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A Miracle on 62nd Street

A previously unreported health mitzvah may explain Ronald Perelman’s apparent Zen mind state in recent years, as the man who used to be the richest person in the U.S. recasts his empire.

Ron Perelman
A few years ago, I spoke with one of Ronald’s close friends who told me that he had had “some health issues over the last decade” but that he was also “one of the greatest non-complainers I have ever met,” despite his medical issues. Photo: Gotham/GC Images
William D. Cohan
October 13, 2024

Among the many mysteries still swirling around the fallen billionaire Ron Perelman—Why five wives? Why sell every material possession that’s not nailed down?—are those about his health. While he’s only 81—his father Raymond, also a wealthy buyout pioneer, lived to be 101—the rare media profiles about Ronald always seem to bring up the subject. For instance, in Jacob Bernstein’s 2022 piece about him in The New York Times, he wrote that even Ronald’s friends wondered if he was sick. “They’d seen him looking gaunt,” Bernstein wrote. “He was walking with a cane.”