Oil heiress breaks family curse

The 26-year-old has married her photographer boyfriend Tobias Engel in an over-the-top three day extravaganza in her hometown of San Francisco – complete with a glass-mirrored wedding dress by John Galliano.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi officiated, reported the New York Post, and attendees included singer Olivia Rodrigo, Princess Olympia of Greece, California Governor Gavin Newsom, San Francisco Mayor London Breed, and Ivy’s maid of honour, Queen’s Gambit star Anya Taylor-Joy. Mark Ronson was DJ at a pre-wedding ‘60s Mod-themed bash, where Earth, Wind and Fire also performed.

It’s a fairytale new beginning for Ivy, who last year lost her father, John Gilbert Getty, to a drug overdose, and her beloved grandmother, Ann, to a heart attack. She also had a bit of a chaotic upbringing.

“John Gilbert Getty was a dysfunctional parent to the point where Ann took over and decided Ivy was going to live with her and [her husband] Gordon,” an insider told The Post last year.

“It was kind of like a modern version of the poor little rich girl. Ivy’s mother was not really around too much.”

Ivy’s jewellery-designer mother, Alyssa Boothby, also known as Alyssa Jewels, was at the wedding. But a guest who attended all three days of the celebration told The Post she never saw the two interact.

“There doesn’t seem a lot of love lost there,” the guest said. “[Alyssa] is rarely, if ever, mentioned by Ivy. Ann raised her and they adored each other.”

The memory of Ivy’s late loved ones resonated at the wedding in a sweet, not sad, way, according to one guest, who said that her veil was decorated with images of her dad and his guitar, and her grandmother. The deceased were also remembered by name in the wedding program, she said.

“My grandma and father were by my side gagging with joy as much as I was,” Ivy wrote on her Instagram after the event.

John, Ivy’s 52-year-old musician dad, died of heart conditions triggered by an accidental fentanyl overdose in a San Antonio hotel room on November 20 last year. Her grandmother Ann Getty, who raised Ivy in the Getty mansion where her wedding reception took place, died aged 78, just two months before her own son passed.

Ivy told Vogue that her late grandmother inspired her choice of wedding dress designer.

“My grandmother always wore John Galliano’s designs,” she said. “After my grandmother’s passing – she was really more like a mother to me – I felt this connection to John. I knew I wanted him to create the dress for my wedding.”

Still, the guest said, “[The wedding] was not what I expected or what you’d think from seeing all the photos. It was done so well that it didn’t feel big, and the memories of John and Ann were so uplifting and loving. It was just exquisite and filled with friends of Ivy and Toby who they’ve all known forever and who want the best for them. It wasn’t some superficial society wedding where everyone is saying under their breath, ‘This will never last’. It seemed like a genuine love match.”

Sources say Ann would be happy about Ivy’s choice of husband.

“Toby was so genuinely attentive to Ivy,” added the guest, who has known the Getty family, including her 87-year-old grandfather Gordon Getty, for more than four decades.

“He adores her. He wrote his own vows and they took everyone’s breath away. He said, ‘I am your protector and your slave.’ It was so heartfelt. These are not just two rich kids who, like, met in Ibiza last year.”

Toby, who has been described as a tech entrepreneur and aspiring film director as well as a photographer, was born in Vienna. His parents are Peter Engel, an Austrian businessman, and Cheryl Prime, an English actor who appeared in 1982’s Coronation Street and 1990 series Stolen.

The couple met at London’s Fashion Week and Toby proposed at sunset in Capri.

Ivy met maid-of-honour Anya Taylor-Joy six years ago, on the actor’s first day in Los Angeles, according to The Cut.

“My baby girl got married yesterday,” Taylor-Joy wrote on Instagram Monday.

“Being by your side all these years and your maid of honour has been nothing short of a privilege and your existence, nothing short of a miracle. I am so PROUD of the woman you’ve become. If you’re ever in any doubt- I have loved you and will love you, forever.

“CONGRATULATIONS LIL SPICE MONKEY! You truly were the most beautiful bride.”

Ivy’s optimism was evident last year after her father’s death, when she told The Post how much she had loved him and although she was grieving, also felt grateful.

“I am filled with gratitude for everything he taught me,” she said. “My glass is half full. I think our generation [of Gettys] has been given a special opportunity to do good in the world, and we intend to take advantage of that opportunity.”

Ivy is the great-granddaughter of J. Paul Getty, the Minnesota-born founder of Getty Oil who, in the mid-20th century, was the richest man in the world — with a fortune of $1.2 billion (around $9.1 billion today). He has some 40 descendants and the family has had an outsized share of tragedy over the decades.

In 1973, John Paul Getty III — the Patriarch’s 16-year-old grandson (making him Ivy’s second cousin) — was kidnapped in Rome. His abductors demanded $17 million, which his grandfather wouldn’t pay, leading his captors to cut off his right ear.

The ordeal, coupled with terrible neglect, ruined the boy’s life. At just 24, he ended up paralysed as a result of a drug overdose. John Paul III, who was the father of actor Balthazar Getty, died in 2011, at age 55.

In 2015, Getty’s brother, Andrew Getty, died from an ulcer-related haemorrhage. He was found to have methamphetamine in his system at the time of his death.

“No one in the family calls it an overdose,” the wedding guest said. “They say he died under mysterious circumstances. That’s always the phrase.”

In addition to Ivy, the younger generation includes fashion designer August Getty, 26, who dresses icons ranging from Cher and Hailey Baldwin to Lady Gaga and Miley Cyrus. Isabel Getty, 25, the jetsetting musician daughter of Christopher Getty and Pia Miller, is the singer of the band Jean Marlow. And Nats (Natalia) Getty, 27, founded her own streetwear clothing line, Strike Oil, and is an LBGTQ activist married to Gigi Gorgeous, a transgender woman with a huge YouTube following.

This article originally appeared on the New York Post and was reproduced with permission

Originally published as Ivy Getty’s lavish wedding to Tobias Engel may have broken family curse