Christian Gerhartsreiter - Second Marriage

Second Marriage

In 1995, Gerhartsreiter married Sandra Boss in a Quaker ceremony that had no legal status. The couple had a child, Reigh Storrow Mills Rockefeller, who was nicknamed 'Snooks' after the character in The Baby Snooks Show radio program. Sandra Boss changed her child's surname after her reported divorce from Gerhartsreiter, in part because he refused to provide proof of his identity. During the case, Boss, a high-earning McKinsey senior executive who had graduated from Stanford University and Harvard Business School, accused him of lying about being a member of the Rockefeller family. Members of the Rockefeller family have also denied any relation to the man. Boss later testified in June 2009 at his trial that Gerhartsreiter agreed to give her custody of their daughter Reigh following the divorce. She testified that he also agreed to supervised visits three times a year with Reigh in return for an $800,000 settlement, two cars, her engagement ring, and a dress that he had given her. Boss moved with Reigh to London following the divorce.

Boss testified that Gerhartsreiter was charming and that she believed the stories he told her at the beginning of their relationship. Later, however, he became emotionally abusive and there was a "lot of anger and yelling" in their household. Although Boss earned all of the family income, she testified that Gerhartsreiter had complete control of the family's finances and other aspects of her day-to-day life.

She hired a private investigator in 2006 and discovered that Gerhartsreiter was not who he claimed to be, though she did not learn his real name at that time. She said he was unpleasant to live with, but did not think he was delusional. Prior to the divorce, Gerhartsreiter had lived with Boss and their child in Cornish, New Hampshire, where he used his supposed family ties to bolster his reputation, telling friends and neighbors that he was a wealthy Yale graduate who owned a business in Canada. Gerhartsreiter, under the name Clark Rockefeller, was also a member of Boston's ultra-exclusive Algonquin Club, where he spent much of his time making additional connections and infiltrating high society. He resigned as one of the club's directors in April 2008.