Real estate brokers Carol E. Levy and Chris Lipman have the kind of apartment most New Yorkers can only dream of.
The dynamic blond mega-earner and the charming 6-foot-2 man she married in 1992 live in a palatial duplex at the Beresford on Central Park West, one of the city’s most prestigious addresses, once home to Rock Hudson and currently the residence of Jerry Seinfeld and John McEnroe.
The apartment itself was a labor of love: Limestone crown moldings and herringbone oak floors were added to enhance the 5,000-square-foot mansion with six bedrooms, two wood-burning fireplaces, sweeping terraces and park views.
But now, the custom-made winding entrance steps that Levy once referred to as “the staircase of our dreams’’ serves as a border between hostile camps.
The duo divorced in 2012, and though the split was far from amicable, Lipman lives on the 17th floor in the guest bedroom, surrounded by a media room and the sole kitchen, while Levy lives upstairs in the 18th-floor master suite with her new husband, Joel Goron. Levy and Lipman’s two teenage daughters also share the upper floor.
The exes intend to stay in this unorthodox situation until the sale of their marital home, which came onto the market for $24 million, and has been reduced to $18 million to speed the sale.
I have not allowed Chris’ presence and the fact that he’s not moved on with his life to stand in the way of moving full steam ahead with my life.
- Carol E. Levy on sharing a home with ex-husband Chris Lipman
“I have not allowed Chris’ presence and the fact that he’s not moved on with his life to stand in the way of moving full steam ahead with my life,’’ says Levy, who remarried in August and just had a baby on Sunday.
“He is like a squatter here, and I am the ultimate doer. He is an unwanted guest, and once the apartment sells, it’s all over.”
Levy and Lipman are just one of many couples in the city who are living together after their romantic relationships expire, mostly due to financial situations and the high cost of New York housing.
“The current scarcity of real estate options in New York City for people going through a litigated divorce often makes cohabitating the only viable option,” says Todd Spodek, divorce attorney and partner at Spodek Law Group in Tribeca.
“Plus, if you voluntarily move out and can support yourself, your claim for [spousal] support is diminished.”
Lipman had worked at his wife’s firm, Carol E. Levy Real Estate, but he says that once they filed for divorce, he was let go. The judge allotted him spousal support and placed the burden of mortgage and maintenance on Levy until their apartment is sold.
Lipman says he stays in the awkward environment because it allows him to be close to his daughters, and now that he is building a separate business, living rent-free in the Beresford eases his financial pressure.
He also says it is motivating Levy to sell the apartment, and he will get 45 percent of the profit.
But the atmosphere is far from rosy.
“I don’t want to be within 6 feet of her,’’ says Lipman, who makes it a point not to have guests when Levy is in town because of the tense atmosphere. “She tells the doormen to report back about my actions.”
Things should get even more bizarre this week, when Levy’s mother and other relatives come to stay and attend the bris of her new son.
“There is no love lost with my mother-in-law, so I will try and avoid that scene,” says Lipman.
As for Levy’s new husband, Joel Goron, he’s doing his best to take it in stride — despite the fact that he might run into Lipman when he goes to the kitchen for a cup of tea.
“I do not allow her ex’s presence to affect our incredible happiness in any way whatsoever,’’ Goron maintains. “He’s merely a speed bump in the road.”
Ten blocks south of the Beresford, things are far from harmonious at the three-bedroom, rent-controlled apartment of cellist Eugene Moye, a member of the American Symphony Orchestra, and his wife, Gail Kruvand, a bass player and member of the on-hiatus New York City Opera orchestra.
Two of the city’s premiere classical musicians, they play from nearby Lincoln Center to Carnegie Hall and often share the same stage, but after more than 20 years of marital life and two children together, the couple are getting divorced.
Until a settlement is reached, they are living separate lives under one roof.
“My wife and I don’t talk,’’ says Moye. “She still lives here, but we stay in different rooms and act like ships passing in the night. Our friends say the notion of she and I in the same apartment at this point is inhuman, but it’s been too expensive for Gail to find another place.”
Understandably, Kruvand is feeling the strain of their arrangement, and she won’t be able to finance a new apartment until her settlement money comes through.
“We are not living amicably,’’ she says. “As soon as we have a settlement, I am out of here.”
It is ill-advised to live with an ex … There is often some jealousy or resentment.
- Behavioral psychologist Stephen C. Josephson
Even under more congenial circumstances, living with an ex isn’t necessarily the wisest choice.
“It is ill-advised to live with an ex,’’ maintains behavioral psychologist Stephen C. Josephson. “Rarely do people have healthy happy endings, and unless both people are seeing others, there is often some jealousy or resentment.”
But some find sharing living space with a former mate to be a comfortable means of dealing with the high cost of life in New York.
Caroline Riley and her boyfriend Steven, who asked that his last name not be used for professional reasons, share the bedroom of their apartment near Yankee Stadium, even though they split up two years ago.
The pair have a 3-year-old daughter, who sleeps between them.
“Steven had a girlfriend for a while, but I’ve just been dating,” she says.
“The first year was very hard and stressful because he didn’t like when I had male friends, but we basically get along. Sometimes we argue and each one says ‘I want to leave,’ but this is convenient and it’s really too expensive to move.”
When Donna Lentol and her ex-boyfriend broke up three years ago, after dating on and off for 15 years, she never imagined that they would one day live together.
But soon after the split, she was told she needed surgery, and he offered to take care of her. She stayed at his West Village one-bedroom, and while she was recovering, the lease on her Noho studio apartment expired.
He suggested that she just stay on so they could share expenses, and she now occupies the bedroom, while he sleeps in the living room.
“We have cats together, and he’s the only one I trust with them,’’ explains Lentol, who works for Pet Chance TV, a company that installs TVs in pet clinics. As for their social lives, she says, “We have a don’t-ask, don’t-tell policy, and even though we are no longer romantically involved, neither of us would bring another date to this apartment.”
My wife and I don’t talk. She still lives here but we stay in different rooms and act like ships passing in the night.
- Eugene Moye, on living with his wife during divorce proceedings
Those dates don’t always understand the ex-couple’s living arrangement.
“It’s very delicate,’’ says Donna’s ex-boyfriend, who prefers to remain anonymous. “You are out in the world dating in a traditional way, and living in a very nontraditional situation. It doesn’t matter how you explain it, other girls just don’t get it.’’
One woman who found such an arrangement uncomfortable is Shiao Kao, a continuing-education student whose boyfriend’s former flame lived in the second bedroom of his Manhattan apartment. After three years of dating, the ex was still there.
“My boyfriend told me his friends were all jealous of his arrangement because he had someone to come home to and she paid half the bills,’’ says Kao. “This fall we had a dinner party at his apartment, and his ex acted like the hostess. That’s when we broke up.’’