Leslie Wexner, the billionaire owner of Victoria’s Secret, has been revealed as the owner of one of England’s grandest country mansions, which he’s transformed into a £20 million ($30 million) gentleman’s shooting estate. Wexner, 78, who’s worth an estimated $7 billion, quietly acquired the 17th century manor, Foxcote House, in the Cotswolds nearly 20 years ago and has recently completed restoration work, the London Telegraph reports. He has also purchased surrounding land to increase the estate’s acreage. Once a year in October during pheasant season, the billionaire businessman and his friends and family arrive by helicopter to stage shooting parties in the best British tradition.
“The Wexners have spent a huge amount of money on the place,” neighbor Sarah Holman tells the paper. “But they have turned it into a glorified shooting lodge. It is not what I would have called fabulous inside…. Very few people go into the house,” she adds. “They have shooting lunches but not in the house itself. They use the old converted Catholic chapel, which is attached to the house. They fly people in from America to do the shooting. They fly in by private jet and then a huge helicopter. They are extremely nice but very, very private.” To ensure complete privacy Wexner has put a giant hedge around Foxcote House to shield it from prying eyes.
British Listed Buildings
In 1990 Wexner built an enormous $47 million mock-Georgian estate just outside Columbus, Ohio, and in the same year that he bought Foxcote, which has 11 bedrooms and five baths, he commissioned what was then the world’s largest private yacht. He is currently in the midst of a legal battle with UK auction house Bonhams over a classic 1954 Ferrari he bought at their Goodwood Festival of Speed sale last year. Wexner paid a record $16.5 million for the rare 375-Plus race car but later filed suit when he learned ownership of the car has been in dispute since 1997. Bonhams believed the dispute had been resolved but Wexner is demanding a refund and damages.
