An heir to the EssilorLuxottica fortune gave an extraordinary podcast interview in which he acknowledged his struggles with drugs, claimed to have slept with more than 2,000 women and said his billionaire father gave his children everything but love, sparking uproar in Italy.
Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio, the 31-year-old son of the Ray-Ban maker’s late founder, Leonardo Del Vecchio, made the remarks on Monday on a popular podcast hosted by Italian rapper Fedez, where he rejected the “nepo baby” label, branded most billionaires “idiots” and offered to sell one of his two yachts.
“Now I enjoy the yachts, the money, but when you are . . . 18 and you get kicked out of your house because my parents didn’t like my girlfriend”, it was tough, Del Vecchio said. “My father gave me his legacy, the money but not love,” he added.
Del Vecchio said he had been advised against the tell-all interview but hoped his candour would help others struggling with addiction. He credited fatherhood with helping him confront his drug use, while acknowledging an ongoing dependence on benzodiazepines, a class of prescription sedatives.
The revelations came weeks after Del Vecchio quit his executive roles at EssilorLuxottica and threatened to oust chief executive Francesco Milleri, his former mentor and his father’s chosen business heir, following a bitter feud.
“I’ve taken a step back from the company, but not as a shareholder,” he said.
“This isn’t about my relationship with Francesco . . . The point is that if he doesn’t deliver results, if EssilorLuxottica is down 50 per cent in one year, that company still bears the Del Vecchio name and I can’t just stand by and watch,” he added.
Milleri also chairs Delfin, the family holding company that owns more than 32 per cent of EssilorLuxottica.
Insiders said that recent events had left Milleri feeling that his efforts to guide Del Vecchio after his father’s death in 2022 had been in vain and uncertain how much more he could do to help him.
Del Vecchio said in the interview that Milleri should not “be sorry” about him, but “should be more nervous about his handling [of EssilorLuxottica]”.
The feud between Milleri and Del Vecchio spilled into the open this summer when Delfin’s board refused to back a loan of more than €10bn that would have allowed Del Vecchio to buy out two of his siblings, increasing his ownership of the family holding company from 12.5 to 37.5 per cent.
Luxembourg-based Delfin, whose net asset value has fallen to an estimated €40bn from close to €50bn at the end of 2025, is also a major shareholder in some of Italy’s largest financial institutions, including Monte dei Paschi di Siena and insurer Generali.
Last week, Delfin backed Intesa Sanpaolo’s more than €30bn takeover bid for MPS, in which it is the largest shareholder.
The Del Vecchio heirs have struggled to cash in their inheritance since the patriarch’s death in 2022.
The eight heirs, who own equal stakes in the holding company, have been embroiled in a series of disputes that have prevented them from changing Delfin’s dividend policy, which limits distributions to 10 per cent of its annual profits.
Del Vecchio, who has built his own investment business outside the family holding company, said he had amassed more than €1bn in debt to finance his ventures.
An occasional DJ, Del Vecchio has increasingly embraced the celebrity circuit, recently posting photographs with supermodel Naomi Campbell to social media.
He is also under investigation over a November 2025 Ferrari crash in Milan, after prosecutors alleged he left the scene and had a former security employee falsely claim to have been driving.
Del Vecchio said he had “not the faintest idea” how the case had evolved, adding: “But I still have my driving licence.”