Who

The third wife of financier Henry Kravis, Marie-Josée is a Canadian-born economist, political activist and philanthropist.

Backstory

Marie-Josée Drouin was a young star economist in her native Canada in the 1970s and '80s, making her name as head of the Canadian branch of conservative think tank the Hudson Institute. A glamorous figure on the political social scene, by the latter part of the '80s she was a columnist for the Financial Post, a confidante to some of Canada's most powerful corporate chieftains and politicos, and a board member at several of Canada's biggest companies. Married to her second husband at the time—Charles Dutoit, the conductor of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra—she met the man who would be her third husband, buyout king Henry Kravis, in the early 1990s. By 1993, she'd settled in New York; the following year, the couple wed. Since then, she's become a lofty figure on the New York political and philanthropic scene, serving on the boards of several companies, working with the Hudson Institute as a senior fellow, and lavishing millions of her husband's dollars on various causes.

Keeping score

Kravis's husband is worth $5.5 billion according to Forbes, making him the 57th richest man in America.

Pet causes

Marie-Josée sits on the board of—and donates money to—a number of organizations around town. She's the president of the board of the Museum of Modern Art. She also sits on the board Memorial Sloan-Kettering and the hedge fund-heavy Robin Hood Foundation. In recent years, she and her husband have donated more than $30 million to Mount Sinai (including a donation of $15 million that went to support Dr. Valentin Fuster's heart institute); the couple has also handed over millions to the Metropolitan Museum in recent years. Marie-Josée makes major political donations, too. A longtime conservative, she funds a variety of right-wing political causes, donates substantially to the RNC, and has given generously to the presidential campaigns of George Bush and John McCain.

Drama

Kravis once sat on the board of Hollinger International, the media company formerly controlled by Conrad Black. Her involvement with the company thrust her into the spotlight when she was forced to take the stand at Black's trial for fraud and obstruction of justice. The episode was an embarrassing turn of events for Kravis (and she may still possibly face lawsuits from shareholders for failing to spot the corporate malfeasance). But she's since given up the seats she had on several other corporate boards, including Ford, Vivendi, and Barry Diller's IAC. It's not the first time she's been the unwilling subject of attention, though. As a 27-year-old employee of the Hudson Institute in 1976, she was exposed for having an affair with Jean-Pierre Goyer, a cabinet minister for whom she had previously worked as an executive assistant.

Personal

Marie-Josée and Henry live in a Park Avenue triplex penthouse that features six bedrooms, circular staircases, wood-burning fireplaces in every room, and one of the largest living rooms in town. (It's an apartment that, in the words of author James Trager, "No other penthouse on the Avenue can match.") In January 2007, the Kravises plunked down a record $50 million for a property in Palm Beach. They also have a weekend home in Southampton, a ranch in Colorado, and an apartment in Paris.