Fashion designer Matt Nye began working for Ralph Lauren in 1990 and stayed there for four years; from 1994 to 1998 he was employed by Calvin Klein.
He is best known for his friendship with media mogul Jann Wenner. He was co-founder of the well-known cultural magazine Rolling Stone and editor of Men’s Journal.
Likewise, Wenner was an active member of the Free Speech Movement and co-founded Rolling Stone with Ralph J. Gleason in 1967. Here’s what we know about their families and their relationship as LGBT people.
Fashion designer Matt Nye Wikipedia: He founded his own label in 1998
Matt Nye is Jann Wenner’s business partner. He used to be a model and founded his own label in 1998. Bette Midler, Yoko Ono and other famous people attended his first show in 1999.
He also makes stylish clothing for men and women from many materials such as wool, melton, cashmere and mink. Nye was in the running for the 1995 Perry Ellis Award for men’s fashion.
Later in his career, his partner Wenner founded other magazines, including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
As a publisher and socialite, he has been the focus of discussions about Hall of Fame favoritism, the ending of his friendship with quirky journalist Hunter S. Thompson, and claims that the magazine’s reviews are biased.
Jann Wenner and his partner live in a $11.9 million mansion
Wenner and his design partner Matt Nye spent $11.9 million in 2009 to buy a 6,300-square-foot home in Montauk, New York. There are eight bedrooms and 6.5 bathrooms in the 1.5 acre oceanfront villa.
At the time of the sale, Jann owned at least five other properties, including a ranch in Sun Valley, Idaho, a ski condo there, a 9,030-square-foot brownstone in Manhattan, and a 6,540-square-foot townhouse there.
Additionally, in January 2010, his ex-wife Jane Wenner paid $17.57 million for his share of the Amagansett, New York, a home they shared in 1991 on a 11.6-acre oceanfront property.
She also invested $4 million in January 2010 to buy his interest in the Upper West Side townhouse they previously shared.
Wenner ditched his 28-year marriage to be with Matt Nye
Jann Wenner, the founder of Rolling Stone and owner of Us Weekly, has been sued for a divorce by his former wife Jane Wenner, 16 years after he caused a stir with his gay partner, former Calvin Klein model Matthew Nye, according to Page Six .
When the couple divorced in 1995, there were concerns that the split would jeopardize Wenner’s media empire, including Men’s Journal.
The Wenners never officially divorced despite living separate lives for nearly 20 years, and Jann and Nye eventually had children via surrogate.
It’s unclear what ultimately prompted Jane to seek a divorce. Still, some people think New York’s legalization of gay marriage, which allowed Jann and Nye to get married, may have played an important role.
Publisher Jann Wenner is older than Matt Nye
There could be an age difference of over five years or more between Jann Wenner and his partner Matt Nye, who appears to be in his late 50s.
Although Matt’s exact date and date of birth are unknown, his gay partner is 76 years old and was born on January 7, 1946 in New York, USA.
He grew up in a secular Jewish household. After his parents’ divorce in 1958, he and his sisters Kate and Merlyn were enrolled in boarding schools.
Her extended family includes three children: Noah and twins India Rose and Jude
Speaking of family, in 1995 Matt and Jann Wenner, who publish Rolling Stone, Us Weekly and Men’s Journal, became partners.
Although, oddly enough, Wenner never actually divorced his wife, Jane Schindelheim, who is still a part owner of his publishing empire, Wenner Media, their connection seemed monogamous and in excellent shape.
In 2006, Matt and Jann further cemented their union by conceiving a son through surrogacy, Noah. They also have twins named India Rose and Jude.
He also has three sons from a previous marriage: Edward Augustus, better known as Gus, who runs Wenner Media’s digital operations, Theodore “Theo” Simon, and Alexander Jann.
Early Years and Work
The son of Sim and Edward Wenner, Wenner was born in New York City.
He grew up in a Jewish family that was not religious.
In 1958 his parents divorced and he, Kate and Merlyn were sent to boarding schools. In 1963 he finished high school at the Chadwick School and then went to the University of California, Berkeley. Before leaving Berkeley in 1966, Wenner was involved in the Free Speech Movement and wrote the column “Something’s Happening” for the student newspaper The Daily Californian.
Ralph J. Gleason, a jazz critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, was Wenner’s mentor. With Gleason’s help, Wenner got a job at the high-circulation Muckraker Ramparts, where Gleason was an editor and Wenner worked on the magazine’s newspaper.
The media business
Wenner and Gleason founded Rolling Stone in San Francisco in 1967. Wenner received $7,500 from his family and the family of his future wife, Jane Schindelheim, to start the magazine.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Wenner was a big reason writers like Hunter S. Thompson, Ben Fong-Torres, Paul Nelson, Greil Marcus, Dave Marsh, Grover Lewis, Timothy Crouse, Timothy Ferris, Joe Klein, Cameron Crowe, Joe Eszterhas , and PJ O’Rourke became well known. When photographer Annie Leibovitz was 21 and a student at the San Francisco Art Institute, he found her. Many of Wenner’s supporters, like Crowe, say he gave them their best chance. Tom Wolfe said, “I was absolutely terrified of getting it done, so I decided to do it in a series, and Jann was the only editor crazy enough to do that.” This was in reference to his first novel, The Bonfire of the Vanities.
In 1977, Rolling Stone relocated from San Francisco to New York City, where it is now based. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, when Rolling Stone was slow to cover the rise of punk rock, and again in the 1990s, when Spin and Blender were better at reporting hip-hop, the magazine’s sales fell briefly return. Wenner hired former FHM editor Ed Needham, who was then replaced by Will Dana, to fix his main magazine. By 2006, Rolling Stone was selling 1.5 million copies every two weeks, an all-time high. The 1000th issue of Rolling Stone was released in May 2006. It had a 3D holographic cover designed to look like the cover of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album.
Wenner has helped with many Rolling Stone interviews, both in how they were done and in how they were written. Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry and Barack Obama were all interviewed by him for the magazine while running for office. In November 2005, he spoke to Bono about music and politics in an interview for the magazine. Wenner’s interview with Bono was nominated for a National Magazine Award.
Three books tell the story of Rolling Stone and Wenner: Gone Crazy and Back Again by Robert Sam Anson, Rolling Stone: The Uncensored History and Sticky Fingers: The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine by Joe Hagan. David Weir, formerly of Rolling Stone, and Lewis MacAdams, poet and Beat historian, both write biographies. In her book The Only Girl, Robin Green talks about her time with Rolling Stone.
Wenner founded Outside magazine in 1977. William Randolph Hearst III and Jack Ford both worked there before Wenner sold it a year later. He also briefly ran Look magazine and founded Family Life magazine in 1993. In 1985 he bought an issue of Us Weekly. The next year, he and The Walt Disney Company bought the magazine together. In 2000, the magazine switched from a monthly publication to a weekly publication. In August 2006, Wenner bought out Disney’s interest in the magazine. Today he owns the whole thing alone.
Between 2004 and 2006, Wenner gave about $63,000 to Democratic candidates and other liberal groups.
Advertising Age said in September 2016 that Wenner was in the process of selling 49% of Rolling Stone to a Singaporean company called BandLab Technologies. The new investor would have no direct influence on how the magazine is written. [20] Wenner began publishing Glixel, a website about video games, in October 2016.
In September 2017, Wenner Media announced that it had sold the final 51% of Rolling Stone. BandLab sold that stake to Penske Media Corporation, which then bought the remainder of BandLab’s shares.
Wenner became a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation in 1983. His work with the organization has caused him some troubles throughout his career. Fans and supporters of several artists give Wenner a lot of credit for not being inducted into the Hall of Fame. They say Wenner tried to keep her from being inducted into the Hall of Fame and nominated because he doesn’t like her or her music. One-hit wonders have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, but bands like Styx, Foreigner, Boston, REO Speedwagon, etc. that have had hits for decades have been left out.
Peter Tork, the Monkees’ bassist, told the New York Post in June 2007 that Wenner is leaving the group out:
“[Wenner] doesn’t care about the rules. He just does things the way he thinks is best. It’s an abuse of office. I don’t know if The Monkees should be inducted into the Hall of Fame, but it’s pretty clear we’re not in there for a whim.” Tork thinks Wenner doesn’t like The Monkees being cast as an actor for a TV sitcom, didn’t play their own instruments on their first two albums. “Jann seems to have taken it harder than anyone and now 40 years later everyone is asking, ‘What’s the big deal? Everyone else is doing it.” Now nobody cares but him. He thinks the moral choices he made in 1967 and 1968 should serve him in 2007.