How Alex Soros revamped playboy image to beat brother to father’s $25B

Before Alexander Soros was unveiled as the successor to his father’s $25billion empire of influence, he earned a reputation as a Hamptons rich kid whose antics were once described as an ’embarrassment within the family’.

He spent the summer of 2008 at George Soros’ sweeping estate in the wealthy enclave, drinking, partying on the family boat and ‘making out with babes’ – then boasted about the romp on Facebook.

A few years later, in 2016, Alex rented an $85million mansion in the Hamptons and hosted models, music executives and NBA stars, in between meetings with then-President Barack Obama.

Such garish displays of wealth made the idea he’d inherit his father’s philanthropic empire, which pumps billions into socialist causes, seem unthinkable. Surely that responsibility would fall to his older brother, Jonathan, a clean-cut Harvard graduate with a far milder reputation.

But on Sunday, it was confirmed Alex had become Crown Prince of the Soros dynasty.

Alex’s transformation from the playboy son of a billionaire to one of the world’s most powerful political influencers started after 2008, when his Hamptons partying was thrust into the spotlight.

Photos Alex shared to his public Facebook page were picked up by Cityfile.com, a New York lifestyle website dedicated to the antics of socialites.

Under the headline ‘Children of Privilege’, the article revealed: ‘Alex graduated from NYU in May, but he certainly hasn’t been spending the summer in search of a job. He’s been chilling at dad’s house in Southampton, drinking 40s while cruising on the family boat, and making out with the babes at places like La Playa and Pink Elephant.’

Most of the pictures unearthed by Cityfile have disappeared from the internet, but one remains.

Alex is on a nightclub dancefloor with his face screwed into a pout. A male friend, wearing a beach hat and clutching a cigarette, plants a kiss on the Soros heir’s cheek.

Cityfile added: ‘He’s still listing himself as ‘unemployed’ on his Facebook page, but we’re sure that will change once Daddy gets involved.

‘A job working for Obama? A corner office at his dad’s famed hedge fund? Keep your eye on this kid: He’s going places!’

Alex’s Facebook page was made private shortly after. Four years later, a New York Times profile of Alex characterized the incident as ‘an embarrassment within the family, but also a lesson’.

The NYT piece, published in July 2012, appears to have marked the beginning of a public campaign to reframe Alex as a reformed party boy fit to bear the family name.

The piece opened with the nauseating line: ‘Maybe you can be too rich.’

‘After wrestling with his moneyed upbringing, Mr. Soros, now 26, is taking the stage on his own terms, though in a direction his father clearly approves: philanthropy,’ it continued.

He launched the Alexander Soros Foundation to promote social justice and human rights. It’s given millions of dollars to causes including environmentalism and education.

But as Alex reinvented himself as a philanthropist in his own right, while pursuing a PhD at University of California, Berkeley, he continued to lead a luxury lifestyle – and document it on social media.

In 2016, Alex was in the Hamptons again. This time, he opted against his father’s estate and instead rented the $85million Villa Maria, formerly owned by the late footwear designer Vince Camuto.

That summer, he welcomed guests from former NBA star Joakim Noah and music mogul Scooter Braun to fashion designer Maxwell Osborne, a longtime friend.

Soros and his pals dubbed the mansion ‘Camp Soros’. In one Instagram post, a group of bikini-clad women are gathered around a luxury swimming pool filled with rubber duck inflatables. 

In another, Alex, Braun, ex-Chicago Bulls star Jay Williams and other friends are shown enjoying a lobster dinner, surrounded by cocktails. 

Maxwell said in 2016 that Alex was ‘the best host… But there’s always a moment when he… disappears to do work.’

At the time, Alex was writing his PhD, ‘Jewish Dionysus: Heine, Nietzsche and the Politics of Literature’. 

As time passed, George’s frequent posts to Instagram switched from mansions and celebrities to titans of the global elite, from Barack Obama to, more recently, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

He’s also grown closer to his father, after a difficult childhood. Alex told the NYT in 2012 that he was ‘very angry’ at Soros. ‘I felt unwanted. He had a very hard time communicating love, and he was never really around.’

In recent years, he’s proudly shared photos with his father, including some taken at their many meetings with political leaders such as Nancy Pelosi.  

Jonathan, who is now removed from his father’s affairs, said he was ‘disappointed but not regretful’ of the decision to appoint his younger brother as head of their father’s influential Open Society Foundation (OSF), a huge backer of liberal causes.

The saga is reminiscent of the TV show ‘Succession,’ which saw a family fight for control of a media empire and featured the children scheming to run the company.

Alex has now said he will use his new influence to champion issues such as reproductive and voting rights.

Soros, a hedge fund manager turned philanthropist and major backer of liberal causes, was born in Hungary in 1930 and has five children with two women.

He made his fortune as a prominent hedge fund investor and notably made around $1 billion after betting against the British pound in 1992.

Though the 92-year-old once said he did not want OSF to be handed over to one of his children, insiders have said they thought Jonathan was the likely heir, thanks in part to his age and experience.

‘I expected Jonathan to be the one,’ said Aryeh Neier, president of Open Society Foundations from 1993 to 2012. 

Even Jonathan had once expected to take over from his father, but later admitted  that he ‘always knew [George Soros] could change his mind’.

‘As a trader, it’s the thing he’s most famous for,’ he said.

Jonathan boasts a far less colorful personal life than Alex, and most mentions of him across the internet refer to his former role at Soros Fund Management and later as founder of his own firm – nothing like the headlines which have dogged his younger brother.

Jonathan is one of George’s three children with Annaliese Soros, who split with George when Jonathan was around seven. 

In 1997, Jonathan married Jennifer Allan, a social worker who he’d met five years earlier while they both worked on the Clinton-Gore White House campaign. Soros worked on the inaugural and campaign committees.

The couple took out a wedding announcement in the New York Times which said Allan’s father was a former Navy Reserve captain who became a partner at a law firm. Her mother was then a professor at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio.

The announcement gave little indication of the power and influence wielded by Jonathan’s father, adding simply: ‘The bridegroom’s father is the chairman of Soros Fund Management, the investment concern in New York, and of the Open Society Institute, a research and advocacy organization.’

Jonathan studied at Wesleyan University in Connecticut and graduated in 1992, after which he worked at a Soros foundation office in Hungary, then gained degrees in law and public policy from Harvard.

He joined the Soros investment firm in 2002 and served as deputy chairman before he left in 2011 and founded JS Capital Management. 

Jonathan, who is tall and athletic, would once play tennis with his father and helped to stabilize the Soros hedge fund during trying times.

But their business relationship was troubled at times and George has admitted they ‘didn’t get on at certain points’.

‘That became evident to both of us, particularly to him, and he wanted to be out on his own,’ Soros said.

George’s $25billion empire was publicly handed over to Alex in an announcement through the Wall Street Journal on Sunday.

The 37-year-old told the newspaper he planned to broaden his father’s woke aims, as well as embrace different causes like voting and abortion rights.

‘I’m more political,’ Alex said, when comparing himself to his father. He has already visited the White House 14 times in just over a year and met with big-name Democrats.

Speaking about his goals, Alex said he was concerned about the possibility of Donald Trump returning to the White House — suggesting the family will contribute greatly to Democrats in the 2024 presidential election.

He later added: ‘As much as I would love to get money out of politics, as long as the other side is doing it, we will have to do it, too.’