Old-timer beau demanded sex up to 10 times a day: lawsuit

This old-timer has a libido bigger than his bank account.

A former Wilhelmina model claims her on-again-off-again octogenarian beau persuaded her to ditch her career, rent-stabilized Chelsea apartment, and move into his sprawling Rye home — where he sometimes demanded sex a staggering 10 times a day, according to a Manhattan Supreme Court suit.

Janet Bedin, 68, claims Vito Verni, 84, pulled an emotional bait-and-switch between the beginning of 2019 and end of 2021 “when they lived together as a couple” in the 5,000-square-foot Westchester manse, the suit says.

Bedin is now suing Verni for $80 million, charging a laundry list that includes defamation, fraudulent inducement, harassment and illegal eviction, according to court papers.

The civil suit paints a picture of an accomplished career woman duped by a man who swept off her feet with promises of love and luxury he did not keep.

Bedin even gave up her dog — because Verni had a cat — and she worked like a horse, the complaint charges.

“Plaintiff was to be 100% his caregiver. He meant for plaintiff to be available for
all his sexual needs, to be his escort, do his laundry, cook his meals. (It turned out to mean
sexual intercourse, at times up to 10 times a day),” the suit says.

Over the years, Bedin “developed an exciting career very well respected by
executives and government leaders, traveling back and forth from New York to Italy,” the suit says. From 1991 to 1995, she served as executive director of the New York State Economic office for Italy and Spain under former Gov. Mario Cuomo. She served again in that post from 2015 through 2018.

“In that capacity, plaintiff had the honor of meeting Pope Francis, Mother Teresa, the President and the Prime Minister of Italy, the US Ambassador to the Vatican, and many others … [who she] continues to count as her friends,” the complaint says.

The duo had been “on and off” lovers for decades, according to the Oct. 26 filing.

In 1976, a 21-year-old Bedin arrived in New York, from Rockford, Ill. “hoping to pursue her dream of modeling and acting,” the suit says. She started out as a model for Wilhelmina before pivoting to being a business development executive.

That same year, Bedin became a tenant in the West 22nd Street building Verni, then 38, owned at the time, court papers show.

The ex-model claims the seeds for the randy relationship were planted when Verni kept calling her to “inspect” the apartment, according to the suit.

Verni “never wore a wedding ring and started to kiss” Bedin in her apartment, “leading to a long, intimate relationship” that has been on and off since 1976, the suit says.

Bedin “broke off” with Verni several times, but the married man “continued to pursue” her, the complaint reads.

In late 2018, Verni called Bedin to inform her his wife had died and that he “is now single” and asked her out, the lawsuit says. “Soon thereafter, [Verni] pressured, cajoled, induced” Bedin to leave New York City and move in with him at his six-bedroom, six-bathroom estate “and no longer be part of the work force,” the suit charges.

Verni told Bedin he wanted her to be with him “100% of the time” and she was to “just focus on him,” the suit alleges. Verni allegedly promised to cover the bills of Bedin’s ailing brother, and vowed, “we will travel, be [at] his club, socialize with his friends, go to
museums, take wine classes together.”

But once Bedin moved in, “the relationship changed,” the suit says, charging Verni became controlling and verbally and physically abusive.

The “savvy, experienced New York City landlord for over 65 years” evicted Bedin, says the explosive lawsuit.

Verni owns “many” apartment buildings in Manhattan, the Bronx, Connecticut and a new development in Harrison, NY, the complaint says.

The suit charges that Verni initially showered her with cards and letters and an emerald and diamond engagement ring, and “fraudulently induced to give up her career.”

In court papers pertaining to the eviction, Verni called Bedin’s claims a “shakedown” and said “we socialized a few days a week and nothing more.”

Said Verni’s lawyer, Eric Grayson: “Ms. Bedin’s baseless lawsuit is just one more attempt to harass Mr. Verni.  Ms. Bedin filed almost the exact same suit in Westchester County Supreme Court and last month it was dismissed by Justice Zuckerman on all counts. Mr. Verni has obtained 4 Orders of Protection against Ms. Bedin and at the last hearing, Justice Horowitz stated, ‘Madame, you really need to understand, you’re going to end up in jail and I’m shocked that you haven’t already. It has to stop.’ The Court has now fully warned Ms. Bedin and if she ends up in jail she has no one to blame but herself.”