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These parties had a Koch and a smile.
America’s richest woman, Julia Koch, made a rare appearance on the Hamptons social circuit over the holiday weekend — after being mostly absent since 2019.
Koch — listed as the second wealthiest woman in the world by Forbes with an estimated net worth of $58.2 billion — was spotted at Washington Post heiress Lally Weymouth’s Fourth of July bash.
She hasn’t circulated socially since her husband, Koch Industries billionaire David Koch, passed away nearly four years ago.
This year, guests included Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Sen. Joe Manchin, Martha Stewart, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and former NYPD boss Ray Kelly, as well as Apollo Global Management CEO Leon Black, and a number of foreign dignitaries, we hear.
Sources said Weymouth’s kids were also at the bash that featured live music and went till midnight.
Koch, 61, was also spotted the next night at billionaire New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s holiday shindig.
Dave Matthews performed at the party for Kraft and his wife Dr. Dana Blumberg’s guests, also including Tom Brady, Kevin Hart, rapper Lil Baby and country crooner Kenny Chesney.
A Hamptons regular tells us they were surprised to see Koch, who has rarely been seen out at parties since her husband’s death in August 2019 at age 79.
In August 2020, the NY Post ran an article titled, “Julia Flesher Koch, NYC’s richest woman, has turned into a hermit in the Hamptons,” claiming she and her family had not left her $18.8 million Southampton mansion during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since then, it seems she has been selective about which functions she’ll attend.
In 2021 she was spotted at an event in Bridgehampton for NYU Langone Health.
In 2022 Koch — a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art — was pictured at a Met acquisitions gala, and also at an artsy, upscale Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art celebration.
She oversees the David H. Koch Foundation.
In 2022, Page Six reported that Koch picked up a historic estate in Southampton that was listed for a cool $75 million.
Sources told us at the time that Koch had plans to restore the historic property which included 500 feet of beach frontage and a total of 15 bedrooms.