Les Than Zero

les wexner
During the good times together, Wexner used Epstein as a proxy—to have the hard business conversations that the often shy, reserved Wexner did not want to have. Photo: AP Photo/Jay LaPrete
Lauren Sherman
February 2, 2026

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On Sunday morning, I joined the voyeurs searching through the latest tranche of released Epstein files—first running through various Line Sheet persons of interest, from Anna Wintour to Bernard Arnault, before turning to Leslie “Les” Wexner, the billionaire retail executive who helped make Jeffrey Epstein rich. Their relationship was arguably the most important of either man’s life. I spent a good amount of time reporting on it while co-writing a corporate history of one of Wexner’s companies, Victoria’s Secret, with my former colleague, Chantal Fernandez. But even after all those years of research, the true nature of their co-dependency remained a mystery to us and many people around them.