Who is Taylor Thomson? Husband, Networth and all about Canadian billionaire heiress suing best friend over $80M bust psychic crypto deal

Canadian billionaire heiress, Taylor Thomson, has filed a lawsuit against her former best friend, Ashley Richardson, over the failure of a cryptocurrency investment which resulted in losses exceeding $80 million, according to a report in the New York Post.

She first met Richardson at a Malibu pool party in 2009, through a mutual friend, a film producer, Beau St. Clair, per Daily Mail. However, their friendship soon turned sour over a failed psychic advice, which resulted in a huge loss of wealth.

Taylor Thomson is a 66-year-old and the middle child of the Thomson family, whose fortune is estimated at around $68.6 billion USD, and comes from their control of Thomson Reuters. It is a global media company founded by her grandfather, Roy Thomson. She currently has an estimated net worth of around $12.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, as reported by Realtor.

She was married for a year to her ex-husband, Michael Kolesa, after which they divorced. The former couple met at a Buddhist retreat in New York in the late 1990s. They share a daughter. He is an engineer from Utica, New York, according to The Canadian Encyclopedia.

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All we know about Taylor Thomson

Taylor Thomson is one of six billionaire heirs to the media and publishing empire, Thomson Reuters, founded by her grandfather, Roy Thomson, according to a report in Forbes. The family holds more than 310 million shares of the media conglomerate.

Thomson holds 14% of the family’s private holding company, Woodbridge. The Canada-based company has a 70% stake in Thomson Reuters. The family business is led by Taylor Thomson’s brothers David and Peter Thomson, with revenue of $7.3 billion in 2024, according to Bloomberg.

Apart from being a businesswoman, Taylor Thomson is also an actress. She pursued acting in Shakespearean theater in Cambridge. During her time here, she portrayed the role of a fairy in the play The Tempest alongside Keanu Reeves.

She then studied at the Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University. After her education, Taylor Thomson landed roles in American TV miniseries. One actor described Thomson as “very beautiful, as noted in The Canadian Encyclopedia, he said:

"She was very beautiful and also wildly insecure and incredibly arrogant. It was an amazing combination.”

After several acting credits, Taylor Thomson’s interest in acting eventually faded with time. She shifted her focus towards production. She invested US$1.12-million in an English-based film company. However, the films she funded did not perform well at the box office or were forgotten.

After her marriage to her husband, Michael Kolesa, in the 90s, she became pregnant with her daughter, whom she gave birth to in the mid-90s. She was reportedly 40 at that time. However, the couple eventually separated. One of her acquaintances said:

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“She didn't have a lot of people that were close to her she could trust. I always thought that, at least with Michael, she could. Maybe he was just there for the money, too.”

Thomson is also a realtor. She is reportedly the owner of a variety of high-value properties in California. She has owned luxurious estates in Santa Monica and Bel-Air, California. This included a Mediterranean-style estate she purchased for $48.67 million in 2021.

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