Meet Ivy Getty, the 29-year-old heiress to the Getty oil fortune: the model just attended the Met Gala solo after splitting from Tobias Engel, and is close with Anya Taylor-Joy – and Nancy Pelosi
Surrounded by billionaires and other exclusive guests at the 2024 Met Gala on Monday, Ivy Love Getty fit right in.
The 29-year-old heiress, who wore an ankle-length, peach-coloured Conner Ives gown, graced the red carpet alongside some of America’s wealthiest stars, including Kim Kardashian, Jeff Bezos, Tom Ford and Wendi Deng.
Getty is a member of one of the richest – and most private – families in the country. While her personal net worth is unknown, Forbes estimated the Getty family’s fortune as a whole to be US$5.4 billion in 2015.
Here’s what we know about Ivy Getty’s life and the fortune she is set to inherit.
Ivy Getty’s great-grandfather made his first million by age 24
Jean Paul Getty, the son of oil millionaire George F. Getty, made his first million in the oil trading business by 24. By the time of his death in 1976, Jean Paul was worth around US$2 billion, or the equivalent of $11 billion in 2024.
Jean Paul was also infamously known for refusing to pay his grandson’s ransom of US$17 million after he was kidnapped by individuals linked to the Italian mafia. After a newspaper received John Paul Getty III’s severed ear in the mail, Jean Paul negotiated a ransom of US$2.2 million that led to his grandson’s release five months after being captured.
Ivy is the only child of Jean Paul Getty’s grandson, John Gilbert Getty
Ivy Getty was born on December 20, 1994, in San Francisco. Her mother is jewellery designer Alyssa Boothby.
Her father, John Gilbert Getty, died at the age of just 52 on November 20, 2020, from complications of an accidental drug overdose.
“I will forever be the proudest daughter,” she wrote in a tribute to her father on Instagram after his death.
Her grandfather’s secret family
She was raised by her grandparents Ann Getty and Gordon Getty at the family’s famed San Francisco mansion.
Gordon, a classical-music composer and winemaker, has a net worth of US$2.1 billion, according to Forbes. He was once the sole trustee of the family trust, but the fortune was broken up into six separate trusts in 1985, with Gordon receiving US$750 million, according to The New York Times.
Ann and Gordon were married for 56 years before she died in 2020. They had four sons together, including Ivy’s father. Gordon also has three daughters from what The Guardian called “a secret second family”.
Ann and Gordon’s home in the luxe neighbourhood of Pacific Heights featured views of the San Francisco Bay and was filled with a vast collection of priceless antiques, wallpapers and furnishings.
In 2022, an enormous collection of the house’s treasures, including artworks by Henri Matisse, was slated for auction. This sale garnered US$170 million, according to Christie’s.
Ivy grew up travelling the world
Thanks to her grandmother, Ivy got to travel the globe growing up.
“Education was very important to Ann, so each year she planned educational trips for Ivy and her school friends,” Jo Schuman, Ivy’s godmother and Ann’s best friend, told Magazine C.
“They would take the Getty jet to study art in Paris, learn about animal welfare on safari in Africa, exposing Ivy to the world and learning she loved. Ivy had a very cosmopolitan upbringing.”
Ivy Getty is a model
After attending Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, she moved to New York City to pursue a career in modelling. She is now signed with Ford Models and has had photo spreads in Town & Country magazine and Elle, according to her Instagram page, which has over 93,000 followers.
She frequently attends high-profile events such as Paris Fashion Week and the Met Gala.
Photos from Ivy’s social-media accounts show the heiress attending Paris and Milan Fashion Week events, as well as taking extravagant holidays to Positano, Italy, and St Moritz, a luxury alpine resort town in Switzerland.
Her star-studded wedding to Tobias Engel
In November 2021, Ivy married photographer Tobias Engel in a lavish star-studded ceremony. Ivy and Engel first met through a family member and started dating after reuniting at a Paris Fashion Week event.
“I saw this cute guy who was taking photos of the event and of me,” she told Vogue in November 2021. “I naturally went over and we started talking. Quickly we realised that we had met before, the year before.”
Engel later proposed with a sapphire engagement ring with diamonds added from a necklace once owned by Ivy’s grandmother.
For her opulent San Francisco wedding, Ivy wore a custom couture gown completely covered in broken mirror shards designed by John Galliano for Maison Margiela. Gordon, her grandfather, walked her down the aisle, and The Queen’s Gambit actress Anya Taylor-Joy served as maid of honour.
Nancy Pelosi, a Getty family friend, officiated the ceremony at San Francisco City Hall, while the reception was held at the Getty mansion. The total cost for the ceremony alone came to US$102,546, according to public records reviewed by The San Francisco Chronicle.
But just over two years later, she reportedly filed for divorce
US media reported in April this year that Getty had filed for divorce in January. Engel contested it in March. Citing a source, the report added that the couple had a prenup.
Getty appears to have removed images of Engel from most of her social media and notably made a solo appearance at this year’s Met Gala.
“Tobias was very sweet to her and everyone else but you didn’t feel any great passion there. They almost could have been siblings,” a source told US media in April.
She has an impressive property portfolio
In 2021, Getty admitted she owned multiple properties. These included a penthouse in Lower Manhattan, which was partially designed by her grandmother, and a flat in London.
The Manhattan penthouse was her primary residence with her husband.
Speaking to C Magazine in 2021, she said she and Engel had lived “so many different places,” but that the Getty mansion in San Francisco still holds a special place in her heart.
“My grandmother interior designed each room of the house which allows me to feel as if she is there with me,” she told Vogue in November 2021. “Her presence is everywhere in that home.”
This article originally appeared on Business Insider.
Additional reporting by Sumnima Kandangwa.
