Hedge funder Kevin Ulrich, whose New York investment firm Anchorage Capital Group is the largest owner of Hollywood studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, is getting a divorce from his interior designer wife, Laura Santos.
Ulrich has just paid Santos more than $21.5 million to buy out her share of their Downing Street home, a gorgeous double townhouse in Greenwich Village, and their apartment on Wooster Street.
According to public records, Ulrich — who manages a $16 billion fund at Anchorage — bought Santos’ share of their combined two townhouses for $16,331,697. The couple bought the two houses in 2012 for $26.8 million and combined them. An Architectural Digest spread from last year breathlessly describes the combined home as “a 21st-century interpretation of a Beaux Art mansion.”
Ulrich also bought Santos’ share of their apartment on Wooster Street, paying her $5,181,000. (They bought it for $10 million in 2014.) She sold her share of both properties under the name of her divorce attorney Adria S. Hillman, who did not return a request for comment. The unusual move sparked one real estate source to say, “That is an interesting way to handle things.”
We are told the glamorous couple, who are regulars on movie-premiere red carpets, have separated after a little more than 10 years of marriage, but have yet to formally file for divorce. A source close to the situation insists “things are amicable, and they are formally dividing their assets.”
Santos is described by Architectural Digest as a “rising star decorator” and runs her own company, Laura Santos Interiors. She also established interior design company Santos Weingort last year.
Ulrich, whose firm owns 30 percent of MGM, has been betting on the performance of blockbusters like the upcoming Bond film, as well as its TV assets. He previously ran the proprietary debt-trading operation at Goldman Sachs and founded Anchorage in 2003. Anchorage is also a debt holder in the troubled Relativity Media, which is struggling to make a $320 million overdue debt payment. His rep declined to comment.