The son of billionaire American Eagle Outfitters’ chairman — who was allegedly caught on tape slamming his then-pregnant wife as “unfit to be a mother” — and his spouse have split, court records show.
Jeffrey A. Schottenstein and Ariella Schottenstein have been locked in a legal battle since May 15, when she filed a contested matrimonial action against him in Manhattan Supreme Court.
This week, Jeffrey, 40, fired back with his own litigation against Ariella, 38.
The couple had a storybook start, with Jeffrey — whose dad Jay is the Columbus, Ohio-based retail magnate and chairman of DSW and American Eagle Outfitters — proposing to Ariella in March 2022 via a message on the company’s Times Square billboard.
About three months later, the pair tied the knot at Cipriani 25 Broadway, with none other than Lebron James in attendance, social media posts show.
The relationship apparently got rocky by May 2024, when Jeffrey Schottenstein made the nasty remarks about Ariella in a recorded phone call with the former family bodyguard.
Ariella fired the employee, Rock Pereira, days earlier, prompting Jeffrey to ring him.
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“Going to a doctor’s appointment three weeks before she’s pregnant and firing someone for no cause — that is unfit to be a mother in my eyes,” Schottenstein told Pereira of Ariella, according to a recording obtained from Pereira’s attorney.
“After the baby’s born, I’m gonna have to make — I will not let my kids see this fighting,” said Schottenstein, a principal at the family-led furniture business American Signature who was sued in 2019 for allegedly threatening his shrink, who accused Schottenstein in court filings of being addicted to various drugs he often did with hookers.
That case was later dropped in 2021.
Pereira, 46, filed a state Division of Human Rights complaint against Jeffrey and Ariella after he was fired. The status of Pereira’s case is unclear.
The Schottenstein family was worth a reported $2.7 billion in 2015, when Forbes named them one of America’s richest.
Lawyers for Jeffrey and Ariella did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
