Robert Miller for NY Post
A divorcing New Jersey billionaire’s gal pal was his son’s fencing coach — and once sued his wife for defamation, claiming the spouse insinuated she ruined their marriage, court papers show.
The revelations are just the latest bizarre twist in the sensational case involving what could potentially be the largest divorce settlement in New Jersey history — $6.2 billion — and one of the most expensive payouts involving a split in the US ever.
Lauren Phillips, 40 — an award-winning former UPenn and Rutgers University fencer — alleged in her 2024 lawsuit that Laura Overdeck, the soon-to-be ex-wife of hedge-fund savant John Overdeck, 56, publicly accused her of being her husband’s “paramour” and was “the reason for the breakup” of the Short Hills couple’s marriage.
The suit — exclusively obtained by The Post — also claimed that Laura Overdeck, a 56-year-old who shares three kids with her estranged hubby, accused Phillips “of being a criminal who ‘threatens people with real knives’” in a text message to her estranged husband.
“These statements have been repeated throughout the course of the year to Ms. Phillips’ other clients, friends and business associates,” said the suit filed by Phillips — a fencing coach who owns her own gym in Millburn — that Christmas Eve.
“The narrative painted by Defendant served additional purposes, namely, to smear Ms. Phillips and avoid potential media embarrassment resulting from Defendant’s high-profile divorce,” the suit said.
The “defamatory comments… were first contrived to avoid fallout from a contract dispute” regarding the fencing gym, the suit said.
The lawsuit claimed the chatty Laura Overdeck had “affected and will continue to affect” Phillips’ reputation — and, by proxy, her prestigious fencing school — causing “a loss of good will and confidence in the community.”
A judge tossed the Essex County Superior Court suit months later when Phillips failed to follow up with the legal process.
A rep for Phillips declined to comment. Neither of the Overdecks responded to requests for comment from The Post.
One of Overdeck’s three kids took fencing lessons for five years at Phillips’ academy, the suit claimed.
It added that her 24-year career as an instructor has sent some of her students getting top fencing scholarships and even worked with pupils who competed at the Olympics.
Some of what Phillips alleged in her lawsuit was referred to in body-camera footage taken nearly a year earlier outside of the Overdeck family’s mansion.
An unidentified woman is featured prominently in the footage, both speaking to cops during the house call and as a the subject of what the Overdecks each separately tell police.
Several claims made by Laura Overdeck at the time match perfectly with Phillips’ lawsuit.
“Frankly, it’s not even that complicated. He’s got a psycho girlfriend, and he’s got to get out,” Laura says in the footage referring to the woman, who she also accused of allegedly holding her own family “at knife point.”
The footage also depicts John admitting to being in a “dating” relationship with the woman, but claimed the two never had sex or ever took their clothes off.
“We are having a dating relationship, but we’ve never had sex,” he told one of the officers.
