The estranged wife of a New Jersey billionaire locked in a staggering multibillion-dollar divorce battle once accused her son’s fencing coach of being her husband’s other woman, according to allegations in a now-dismissed lawsuit.
Laura Overdeck, 56, allegedly branded award-winning former fencer Lauren Phillips as her husband John Overdeck’s ‘paramour’ and blamed her for the collapse of their marriage, Phillips claimed in court papers filed in 2024.
Phillips, 40, whose fencing academy had taught one of the Overdecks’ three children for five years, alleged Laura told others that she was ‘the reason for the breakup’ of the couple’s marriage.
The extraordinary accusations have now resurfaced as John and Laura wage what is already the largest contested divorce in New Jersey history – with billions of dollars hanging in the balance.
Laura is seeking a share of her estranged husband’s interest in hedge fund Two Sigma that her lawyers have valued at as much as $6.2 billion.
She has already rejected a settlement offer of roughly $633 million, while John, 56, who Forbes estimates is worth around $8 billion, told the court Wednesday that his proposal was ‘fair and equitable.’
‘I also think it’s ample to support her,’ he testified.
But the bitter financial showdown is only the latest chapter in a marital breakdown that has produced extraordinary accusations both inside and outside the courtroom.
Laura Overdeck, 56, allegedly accused her son’s fencing coach, Lauren Phillips, 40, (above) of being her husband’s ‘paramour’ and blamed her for the breakdown of their marriage, according to a now-dismissed lawsuit
Billionaire hedge fund manager John Overdeck, 56, is locked in a bitter divorce battle with his estranged wife Laura after more than two decades of marriage
Phillips’ lawsuit, filed in Essex County Superior Court on Christmas Eve 2024 and obtained by the New York Post, claimed Laura repeatedly made damaging allegations about the fencing instructor to clients, friends and business associates.
It alleged Laura not only portrayed Phillips as the woman who had destroyed her marriage but accused her ‘of being a criminal who ‘threatens people with real knives.”
‘These statements have been repeated throughout the course of the year to Ms. Phillips’ other clients, friends and business associates,’ Phillips alleged in the lawsuit.
Phillips claimed the alleged comments threatened both her personal standing and the reputation of the prestigious fencing academy she owns in Millburn, New Jersey.
‘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,’ her lawsuit alleged.
It claimed Laura’s alleged statements had ‘affected and will continue to affect’ Phillips’ reputation and caused ‘a loss of good will and confidence in the community.’
But a judge dismissed Phillips’ lawsuit months later after she failed to follow through with the legal process.
John and Laura Overdeck, both 56, are facing off in the largest contested divorce in New Jersey history
John has an estimated net worth of $8 billion according to Forbes, he and his estranged wife lived in a $4million New Jersey mansion
Phillips attended the University of Pennsylvania, then Rutgers University in New Jersey before ultimately returning to Penn, and has spent 24 years as an instructor.
She claimed in her lawsuit that pupils she coached went on to secure prestigious fencing scholarships and even compete at the Olympics.
One of John and Laura’s three children trained at Phillips’ academy for five years, according to the suit – creating an extraordinary link between the coach and the couple whose marriage would later disintegrate.
And some of the accusations described by Phillips in her lawsuit appear to echo claims captured almost a year earlier when police were called to the Overdecks’ sprawling Short Hills home.
Body-camera footage from that encounter, which emerged this week, showed an unidentified woman speaking with officers outside the mansion.
John and Laura separately discussed the woman with police.
Laura can be heard delivering a blistering assessment of the situation.
‘Frankly, it’s not even that complicated. He’s got a psycho girlfriend, and he’s got to get out,’ she told officers.
Laura also accused the woman of having held her own family ‘at knife point.’
John, meanwhile, acknowledged to police that he was in what he described as a ‘dating’ relationship with the woman – while insisting it had never become sexual.
‘We are having a dating relationship, but we’ve never had sex,’ he told an officer.
He also maintained that the pair had never taken their clothes off.
The couple alongside the Governor of Maryland Wes Moore in 2019
Laura is seeking a multibillion-dollar share of John’s interest in Two Sigma, the hugely successful hedge fund he co-founded before their 2002 marriage
The identity of the woman shown in the footage was not established in the Post’s reporting.
However, the newspaper noted that several of the claims Laura made during the police encounter closely mirrored allegations Phillips later said had been made about her.
The resurfaced lawsuit adds yet another layer to a divorce already making the news for its enormous sums of money, allegations of secretive financial maneuvering and claims that Laura improperly accessed her husband’s private communications.
The couple married in 2002 and are now fighting over whether the phenomenal growth of Two Sigma during their marriage should translate into a multibillion-dollar payout for Laura.
John co-founded the quantitative hedge fund with David Siegel before the marriage.
His lawyers argue that because Two Sigma existed before John and Laura wed, his stake should not simply be treated as a marital asset.
‘The company had done substantial work and managed hundreds of millions of dollars before the parties’ marriage,’ John’s attorney Jonathan Wolfe told the court.
Laura’s legal team has presented a dramatically different picture.
Her attorney Therese Lyons argued that Two Sigma was little more than a ‘concept’ before the wedding and only began trading after the couple were married.
Staggering growth then followed. John testified that the business went from managing less than $1 billion in 2001 to around $80 billion today.
Laura wants 35 percent of the value of John’s interest in the company.
Her attorneys have placed that value at approximately $6.2 billion, while John’s side has calculated the figure at around $4.9 billion.
A victory anywhere close to the amount Laura is seeking could propel their breakup into the ranks of the most expensive divorces in American history, alongside the splits of Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott and Bill and Melinda Gates.
