{"id":583914,"date":"2026-08-13T23:04:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T23:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/583914\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T23:04:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T23:04:16","slug":"bob-iger-josh-kushners-wives-relationship-led-to-lakers-sale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/583914\/","title":{"rendered":"Bob Iger, Josh Kushner’s wives’ relationship led to Lakers sale"},"content":{"rendered":"

The bond that brought new Los Angeles Lakers owners Bob Iger and Josh Kushner together<\/a> did not necessarily involve dollar signs, spreadsheets or investment opportunities.<\/p>\n

It was actually their wives.<\/p>\n

Karlie Kloss\u2019 relationship with Willow Bay<\/a> is what initially ignited the friendship between Iger and Kushner, according to The Seattle Times.<\/p>\n

Model Karlie Kloss, wearing a purple evening dress with sandals, and boyfriend Josh Kushner leave for the Time 100 Gala in New York City Christopher Peterso\/Splash News<\/p>\n

The outlet reported on Thursday that Kloss, the 34-year-old wife of Kushner<\/a>, and Bay, Iger\u2019s 62-year-old spouse who\u2019s now the dean of\u00a0USC\u2019s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, had a meeting several years ago that ultimately brought Iger and Kushner together.<\/p>\n

In 2018, Kloss, a supermodel, reached out to Bay, a former model, about Est\u00e9e Lauder, according to the report. Kloss had been gearing up to become a spokesperson for the brand, and wanted to pick Bay\u2019s brain after she had worked for the cosmetics company years prior.<\/p>\n

Willow Bay (left) and Bob Iger, CEO of the Walt Disney Company, attend the 95th Annual Academy Awards on Sunday, March 12, 2023, in Hollywood, California. (WireImage) WireImage<\/p>\n

Soon after, Kloss turned to Iger, then-Disney\u2019s CEO, and asked if he wouldn\u2019t mind having a chat with Kushner, her business-minded significant other<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think she thought he would benefit from some of my wisdom,\u201d Iger told the Seattle Times.<\/p>\n

Following their meetup, Iger admitted he took to Kushner \u201cright away.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHumble, extremely smart, easy to connect with,\u201d the 75-year-old Iger said of the 41-year-old Kushner. \u201cI quickly learned that he has a lot of wisdom of his own.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since that meeting, Iger and Kushner went from acquaintances to friends to business partners to eventual Lakers owners.<\/p>\n

Bob Iger, former chief executive officer of The Walt Disney Co., left, Willow Bay, dean of the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism, center, and model Karlie Kloss attend the Allen & Co. Media and Technology Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, on Friday, July 10, 2026. The event brings together many of the biggest names in AI, media and technology. (Bloomberg) Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Seattle Times reported the deal for the duo to purchase the iconic NBA franchise from Mark Walter began last Friday. On Wednesday, they scored the team from Walter for a staggering $12.5 billion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs lifelong NBA fans,\u201d Iger and Kushner said in a statement following the consummation of the deal, \u201cwe are deeply honored for the opportunity to become stewards of the Los Angeles Lakers, one of the most iconic sports franchises in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The bond that brought new Los Angeles Lakers owners Bob Iger and Josh Kushner together did not necessarily…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583915,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[28832,4670,458,146,85,46,239905,194274,40454,47352,105],"class_list":["post-583914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-bob-iger","tag-california","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-josh-kushner","tag-karlie-kloss","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}