Inside the nasty private club fight tearing one of America's richest ZIP codes apart — even a supermodel has been kicked out

New York Post

5 days ago

Trouble is brewing on a Miami island enclave of multi-millionaires, with an all-out legal brawl between one high-profile resident, his supermodel wife and their private club.
Fisher Island – once home to Oprah Winfrey and favored by tennis greats including Boris Becker and Caroline Wozniacki – is one of America's most exclusive ZIP codes and can only be accessed by helicopter or boat, but the drama on-island matches the size of resident's bank accounts.
The 216-acre enclave, located just south of Miami Beach, boasts its own private school, medical clinic, and gourmet market. Apartments go for $4 million, while houses range from $6 million all the way up to $85 million for a top penthouse.
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10 Victoria's Secret model Karolina Kurkova and property broker husband Archie Drury have been expelled from the Fisher Island Club, igniting a nasty legal battle.
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10 The exclusive island is just south of Miami beach and comes with a hefty price tag — condos start at $4m.
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Access to this elite world hinges on membership in the Fisher Island Club, a non-profit which sources say owns nearly every amenity: golf, tennis courts, restaurants, a spa and gym, and a beach club.
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Equity membership costs $350,000 plus $38,000 in annual dues and without membership,
residents effectively can't even shop for groceries.
Sources tell The Post the club also keeps a tight rein on its members.
Various WhatsApp group chats discuss the club, but we hear since December, the club has suspended or expelled members after accusing some of creating 'disharmony' with their comments.
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A member of several years told The Post, 'It's different from revoking your club membership at La Gorce [another exclusive club on Miami Beach] or something.
'You can golf somewhere else. Here, you literally have to pack up your home and leave.'
In response, the club told The Post: 'Discussion and debate is not uncommon among Club members and is encouraged, not discouraged. Not a single member has been expelled for speaking out against the Board.'
However, one email in December accused members of 'sowing discord'.
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10 Kurkova and her husband own multiple properties on the island and were members of the club until 2023. In their lawsuit they claim the club retaliated againsst them because Archie started his own property company.
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10 Fisher Island, with the southern tip of Miami Beach in the background. The only ways onto the island are via boat or helicopter.
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'We strongly urge Members to cease any attempts to undermine and disrupt the Club's
capital projects,' the board wrote, 'and also to end aggressive attacks on Club leadership — or risk a 30-day Membership suspension.'
Some called the message 'threatening' and 'frightening' in the 'Let's Renovate Fisher' WhatsApp group.
Another member, who asked not to be IDed, added: 'If you lose your membership here, you're cut off from your entire social life, your entire town.'
In March the board sent another email warning: 'While free speech is a right, the use of free speech as a tool to incite disharmony is not.'
'If you ask too many questions, you're going to be suspended,' the longtime member alleged.
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10 Tennis legend Boris Becker has a vacation apartment on the island, and is one of its celebrity residents.
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10 Danish tennis star Caroline Wozniacki and her former NBA player husband David Lee put their $43 million home on the island up for sale in 2024.
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The club denies this, saying: 'The Club has neither silenced nor retaliated against any Club member for voicing an opinion.'
The warnings come in the wake of an increasingly nasty legal suit filed by Victoria's Secret supermodel Karolina Kurkova, 41, and her husband, Archie Drury, 54 – which has been the talk of the island ever since.
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In January, the club's board voted to expel the couple, alleging they tried to defraud them by trying to transfer one of their memberships to a tenant.
They filed suit a month later alleging unlawful expulsion and retaliation against Drury – once one of the island's top real estate agents at Douglas Elliman – for starting his own real estate firm.
Their lawsuit accuses the club of 'threats and coercion,' claiming one of the couple's employees was allegedly asked to provide false testimony against them, or risk losing their apartment and privileges on the island.
The lawsuit states the couple had lived for more than a decade as members of the club on Fisher Island, where they have bought multiple properties, until 2023 when Drury formed his real estate company.
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The lawsuit states: 'The Defendants' conduct has and continues to cause [Kurkov and Drury] substantial harm both personally and professionally, including by preventing Plaintiff Drury from engaging in his trade as a real estate broker on Fisher Island.'
10 Fisher Island Country Club maintains they kicked Kurkova and Drury out for good reason, and they had been warned of their conduct for years.
10 A penthouse in one Fisher Island's condos would set you back a cool $85 million.
However, since the lawsuit has been filed, the club has defended its position and filed to strike and dismiss what it calls a 'sham pleading'.
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In their motion to strike the suit, the Fisher Island Club maintain the couple were properly expelled 'after years of misconduct' and had ignored multiple warnings about their behavior.
One of the more bizarre incidents cited in court papers is that Drury allegedly stole another member's white Range Rover in Nov. 2023 – while he claims he simply mistook it for another car he was allowed to drive. The club disputes that, and claims he changed his story about what happened.
The incident caused the club to suspend Drury, which was extended after he allegedly violated the terms of suspension.
The rebuttal papers further accuse Drury of 'inappropriate conduct towards Club members (such as physically threatening another member and giving him the middle finger) [and] 'screaming' at a Club employee.'
Regarding Drury's suspension, the club claims in its court papers: 'Drury did not object to his suspension after it was imposed, nor did he timely institute an action challenging it.'
The couple maintain in their filing they bought a second membership to the club and should be allowed under its rules to designate that membership to a tenant.
The papers also claim that as a result of Drury's 'disruptive behavior' the Club even hired armed security and issued him a cease-and-desist letter for trespassing, after he had been expelled in January.
10 Kurkova and Drury. He told The Post their lawsuit is about more than his family's expulsion, saying: ''I want to make people feel safe to speak up.'
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10 Kurkova, who was born in the Czech Republic, has two children with Drury. They say they have since relocated from the island.
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The scathing rebuttal to the lawsuit accuses Drury and Kurkova of 'Piling one defective claim on top of another … a transparent attempt to seek to strong-arm the Club into reinstating Plaintiffs' appropriately cancelled memberships … and garner public support of Plaintiffs' false narrative against the Club, and in effect steal from the Club's members by seeking damages from the Club.'
A judge has yet to rule on what will happen with the suit, which currently remains active.
In an interview with the Post, Drury said the conflict has hurt his family's livelihood and
forced them to uproot their kids and move.
But for him, the lawsuit is bigger than his family. 'I want to make people feel safe to speak up,' he said.
Kurkova's spokesperson, Melanie Bonvicino, called Fisher Island a community under siege in a statement to The Post.
The Fisher Island Club also isn't the only private club accused of cracking down on dissent. In June, a couple sued a club in the Keys, saying it expelled them after they challenged its leadership.
Such clubs' 'rampant abuses of power' have led to 'autocratic control over residents' daily lives,' Jennifer Altman, Kurkova and Drury's lawyer, claimed.
In its response to The Post, the Fisher Island Club expressed confidence in its pending court motion and said it believes Drury and Kurkova's suit 'remains deficient and is also subject to dismissal.'
Meanwhile, the island's millionaires looking on are chugging their way through plenty of popcorn as they await the result.