Las Vegas casino tycoon Steve Wynn linked to British divorcee
By Paul Thompson
Last updated at 6:23 PM on 17th February 2009
Gambling mogul Steve Wynn is reported to have left his wife
US billionaire Steve Wynn is reported to have left his wife of 46 years for British divorcee Andrea Hissom.
The mother-of-two has been seen with Wynn, one of America’s richest men with a personal fortune estimated at over £3billion.
According to reports in the US, Wynn dumped his wife Elaine for Hissom after the pair were introduced at one of his casinos.
Under U.S. law Wynn’s wife, who divorced her husband in 1986 only to re-marry him five years later and helped build his casino empire, would be entitled to half his fortune.
Legal experts said the divorce would be the most expensive ever, eclipsing the £100million U.S. basketball star Michael Jordan paid his wife Juanita when they split.
Rumours about 67-year-old Wynn’s marriage surfaced at the opening gala of his latest five-star Vegas hotel Encore just before Christmas.
The Las Vegas casino tycoon’s wife and his daughter were seen crying at the launch for the £1.8billion hotel.
According to Las Vegas newspaper columnist Norm Clarke Wynn has moved out of the suite he and his wife shared at the Wynn hotel, one of six he owns in Vegas.
Hissom, an attractive blonde in her mid 40s, was formerly married to London-based investment broker Robert Davis Hissom and has two teenage children.
She is believed to be well known among London’s social set, and her Facebook page lists over 70 friends including financier Guy Dellal.
The New York Post reported that Hissom’s father is financier Victor Danenza, who fled to France in 1976 from the U.S. after being investigated by the FBI for fraudulent stock market deals.
Steve Wynn’s new Encore Hotel and Casino dominates the Las Vegas skyline
He was reportedly investigated by British authorities in 1992 for other fraudulent stock deals.
A spokesman for Wynn refused to comment on reports of the romance.
‘We never comment on Mr Wynn’s private life,’ said a spokesman.
But Vegas is buzzing with the news that Hissom is the new woman in his life.
Reports first surfaced several weeks ago that Wynn was now dating a ‘gorgeous British divorcee’.
She was later named by the New York Post newspaper and photos from her Facebook page have appeared on dozens on blogs reporting the romance.
Wynn, a billionaire property developer rated the 227th richest man in America, is credited with transforming Vegas in the 1990s.
His company developed The Mirage, Treasure Island, Bellagio and Wynn Hotels.
His latest hotel, Encore, which has 2,000 rooms and cost over £1.8billion to build, was opened amid an economic downturn that has hit casino owners in Vegas.
He also owns one of the biggest private art collections in the world, but two years ago suffered a costly mishap when he damaged one of his rare Picasso paintings.
Wynn had sold the Le Reve portrait to friend for just under £100m in 2006.
But as he showed off the portrait to friends for the last time, Wynn, who suffers from retinitis pigmentosa – an eye disease that affects peripheral vision, accidentally put his elbow through the canvas.
The sale was called off, but Wynn still came up trumps after suing his insurance company after they said the painting was now only worth half its valued amount.
The insurers settled out of court with Wynn reportedly pocketing over £30m -as well as keeping the painting which was revalued after its repair to over £100m.
He and his wife Elaine, who have two grown up children Kevyn and Gillian, first wed in 1963.
They divorced in 1986 but continued to live together and remarried five years later.
In 1993 his daughter Gillian was kidnapped and Wynn paid a ransom of over £750,000 for her safe return.
One of the kidnappers was arrested after he tried to use the ransom money to buy a Ferrari sports car in Newport Beach, California.
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