Question of the Day - 20 January 2025

Steve Wynn, who turns 83 next Monday, has been on a roller coaster ride since 2018, when he resigned as CEO and chairman of Wynn Resorts after long-simmering allegations of sexual misconduct against him made their way into the public domain. He has denied the allegations.

Since then, he sold all his houses in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, paid a $10 million fine to Nevada gambling regulators, cut ties with the casino industry, and fought some court battles. (Wynn Resorts settled lawsuits with employees and shareholders.) 

Wynn married Elaine Pascal in 1963. They divorced in 1986, remarried in 1991, and divorced again in 2010; the second go-round was one of the largest divorce settlements in history; Mrs. Wynn wound up with nearly $750 million in stock in Wynn Resorts. Meanwhile, Wynn met Andrea Danenza Hissom, a British socialite 27 years his junior, on the French Riviera in 2008. At the time, he was still married to Elaine, though they were separated. Wynn and Hissom started dating, but didn’t take their relationship public until 2009. It was reported that Hissom was the reason Wynn went through with the divorce. Wynn and Hissom were married in a high-profile, lavish, three-day shindig at the Wynn in 2011 that cost millions. Clint Eastwood was the best man and the guest list included Garth Brooks, Lionel Ritchie, Trisha Yearwood, and 500 friends and family. Andrea wore a custom gown by Oscar de la Renta.

Wynn was a prominent donor to the Republican Party and served as the finance chair of the Republican National Committee from 2017 to 2018. He had to resign due to the allegations. But Wynn and Donald Trump are close friends and it was reported in September that Wynn had counseled Trump on his campaign strategies. 

Following his exit from Wynn Resorts and Las Vegas, the Wynns moved to Palm Beach, Florida, where he's dabbled in real estate and opened Wynn Fine Art Gallery Palm Beach in the Esplanade luxury retail center, just steps from the ocean on legendary Worth Avenue. There are also locations in Beverly Hills and New York and the main office is in Las Vegas. Appointments only and no non-collectors who can't afford multimillion-dollar art need apply.

Andrea Hissom is a well-known vegan and Wynn adopted the diet shortly after they met. As the story goes, he was impressed by how great his wife and other friends on a vegan diet were looking. 

Wynn rarely talks to the press anymore, but he made a statement on the day that the Mirage closed, in which he referred to his creation with the feminine pronoun, explaining, "Why feminine? As a structure, she was always about ideas and those ideas had a soft feminine quality in many ways. Visible between the towers, a round four-story atrium suggested the round midsection of a woman promising future life." He continued, “If you had a sense of humor, you would have understood the tremendous contradiction in the name. She was most definitely not a mirage, but a dazzling and commanding reality." He concluded, “So much depended on Lady Mirage. Almost 8,000 employees and their families depended on her. Siegfried & Roy depended on her, the dolphins and the kids depended on her, and it turns out the future of Las Vegas depended on her. What is so wonderful about this grand enterprise is that she did the job and she got it done for everybody.”