Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio, an heir to the Ray-Ban empire built by his late father, recently gave an extraordinary interview in which he acknowledged his struggles with drugs, claimed to have slept with more than 2,000 women and said his billionaire father gave his children everything but love. The 31-year-old billionaire , whose wealth exceeds $5 billion, made the remarks on Monday on a popular podcast hosted by Italian rapper Fedez.
He questioned the group’s direction and performance following the founder’s death in June 2022. The point is that if he doesn’t deliver results, if EssilorLuxottica is down 50 per cent in one year, that company still bears the Del Vecchio name and I can’t just stand by and watch,” he added. The conflict stems from the ownership structure established after Leonardo Del Vecchio, the billionaire founder of Luxottica, died in June 2022. The elder Del Vecchio left each of his eight heirs a 12.5% stake in Delfin, the family holding company that owns approximately 32.4% of EssilorLuxottica. His broader plan has been to increase his stake in Delfin from 12.5% to 37.5%, which would make him the holding company’s largest shareholder and potentially reshape the succession battle surrounding the eyewear empire. Del Vecchio has also disclosed approximately 950 million euros in debt, including around 500 million euros in personal borrowings, with the remainder linked to investments through his firm, LMDV Capital, Bloomberg reported.
The interview comes amid a bitter family dispute over the future of EssilorLuxottica, whose portfolio includes Ray-Ban, Oakley, Persol and LensCrafters. The company is also known for its partnership with Meta on AI-powered smart glasses. The personal revelations came alongside a sharp criticism of EssilorLuxottica’s leadership, intensifying the dispute over control of the business founded by his father. Del Vecchio stepped down as chief strategy officer of EssilorLuxottica and president of Ray-Ban over the summer, saying he wanted to devote himself to new entrepreneurial projects. He has since criticised chief executive Francesco Milleri, whom his father had hand-picked to lead the company. “This isn’t about my relationship with Francesco . . . Delfin also holds significant stakes in financial institutions, including UniCredit and Monte dei Paschi di Siena. The arrangement was intended to maintain a balance among the heirs, but it has also meant that major decisions require broad consensus.
