Billionaire Charles Koch’s heiress daughter has come under furious fire after lamenting the many traumas of her privileged upbringing in a ‘pathetic’ interview with the New York Times – while also touting her own woo woo ‘Perception Box’ therapy that she claims allowed her to overcome the ‘internal conflict’ caused as a result of her family’s wealth.
Elizabeth Koch, 47, who grew up in in a $13 million mansion in Wichita, Kansas, spoke to the Times about the trauma she faced thanks to her wealthy upbringing, and her comments sparked fierce fury from social media users who branded the outlet as ’embarrassing’ and ‘humiliating’ for giving the billionaires a platform ‘to rehabilitate their public images.’
Elizabeth stated that being around so much money as a kid left her severely damaged, thanks to the deep ‘fear’ she developed over being judged for her riches and her long-lasting struggle to impress her powerful father.
While the heiress spoke negatively about the impact that her dad’s riches have had on her – she has certainly enjoyed some of the perks that come with being the daughter of a billionaire over the years.
Billionaire Charles Koch’s heiress daughter has revealed that growing up in her privileged family left her with depression, OCD, and an eating disorder
Elizabeth Koch, 47, who grew up in in a $13 million mansion in Wichita, Kansas, spoke out about the trauma she faced thanks to her wealthy upbringing in a new interview. Her dad is seen
Elizabeth that being around so much money as a kid left her severely damaged, thanks to the deep ‘fear’ she developed over being judged for her riches and her struggle to impress her dad
She attended an Ivy League college – Princeton – and often jets off on lavish getaways (most recently, she visited Bali with her husband, a biotech entrepreneur named Jason Kakoyiannis) – but when the Times asked her how much money she has inherited, she replied ‘no comment.’
According to the now-47-year-old she knew her family was well-off from as long as she could remember, despite her ‘beloved’ parents’ attempts to not raise her and her brother as ‘spoiled pieces of [s**t].’
From a young age, Elizabeth said she worried that people would dislike her due to her ‘privilege,’ and when her classmates started to treat her ‘differently,’ she said it resulted in her becoming severely insecure.
‘It’s not like growing up in New York City, where a lot of people are wealthy,’ she explained.
‘We were very different in Wichita. I had so much fear that people would hate me. I heard about [my wealth] a lot, and I could see how other people responded to us.
‘I sensed it everywhere. I didn’t get that it was about the family. I just [assumed] that it was about me, so I must be bad.’
She said she got ‘trapped’ in a spiral of ‘feeling like she was never good enough’, while also struggling ‘please’ her ‘daddy.’
Charles, now 87, who as of January 2023, had a reported net worth of $68 billion and was ranked as the 14th richest person in the world per Bloomberg, is the co-owner and CEO of the massive oil company Koch Industries – which is now the largest privately held company in the US.
Her comments sparked fierce fury from social media users who branded the outlet as ’embarrassing’ for giving the billionaires a platform ‘to rehabilitate their public images’
He and his late brother, David Koch, inherited it from their father, Fred Koch, in 1967, and went on to expand it to manufacture a series of other things like petroleum, energy, fiber, minerals, fertilizer, paper, and pollution control equipment.
Charles, now 87, who as of January 2023, had a reported net worth of $68 billion and was ranked as the 14th richest person in the world per Bloomberg , is the co-owner and CEO of the massive oil company Koch Industries
The brothers are also known for making a series of mega donations to Republican politicians over the years – and have been among the biggest donors to the GOP since the 1980s.
Despite the pressure that Elizabeth felt to live up to her father’s enormous reputation, Elizabeth insisted that it wasn’t his fault.
‘There is no blame there. I was just confused, and I was putting things together in a really distorted way,’ she explained. ‘And then I had so much shame about it that I couldn’t talk about it.’
The Times reported that Elizabeth’s wealthy upbringing left her with ‘depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and an eating disorder,’ adding that she was ‘driven to the brink of insanity by her last name.’
In a 2007 essay for Smith Magazine, she described her childhood as filled with ‘panic attacks and meltdowns and doctors and pharmaceuticals.’
He and his late brother, David Koch, inherited it from their father, Fred Koch, in 1967, and went on to expand it to manufacture a series of other things like petroleum, energy, and minerals
The brothers are also known for making a series of mega donations to Republican politicians over the years – and have been among the biggest donors to the GOP since the 1980s
From a young age, Elizabeth said she worried that people would dislike her due to her ‘privilege,’ which resulted in her becoming severely insecure
She went through a phase of using psychedelic drugs – she flew to Peru to try ayahuasca – and she even spent time ‘in a mental institution.’
‘[I would stare] down that dark well of, “Nothing you do will ever be good enough you privileged waste of flesh,”‘ she wrote.
She said she got ‘trapped’ in a spiral of ‘feeling like she was never good enough’, while also struggling ‘please’ her ‘daddy’
But Elizabeth told the Times she has since ‘done a lot of work’ in an attempt to heal from her past.
In 2021, she launched a nonprofit organization called Unlikely Collaborator, which is dedicated to ‘provoking powerful acceptance of self and others’ in people, and ‘untangling the stories that hold us back – as individuals, communities, nations, and humanity at large,’ according to its website.
It’s built around the concept of a something she calls the ‘Perception Box.’
‘We all live inside an invisible but ever-present mental box – a Perception Box,’ she told the publication.
‘This box distorts our perceptions of everything and everyone around us. It distorts our ability to understand other people, to see them clearly, to connect with them. And it distorts our ability to really even know ourselves.
‘Most of the external conflict, messiness and miscommunication in the world – in corporations, in relationships, in families, in every aspect of our lives – is caused by internal conflict.
‘And most of the internal conflict is caused by unconscious beliefs that we have been carrying around since we are very young – like zero to five – and that we project on everyone around us.’
While the heiress spoke negatively about the impact that her dad’s riches have had on her – she has certainly enjoyed some of the perks that come with being the daughter of a billionaire
In 2021, she launched a nonprofit organization called Unlikely Collaborator, which is dedicated to ‘provoking powerful acceptance of self and others’ in people
Unlikely Collaborators tries to ‘get people to stop signaling, bragging, fronting, and masking who they really are and just get real with one another’ by holding workshops and lectures. Elizabeth also has plans to someday release books and movies on the topic.
In an email to the Times, Charles said he was ‘delighted’ and ‘couldn’t be more proud’ that his daughter had ‘dedicated her life to making the world a better place for everyone.’
‘When the kids were young, I pushed them to work hard and be the best them they could be,’ he added.
‘That’s the job of a parent – to help their children realize their full potential and live a life of meaning.
‘We wanted our kids to discover their gifts and where they could passionately apply them to help others improve their lives.
‘For most of us, this takes time and involves struggle and trial and error. Our children were no exceptions.’
In the end, the self-described ‘apolitical, privileged, pasty, white girl from the Midwest’ told the publication that there’s one thing she wants in life: ‘To no be hated.’
In the end, the self-described ‘apolitical, privileged, pasty, white girl from the Midwest’ told the publication that there’s one thing she wants in life: ‘To no be hated.’ She’s seen with a friend
But Elizabeth’s interview with the Times resulted in just the opposite, and sparked a spew of backlash for the public speaker.
‘There’s a very easy way for her to change what people think of her and that is by using her wealth and influence to do good things in the world,’ one person pointed out.
‘Another route would be for her to find a rube like you who is either willing or naive enough to launder her PR.’
‘So, instead of using her fortune and privilege to try and undo her family’s evil, she’s using it to come up with jargon to talk herself into not caring about the harm her family’s money has caused and then used it to get free publicity from an unethical newspaper,’ added another.
One person even called the Times ’embarrassing’ and ‘humiliating’ for interviewing her in the first place, while another slammed the outlet for ‘carrying water for the rich and powerful.’
‘So you went to journalism school and took out student loans all to end up doing this?’ read another scathing reply.
‘This is legit one of the most embarrassing things I’ve ever seen printed in the Times,’ said someone else.
‘When you set out to report this story, who did you envision was the audience it would benefit?’ asked a different user. ‘Because it seems more in service of the subject than the audience.’
‘Anyone else concerned by the fact that the NYT is a captured tool for billionaires to rehabilitate their public image?’ another person tweeted.
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