Meet Derek Blasberg: Hollywood socialite accused of fleeing Gwyneth Paltrow’s Hamptons home after ‘catastrophic’ diarrhea who counts Jeff Bezos and Demi Moore as pals

Derek Blasberg became the talk of Hollywood after he was accused of being the mystery guest who lost control of his bowels in a bed at Gwyneth Paltrow’s Hamptons home.

While he’s not as A-list a player as Paltrow (51), his presence at her lavish mansion comes as no surprise.

The 42-year-old fashion journalist and author has cemented his status as a close friend to celebrities like Jeff Bezos, Kate Hudson, Karlie Kloss, Kendall Jenner and Sienna Miller, having spent years hanging out with the world’s biggest stars.

But despite maintaining a relatively private life unlike some of his closest friends, his recent toilet woes have thrust him firmly into the spotlight.

The Internet went into meltdown last week when a blind post in a popular gossip newsletter claimed that Goop founder Paltrow had to clean up someone’s “Ozempic-induced diarrhea” at her home.

Insiders later told DailyMail.com that Blasberg – once described as “one of the most connected men in show business” – was the perpetrator and that he had conveniently blamed the incident on the popular weight-loss drug before reportedly fleeing the premises.

“It’s not Ozempic, he just told everyone,” the insider said, before revealing how the secret broke through the Hamptons set.

“Gwyneth told Oprah, Jerry and Jessica Seinfeld, and Larry David,” they continued.

“It’s shocking how many people know this story and how he managed to keep it out of The Post… probably through his best friend [socialite Dasha Zhukova] – whose mother recently married Rupert Murdoch.’

Blasberg did indeed meet Zhukova in 2009 for a profile that appeared in the July issue of Interview magazine.

At the time, she was known as the ex-girlfriend of tennis star Marat Safin and had started a relationship with Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.

The couple talked about Zhukova’s opening of the Center for Contemporary Culture, better known as The Garage, in Moscow and their friendship blossomed immediately. In the years that followed, the two attended major events and were photographed on vacation together.

In December 2015 he re-profiled her for the Gagosian Gallerywhere he works as a senior employee.

The story is one of many similar interactions that developed into lasting friendships for Blasberg as he rose through the fashion journalist’s ranks.

Blasberg was born in St. Louis, Missouri and moved to New York City in 2000 to attend New York University.

After graduating in Dramatic Literature and Journalism in 2004, he began his career as an assistant at Vogue.

During his magazine career, he became the youngest editor-in-chief ever at Harper’s Bazaar and saw his fame rise thanks to his role as Vanity Fair’s Our Man on the Street.

He also worked as an editor of V and VMan and contributed to The New York Times, WSJ. Magazine, Elle and Glamour. He was a familiar face to many of Hollywood’s elite and was quickly welcomed into their inner circle.

His face became more recognizable after he hosted a reboot of CNN Style in 2016.

Guests on the show included Emma Watson, Karl Lagerfeld, Kendall Jenner, Charlize Theron, Anna Wintour and many more.

Prior to that, he co-presented Fashionably Late with Rachel Zoe and in 2011 appeared in 24 Hour Catwalk with Alexa Chung.

The author most recently served as head of fashion and beauty partnerships at YouTube and is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, Architectural Digest, and several international editions of Vogue.

For that reason, Blasberg has spent time with Paltrow at her five-bedroom home on Long Island, where she also married Brad Falchuk.

In 2022, the fashion maven posted a photo of herself and the actress celebrating her 50th birthday at the sprawling estate.

When describing how the couple became friends with The cutPaltrow admitted she wondered if Blasberg was just a professional hanger-on.

‘When I first met him, I was a little skeptical… I thought, “Are you a professional best friend of celebrities? And why are you everywhere at once? What’s your problem?”

“After ten seconds I was completely in love with him,” she said.

Blasberg himself is known for throwing big parties, with his birthday parties often serving as a warm-up for the Met Gala.

His 42nd birthday party in April was attended by A-listers including Anne Hathaway, Kate Hudson, Jake Gyllenhaal and Andy Cohen.

While his 2022 party was attended by Bezos, Hailey Bieber and Leonardo DiCaprio, among others.

Blasberg, who wrote Very Classy: Even More Exceptional Advice for the Extremely Modern Lady, currently lives in New York with his partner, Imaginary co-founder Nick Brown.

In 2021, the couple welcomed three-year-old twins Elizabeth Grace and Frederick Noah via surrogate.

When Blasberg shared the happy news with the world, he wrote, “Welcome to the world, Grace and Noah. I am humbled and honored by the arrival of these two beautiful, glorious angels. I want to thank @nickbrown from the bottom of my heart for being an incredible partner, best friend, and now co-parent.

“Thank you to our amazing surrogate for making this long-held dream come true. Thank you to everyone who grew up in or started their own non-traditional family and paved the way for us to start ours.

“And thank you to our incredible support system of friends, family, colleagues, medical professionals and everyone else (even the lawyers!) who have been with us on this journey.”

He added: “Whoever said ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ wasn’t a same-sex parent who had children via out-of-state surrogacy at the tail end of a global pandemic. It took so many villages (and counties, and states, etc.) to build our family and we are so grateful for each and every one of them. This bliss is real.”