Who Is Abigail Koppel? Everything To Know About Billionaire Les Wexner's Wife Whose Charity Received Millions From Jeffrey Epstein Scandal
What's going on with Abigail Koppel Wexner?
Getty Images Abigail Koppel Wexner was born in 1962 to Mr. and Mrs. Yehuda Koppel in New York. Her father opened the first ticket office in New York for El Al Israel Airlines.
She's best known for her charity work and marriage to the 413th richest person in the world, Les Wexner. Wexner was the financial advisee and friend of registered sex offender and accused sex trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein.
Everyone is wondering what the Wexners knew about all of this during their friendship. And with Netflix's new crime documentary about Epstein, called Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich, out now, people may finally get the answers they've been looking for surrounding Wexner's relationship with Epstein.
Who is Abigail Koppel Wexner, Lex Wexner's wife?
She's a horse fanatic.
Ms. Koppel Wexner loves horses! In fact, she trains them. She has won medals during the World Equestrian Games.
Wexner and her partner, Beezie Madden, buy horses and then train them. They are also in charge of hiring the jockeys to ride them. The team won a gold medal at the Athens Olympic Games, and took silver at the 2006 World Equestrian Games.
When asked when she began to ride horses, she said, “I was the typical young girl mad about ponies but never had the opportunity to ride, and also my financial circumstance wasn’t such that it would have allowed it, so I didn’t actually start riding until I was late into my teens.”
She was a lawyer.
Koppel has several degrees. She studied at the Barnard College at Columbia University, an all women's school where she graduated magna cum laude. She then got her law degree from New York University School of Law.
She practiced law in London and New York City with the law firm Davis Polk and Wardwell from 1987-1992. She then left her job to start the Columbus Coalition Against Family Violence.
She's been married for 26 years.
Koppel married Wexner in New Albany, Ohio. They were wed on January 23, 1993. At the time, he was 55 years old and she was 31 — an age gap of almost 25 years! They have four children — two girls and two boys. The billionaire couple still resides in Ohio.
She does a lot of charity work.
The Columbus Coalition Against Family Violence was founded by Koppel in 1998. It later merged with a similar foundation called The Center for Child and Family Advocacy at Nationwide Children's, and they became The Center for Family Safety and Healing.
Their website states, "The Center for Family Safety and Healing fully addresses all aspects of family violence, including child abuse and neglect, teen dating abuse, domestic violence and elder abuse, thanks to an impressive combination of public and private resources."
She was also a chair on the board of directors for the Nationwide Children's Hospital from 2005-2012. The hospital was named on the U.S. News & World Report's "America's Best Hospitals" list every year since Koppel got involved.
What happened with the Jeffrey Epstein scandal?
Epstein was a hedge-fund manager and claimed to be a billionaire, though that's being doubted. He was also a sex offender. He was accused and convicted of coercing girls as young as 14 years old into performing sexual acts in exchange for cash.
In 2008, he was convicted and sentenced to 18 months in jail, of which he only served 13. On July 8, 2019, Epstein was officially charged with one count of sex trafficking of a minor, and one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking.
The indictment stated, "Over the course of many years, Jeffrey Epstein, the defendant, sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls at his homes in Manhattan, New York, and Palm Beach, Florida, among other locations." Upon searching his New York home, he was found to have photographs of multiple nude underaged girls.
There are many high profile celebrities that were associated with defendant, including former President Bill Clinton and current President Donald Trump.
In August 2019, Epstein was found dead in his prison cell by apparant suicide.
How is Koppel Wexner involved with Epstein?
Epstein was a financial advisor (some say benefactor) and friend to Koppel's husband, Les Wexner. In 2007, after he was first convicted of sexual crimes with underaged girls, he donated $47 million to her charity the YLK charity fund, although it's still unclear what the fund was for. He's the sole donor to the fund.
People have recently been questioning how a woman who has dedicated her life to helping children and families who suffered from domestic and sexual violence could accept money from an accused pedophile.
Her husband released a statement in 2019 saying, “I would never have guessed that a person I employed more than a decade ago could have caused such pain to so many people. I have searched my soul... reflected... and regretted that my path ever crossed his.”
Netflix's Epstein documentary was recently released.
With the release of Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich, viewers were hoping to finally get some answers surrounding the mystery of Epstein's relationship with the Wexners. The film revealed that Epstein and Wexner may have met sometime in the 1980s and that, at some point, Wexner had granted Epstein power of attorney over his finances.
The docu-series presents Wexner as having an adoration for Epstein, while also being manipulated by him. The doc also dives into how Epstein was able to use Wexner to get access to more young women, since Wexner is the founder of the company that houses the Victoria's Secret brand. However, he recently stepped down from his position.
Epstein had also purchased his Manhattan mansion from Wexner in the 90s. He reportedly saw Wexner as a business partner.
There aren't any details about Wexner and Epstein's personal relationship, only their business one. However, the doc also revealed that Wexner had claimed Epstein had stolen 46 million from him.
In a 2019 speech, Wexner was quoted as saying that he was "taken advantage of by someone 'sick,' 'cunning' and 'depraved'," and that he was "'embarrassed' to have been around it."
Kaitlin Kaiser is a contributor who writes about entertainment and trending topics, as well as relationships, self-care, and spirituality.
Editor's Note: This article was originally posted in August 2019 and was updated with the latest information.