn – tried to
remove from their townhouse, screaming at
her accompanying friend and sister, “He’s‘A GOLD-DIGGER? I WAS WEALTHY WHEN I MET
DAVID. I GAVE HIM MONEY TO JOIN A GOLF CLUB’
With her ex-husband in 2018GETTY IMAGES