The son of billionaire American Eagle Outfitters’ chairman made heated remarks about his then-pregnant wife because she secretly fired their bodyguard, according to audio obtained by The Post.
After Ariella Schottenstein axed security guard Rock Pereira in May, her husband, Jeffrey Schottenstein blasted her in a call to him a few days later.
“Going to a doctor’s appointment three weeks before she’s pregnant and firing someone for no cause — that is unfit to be a mother in my eyes,” Schottenstein told Pereira of Ariella, according to a recording obtained from Pereira’s attorney.
“After the baby’s born, I’m gonna have to make — I will not let my kids see this fighting,” said Schottenstein, a principal at the family-led furniture business American Signature who was sued in 2019 for allegedly being a hooker-loving drug addict who threatened his shrink.
The case was later dropped by both sides in 2021.
“No f—ing way,” Schottenstein said. “And it is tearing me apart, Rock. … But there’s people I’m going to be contacting, if you understand what I’m saying. Because I ain’t putting up with this s–t. No, no f—ing way. So I’m gonna need your help, Rock.”
Pereira, 46, filed a state Division of Human Rights complaint against Jeffrey and Ariella, alleging she barked at him and degraded him with menial tasks during the eight months the 10-year Marine worked for the couple.
Ariella would regularly tell Pereira, “you walk the dog, you feed the dog, you bring the dog to the vet, you pay the bills, you go buy diapers,” he told The Post.
She even had the ex-NYPD detective take her eight-year-old basset griffon Vendéen, named Henry, to the vet and pay the $1,289.33 bill out of his own pocket, Pereira said in the July 11 complaint.
Pereira had to “break up Jeff and Ariella who were physical fighting each other,” he said in his complaint against the couple, Schottenstein’s famed father, Jay, CEO of holding company Schottenstein Stores; brother, Jonathan, CEO of American Signature; and others.
The Schottenstein family was worth a reported $2.7 billion in 2015, when Forbes named them one of America’s richest.
The private guard and driver primarily worked at their $30 million apartment at 432 Park Ave., where Ariella saddled Pereira with tasks “typically reserved for nannies,” the bodyguard’s attorney, David Rosenberg, said.
When Pereira opposed Ariella’s allegedly discriminatory practices, she fired him in May, the security guard said, before her husband quickly rehired him the same day.
Jeffrey called him four days later to apologize but Pereira was ultimately fired June 3 by an executive at American Signature.
“The way Ariella is, the way I was treated, no one should be treated this way,” Pereira told The Post.
A spokesperson for Jeffrey and Ariella Schottenstein said in a statement, “It’s reprehensible that someone would seek to exploit impulsive comments taken out of context for their own personal gain through a baseless claim.”
The other parties didn’t respond to a request for comment.
