The billionaire family embroiled in a scandal over their new influencer daughter-in-law includes a controversial fitness guru and celebrity doctor.
Katherine Asplundh, formerly Driscoll, married Cabot Asplundh, 27, of the Pennsylvania billionaire family at a reception in Palm Beach, Florida, two weeks ago.
The family that she married into founded Asplundh Tree Expert, which in 2021 reported revenue of over $5.4 billion dollars.
The family has now gone viral after Katherine tried to bully an Instagram user by the same name into handing over her handle.
Fellow family members include celebrity physician and TV star Dr. Mehmet Oz and controversial A-list fitness trainer Tracy Anderson.
According to a now-deleted LinkedIn profile for the new Asplundh, she had worked for Anderson as a social media specialist.
Katherine Asplundh, formerly Driscoll, married Cabot Asplundh, 27, of the Pennsylvania billionaire family at a reception in Palm Beach, Florida
Fellow family members include celebrity physician and TV star Dr. Mehmet Oz and controversial A-list fitness trainer Tracy Anderson, seen here
Mehmet Oz, seen here, is known as the retired physician-turned-TV-personality who became famous in part due to Oprah Winfrey who featured him on her talk show
Anderson married into the Asplundh family when she wed Chris Asplundh in 2021 after they started dating in 2018.
According to People, the ceremony took place in the garden of their home in New Hope, Pennsylvania.
The outlet reported that a few close friends and family made the guest list for the event, which happened after they both spent a day at work.
Gwyneth Paltrow, J-Lo and Madonna are all among the A-list client base who have previously praised the 49-year-old for her regime.
An expose by Business Insider last year lifted the lid on the entrepreneur’s fitness empire.
Former employees started speaking out about what goes on behind closed doors to reveal a bombshell tale of legal threats, paranoia, and grueling working conditions.
One former employee claimed that Anderson was left paralyzed with fear that someone ‘smarter and better was going to steal her stuff.’
She then instigated legal proceedings against a handful of ex-trainers who she branded as ‘second-rate copycats.’
Another source said that their bodies were pushed to ‘breaking’ point with the level of intensity, with the heat of the studios leaving them ‘exhausted and dehydrated.’
Anderson married into the Asplundh family when she wed Chris Asplundh in 2021 after they started dating in 2018. The couple is seen here
Gwyneth Paltrow (right), J-Lo and Madonna are all among the A-list client base who have previously praised the 49-year-old (left) for her vision
Anderson trains with invited guests during a private workout at Le Parker Meridien on September 20, 2013 in New York City
Jennifer Lopez is also among the A-list client base who have previously praised the 47-year-old for her vision (pictured together)
Anderson is no stranger to controversy after infamously falling out with one of her most high-profile clients – Madonna – back in 2009.
The singer had reportedly grown tired of Anderson’s ‘personal baggage,’ but the fitness guru would later slam Madonna over her ‘demands.’
She enticed the affluent clients by setting up studios across Los Angeles, New York, the Hamptons, and Madrid, and soon memberships became a ‘status symbol.’
Patrons pay $900 per month to learn her Tracy Anderson Method – a dance-based workout in a room heated to 95 degrees with 75 percent humidity.
The cost of her online studio memberships is more achievable, at $90 per month, but this figure is still much pricier than its closest competitors.
Gwyneth Paltrow was her first Hollywood client and, having been so impressed by the results, decided to invest in Anderson’s business.
After marrying into the family, she joined Dr. Mehmet Oz who had also married into the family.
His wife Lisa’s grandfather cofounded the family business in 1928 with his two brothers.
Oz won the Republican primary for Senator in Pennsylvania in 2022, with former President Donald Trump backing him.
He is known as the retired physician-turned-TV-personality who became famous in part due to Oprah Winfrey who featured him on her talk show.
Dr. Oz has previously come under fire for promoting a vitamin marketing company called Usana.
Oz visits the facility of INVAMED, which produces medical devices for more than 70 countries, in Ankara, Turkiye on May 02, 2024
Former President Trump looks on as Republican Senatorial candidate Mehmet Oz speaks during a ‘Save America’ rally
The company – which was investigated by federal authorities for its predatory business practices – paid at least $50 million to be featured on Dr. Oz’s show, the Associated Press reported.
In 2014, he was summoned to testify before the US Congress about his promotion of a questionable weight loss supplement called Garcinia Cambogia.
In 2016, he was the target of a class action lawsuit about the supplement, with jurors complaining that he knowingly platformed a product with no ‘credible scientific evidence’.
At the 2014 hearing, then Missouri Sen Claire McCaskill scolded Dr. Oz, saying, ‘I don’t get why you need to say this stuff because you know it’s not true. When you have this amazing megaphone, why would you cheapen your show?’
Around the time he announced his bid for the Pennsylvania senate seat in 2022, formal medical institutions began turning their backs on Dr. Oz.
Columbia University Irving Medical Center, the hospital that Dr Oz worked since at least 1986, quietly removed him from their website in 2022.
The ousting followed an open letter from 10 practicing physicians across the country accusing Dr. Oz of displaying, ‘an egregious lack of integrity by promoting quack treatments and cures in the interest of personal financial gain.’
The tree trimming company was founded by three brothers from Sweden – Lester, Griffith and Cabot’s great grandfather Carl Asplundh
Former Senate candidate and celebrity Dr. Mehmet Oz is part of the family by marriage, with his wife Lisa’s grandfather cofounding the family business in 1928
The family company, which maintains trees for electric utilities, municipalities and others, is run by the third generation of Asplundhs and owned by nearly 200 family members, who are collectively worth at least $3 billion, according to Forbes.
After the new happy couple exchanged vows, Katherine, an influencer with over 14,600 Instagram followers, attempted to change her handle from @katherinedrisc to @katherineasplundh, but her desired username was already in use.
Katherine contacted the account owner, a woman who goes by Kate, to ask if she could purchase her handle, a practice that is in direct violation of the platform’s terms of service.
Kate refused and explained how she feared selling the username would get her ‘banned from Instagram’. This prompted Katherine to launch a tirade of seemingly entitled messages.
Kate, who claims she was initially open to changing her username but decided against doing so after Katherine ‘came off snarky’, later shared the exchange online.
According to her social media pages, Katherine is originally from New Vernon, New Jersey, having studied at College of Charleston.
Her TikTok page, named Lost Etiquette, boasts over 80,000 followers with over 5.5 million likes on her profile.
Katherine Asplundh, formerly Driscoll, married Cabot Asplundh, 27, at a reception in Palm Beach, Florida weeks ago
Kate refused and explained how she feared selling the username would get her ‘banned from Instagram’
In the now-viral exchange, Katherine can be seen messaging an anonymous user, believed to be Kate, asking if she could purchase her Instagram handle.
‘Hi I was wondering if I could purchase your username from you,’ she wrote. ‘Just got married and this in my new name!’
Kate replied: ‘That’s my name too. I just googled and it said selling my username would get me banned from Instagram.’
But Katherine pushed back, saying: ‘I purchased my username in the past actually that’s not true. Celebrities do it all the time that’s how they all have their handles as their full names.
‘So weird, I didn’t know there was another Asplundh’s family out there. There [are] no Katherine Asplundh in our family.’
She then adds: ‘I see that you’re not that active on here but started Instagram in 2018 but changed your username three times? Is there anyway I can get you to change your username one more time?’
Kate responds, explaining that the @katherineasplundh account is her so-called ‘finsta’, a term that refers to a ‘fake’ or secondary account that users create to share content just with close friends and family.
The conversation turns sour, with Katherine seemingly questioning Kate’s identity.
‘I actually don’t believe that your name is Katherine Asplundh who would make their finsta their actual name?’ Katherine wrote.
‘I reported you to Instagram and they’re actually able to tell me your real name I really hope I don’t know you because that’s gonna be really embarrassing for you.’
In reaching out to the woman known only as Kate, who has since shared the messages on social media, the newlywed has unintentionally gone viral
Asplundh then continues to question the legitimacy of her name, who confirms she is not American
The wanna-be influencer has gone viral after she aggressively messaged a stranger who shares her married name and demanded she hand over her Instagram handle – @katherineasplundh.
Kate asks the influencer to report her, but Katherine confirms that she and her new husband have already done so.
Katherine then continues to question the legitimacy of Kate’s name, alleging that her husband’s family are the only Asplundhs in the US.
Kate confirms she is not American, to which Katherine replies: ‘Do you have proof that this is your name? Would love to see that.’
Kate then tells Katherine that if she had been nice about it, she would have considered giving her the account name for free.
She hits back at the influencer, saying: ‘But you weren’t. I reported you for asking me to sell my account and another for harassing me. Have a good day.’
The exchange has prompted netizens to take the other Katherine’s side, creating dozens of fake accounts with various spellings of the billionaire’s wife’s name, claiming every possible username option that includes either her maiden or married name.
Cabot proposed to her in Mantoloking, New Jersey two years after they met
Kate eventually tells Asplundh that if she had been nice about it, she would have considered giving her the account name for free
After her threatening DM conversation was leaked, Katherine deactivated her Instagram amid the backlash. She had 14,600 followers.
Despite the negative attention, Katherine has continued to post on her TikTok account @lostetiquette – a username that has nothing to do with her maiden or married name but everything to do with her sense of entitlement.
Her most recent video was a throwback to her last wedding dress fitting before her lavish ceremony in April.
As luck would have it, internet users dug up an old TikTok posted by Katherine, mocking new wives who can’t wait to update their name on social media.
‘Something that low key bothers me is when girls get married and it’s not even like 10 minutes after they do their vows and they’re like “Oh! going on my Instagram! Let me change my last name already,’ Katherine said in a now-deleted TikTok.
She then says she’s ‘probably going to wait a couple of months’ to change her name.
