Jeff Soffer has a billion dollar business empire, a supermodel wife, and now a big scandal on his hands.
The Florida businessman is being linked to actress Gwyneth Paltrow, with reports saying the two are having an affair. The news comes just a few months after Soffer married supermodel Elle Macpherson in a ceremony in Fiji.
The nature of their relationship will be explored in a feature Vanity Fair is planning to run, one that insiders say has Gwyneth a big spooked. She reportedly wrote to friends asking that if they are contacted for quotes for the story to “please decline.”
The 41-year-old actress has two children with husband Chris Martin, the frontman for the band Coldplay. But in recent years she has also grown close to Soffer, a 43-year-old billionaire who reopened the Fontainebleau hotel in Miami.
Gwyneth Paltrow is already pouncing on the story , with a spokesman suggesting that that rumors of the affair are a lie and that Jeff Soffer is just a friend, nothing more.
“It’s completely false,” a spokesperson told the UK’s Daily Mail . “Jeff is a longtime friend of Gwyneth’s and there was no romantic relationship with him at all.”
Soffer has been much quieter, however, not yet commenting on the story or the claim he had an affair with Paltrow.
The affair claims appear to center around a 2008 party Soffer threw in Miami when he reopened the hotel. Reports say he flew Gwyneth in for the event, and the two were spotted cozying up during the party. Gwyneth allegedly then spent the night at Jeff’s house.
But again, reps for the actress deny the claim.
“He flew many of his friends to Miami that weekend — not just Gwyneth,” the actress’ rep explained.
Vanity Fair is already standing but the story, with editor-in-chief Graydon Carter telling the New York Post’s Page Six that they are confident in the reporting and plan to run the story.
Jeff Soffer has been no stranger to controversy. He has been accused of siphoning millions of dollars from his real estate business to support a lavish lifestyle, which includes a $170 million yacht and a $2 million party he threw for his 40th birthday.