The Real Housewives of Miami alum Lenny Hochstein has filed a defamation lawsuit against estranged wife Lisa Hochstein over a recent social media post where she hinted he abused her.
According to court documents obtained by Us Weekly, Lenny filed a civil suit on Friday, December 1, against the reality star and is seeking damages up to $100,000 and attorneys’ fees.
The lawsuit comes days after Lisa shared an Instagram Story photo of a bruise on her arm and hinted that Lenny had previously abused her.
“Didn’t want to have to share this, but I’m left with no choice. I’m being harassed through the court system and through ‘others’ by Lenny and it needs to stop,” Lisa captioned the November 22 post, which has since expired, but the plastic surgeon included a screenshot in his filing. “This was almost two weeks old from last season. You may have caught this bruise on the episode when I opened up to the women on the show about the divorce.”
In his court filing, Lenny, 57, vehemently denies Lisa’s allegations and claims his ex is harassing him. Lenny claimed in his lawsuit that Lisa, 41, got the bruise after she “lost her balance” while walking up a set of stairs while the pair were having an argument.
“It came about because [Lisa] as usual was yelling at and berating [Lenny] when he came home from work, as she did almost daily telling him how he never does anything right, so [Lenny] attempted to walk away and started walking up the stairs and [Lisa] walked in front of [him] going backwards up the stairs so she could continue yelling in [his] face and [she] lost her balance and fell on a stair,” read Lenny’s filing.
“Nothing can be further from the truth,” he adds in court docs about the alleged abuse claim.
“[Lisa’s] lies of abuse are not a surprise to [Lenny] as [Lisa] stated publicly that she needs to retaliate against [her ex] for what [Lisa] claims is harassment,” continues the court filing. “Yet [Lenny] is not harassing [Lisa] but rather presenting the truth which [Lisa] does not like.”
Lisa and Lenny, who tied the knot in 2009, have faced plenty of ups and downs, many of which have played out on RHOM.
Lenny filed for divorce from Lisa in October 2022, claiming to Us at the time that the pair “contemplated divorce for the last several years.” He went public with girlfriend Katharina Mazepa that same month.
Lisa, meanwhile, alleged that Mazepa was Lenny’s “mistress,” though Lenny claimed that the couple began dating after he and Lisa had already separated. Lenny proposed to Mazepa in July.
In turn, the doctor accuses the reality star of cheating on him with her current boyfriend, Jody Glidden, in the newly filed documents. Calling her the “real ‘homewrecker’ of Miami,” he claims Lisa was with Glidden the night the CEO was supposed to get married to his ex-fiancée.
In response to the lawsuit, Lisa tells Us: “We haven’t received anything. This DOES seem like something ‘litigator Lenny’ would do as he’s made it clear he’s out to financially strangle me. He’s not happy unless he’s suing.”
Last year, Lisa accused Lenny of cutting off her credit card, leaving her unable to “buy food and diapers” for their children. The duo share son Logan, 8, and daughter Elle, 4. In April, Lenny was ordered to pay his estranged wife $8,000 a month in temporary support.
While it seemed like the pair were on the verge of settling their divorce, Lenny filed to withdraw his settlement in August.
“Lisa came up with an agreement in June. I thought it would have been something that made her happy and allow her to move on because it’s far more generous than our premarital agreement stipulated,” Lenny exclusively told Us at the time. “Lisa will never be happy. I tried my best and instead of having gratitude she doubled down and called me nasty names and accused me of heinous things.”
While attending BravoCon in October, Lisa confirmed to Us that she and Lenny are still “not divorced” officially. She added that something new comes up “every day” and it has caused her “a lot of stress.”
“We have a lot of things that we haven’t figured out, and it’s daunting,” Lisa explained. “It’s just every day. It’s taking up so much of my time when I could be doing other things and working towards a healthier, better life, and instead, I’m still dealing with this, unfortunately.”
