Donna Karan cheated on her husband for YEARS with the married love of her life

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Donna Karan, 67, was a tall, skinny flat-chested girl while growing up in Queens, New York, nicknamed 'Spaghetti Legs' and 'Meatball Head'
Karan clients have included Susan Sarandon, Uma Thurman and Diane Sawyer - and she designed 20 suits for Bill Clinton
Her design inspiration has been her passionate sexual relationships, she reveals in compelling new memoir
She was planning her engagement party with Mark Karan when she met married artist Stephan Weiss
Donna slept with Weiss that night but proceeded to marry Mark
Over 16 years later, after Stephan's wife granted him a divorce, she married her 'soul mate'
She traveled abroad with Demi Moore for enema and leach treatments

Published: 12:02 EST, 22 October 2015 | Updated: 13:36 EST, 22 October 2015

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Fashion designer Donna Karan began her career interning for Anne Klein and ultimately became queen of her own fashion house, known for her exquisite tailoring and fabrics in her couture collection and then her more casual DKNY line. She writes about her career as well as her colorful personal life in her new memoir, My Journey.

Renowned New York fashion designer Donna Karan, 67, was a tall, skinny flat-chested girl while growing up in Queens, New York, mercilessly teased for her stringy body and oversized noggin - nicknamed Spaghetti Legs' and 'Meatball Head'.

Donna was born into the fashion and 'schmatta' business - her debonair father, Gabby Faske, made custom suits. It was her destiny, but the last thing she wanted to do.

She wanted to dance like Martha Graham or Isadora Duncan and when she was a teenager she wanted to sing like Barbra Streisand, the designer reveals in her compelling new memoir, My Journey, published by Ballantine Books.

Donna had a hippie style: She loved the Danskin bodysuits in every color, hot pants, short skirts, long skirts to the floor and gladiator sandals that laced up the leg.

Her mother, Helen, aka 'Richie' and 'Queenie' Rabinowitz, was a Mommie Dearest. She was a model, crazy, temperamental and bipolar.

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Body heat: 'A typical yoga class in the city (I wish),' jokes famed fashion designer Donna Karan. Her sophisticated designs reflected her passionate sexual relationships

Besties: In 1977 Donna's dream of meeting Barbra Streisand came true. Barbra was in love with a sweater of Donna's she'd seen on the cover of Harper's Bazaar and asked tor a face-to-face

Queenie suffered from multiple real and imagined ailments and bottles of pills were everywhere. She flip-flopped from being morose to being a drama queen who put her head in the oven to get attention.

When Donna's father died suddenly after an automobile accident on the Brooklyn Queens Expressway, Queenie packed Donna and her older sister, Gail, off to Camp Alpine in the Catskills in upstate New York. Donna was only three and a half.

A year later, Queenie remarried Harold Flaxman, who owned a dress business in Brooklyn.

Nannies followed to care for the girls. One nanny slept naked with her lover in the same bed with Donna. Another was a drunk and passed out in the locked apartment. Gail had to call the police to knock down the door to rescue her little sister.

Queenie's fears were that someone would break in and she was always nagging Donna to put furniture in front of the door to keep out strangers.

'I was raised to be scared and worried, just waiting for someone bad to come and get me' she writes. 'To this day being alone is my greatest fear'.

Donna had a great relationship with her stepfather but 'my father's death and my mother's distance shaped me in so many ways.

'I look to create a sense of family everywhere I go. Most important, I've learned that I can live with loss.'

A terrible student at reading, writing and math, she dropped out of high school and got a job selling clothing at a boutique on Long Island where the family had moved.

In 1968, she was accepted at the prestigious Parson's School of Design even with her lousy grades.

Donna Karan was a tall, skinny flat-chested girl while growing up in Queens, New York, nicknamed Spaghetti Legs' and 'Meatball Head'

Oh mama: Mom 'Queenie' suffered from multiple real and imagined ailments and bottles of pills were everywhere. She flip-flopped from being morose to being a drama queen who put her head in the oven to get attention

Dapper dad: Donna was born into the fashion and 'schmatta' business - her debonair father, Gabby Faske, made custom suits. It was her destiny, but the last thing she wanted to do

She was happy in the arms of her boyfriend, Mark Karan, and felt protected by a male figure - something she missed in her family without her father. Mark worked at a clothing boutique on Long Island as well.

A summer job with designer Anne Klein segued to associate designer within two years. But she was fired for being too neurotic and making everyone uncomfortable with her anxiety.

Donna had a close, very sexual relationship with Mark and she longed for a family and babies. She felt destined to marry him - she was afraid to be alone.

Shortly after becoming engaged, she was planning an engagement party with a girlfriend in the city when she met irresistible but married artist Stephan Weiss at her girlfriend's apartment. Donna slept with Weiss that night but proceeded to marry Mark.

On the first day back from her honeymoon, she reconnected with Weiss and they began an all-consuming passionate love affair.

She promised Mark she would end the affair when she learned she was pregnant with what she believed to be Stephan's baby although she was sleeping with both men at the time.

She had an abortion but the marriage was doomed - but not before they had a child together.

Donna's personal anxieties motivated her to start seeing a psychiatrist and she stayed in therapy for twenty plus years.

Anne Klein realized Donna had calmed down. She rehired her and they worked closely together creating collections until Anne was diagnosed with cancer.

'I would not be who I am today if not for Anne Klein, period,' she says.

While Anne was in the hospital, Donna was designing the pre-fall collection and pregnant with the child she desperately wanted.

Baby Gabrielle Hope arrived in March 1974 while Anne was in the hospital. Anne died of cancer that same month and Donna became the official heir apparent to Anne's company.

Passion and fashion:' I was drawn to him with every cell in my being,' Karan writes of Stephan. Their affair had been the greatest inspiration for her collection

Easy riders: Donna and Stephan were together even if they couldn't get married. The first time she slept with Stephan was when she was planning her engagement to first husband Mark Karan

'At the center of it all was Stephan. Sixteen and a half years after meeting my sexy, creative soulmate, the love of my life, I was finally marrying him. Stephan wore a white linen double-breasted tux and the biggest smile you ever saw'

Her first job was to lose the fifty-five pounds she had gained during pregnancy.

By 1977, Donna with her close friend and collaborator, Louis Dell'Olio were nominated for the Winnie, the Oscar of fashion – and they moved into the top rank of American sportswear designers along with with Ralph Lauren, Perry Ellis and Calvin Klein.

It was that same year that her dream of meeting Barbra Streisand came true.

Barbra had just bought a raisin-colored fur coat that Louis and Donna had designed for a furrier and Streisand wanted to meet Donna. She was also in love with a sweater of Donna's she'd seen on the cover of Harper's Bazaar.

The showroom was cleaned, all appointments cancelled and all her fall clothes were set up in the design room. Hair and nails were done.

I was taken aback by how short she [Barbra Streisand] appeared. I was expecting a six-foot goddess.

Barbra was escorted into an office and when Donna entered,

Barbra slowly turned around and smiled saying 'Hello'.

'I was taken aback by how short she appeared (she's 5'5'). 'I was expecting a six-foot goddess', Donna recalls.

'"I'm overcome," I said. "I need to sit down and have a Valium."'

Barbra wanted something to match the fur coat – specifically that chenille sweater. She was focused on that sweater.

That wasn't possible. The sweaters had been recalled from stores because they were highly flammable and one had gone up in flames after coming too close to Donna's cigarette.

'I wish, but no. You really can't have one,' Donna told her.

'I want the sweater.' The Voice turned steely.

Barbra wanted the name of the yarn supplier. 'I can't,' Donna told her.

'All right. I will draft a legal waiver indemnifying you and the company should the sweater catch fire. How's that?'

In 1968, she was accepted at the prestigious Parson's School of Design even with her lousy grades.

A summer job with designer Anne Klein segued to associate designer within two years. But she was fired for being too neurotic and making everyone uncomfortable with her anxiety. She would eventually be rehired

Donna fell in love with Haiti and founded Urban Zen in celebration of Stephan's legacy. Urban Zen's mission is to present the work of Haitian artisans to the western world

Donna never saw the document, never sent the sweater but somehow Barbra got one and was seen wearing it on the cover of a magazine.

'When Barbra gets something in her head, she will move heaven and earth to make it happen. I knew I had met my match – and my soul sister'.

Now a suburban working mom taking the Long Island Rail Road daily to the city, Donna ran into Stephan's youngest brother. It had been four years since seeing Stephan and she suggested to Eric that Stephan give her a call.

They reconnected after a snowstorm stranded her in Manhattan with no trains going back to Long Island.

'Stephan and I met and walked down Central Park West in the snow. In the four or so years since I had last seen him, he hadn't changed at all. Neither had our connection. It was instant and passionate, as if no time had passed'.

His wife still refused to give him a divorce and he was living downtown and using a studio in Long Island City, Queens, to paint and sculpt.

'Confusion, passion, sadness, love, guilt – I cycled through those feelings all the time. Yet I couldn't and wouldn't give up Stephan, the center of my emotional turmoil.'

She had always loved Stephan; he was her 'north star'.

'I was drawn to him with every cell in my being.'

Their affair had been the greatest inspiration for her collection.

'The clothes dripped raw sensuality: Fur coats. Skin on skin. Big, seductive cashmere cardigans. Skirts with thigh-high slits.'

Shortly before Mother's Day in 1978, Donna confessed to Mark in front of their psychiatrist that she was still in love with Stephan.

It was the end of that marriage.

Donna and Stephan lived together for six years before his wife, Dale, agreed to give him a divorce.

'Committed as we were to each other, I was thrilled to make it official and plan the wedding to go with it'.

They married on September 11, 1983, at Stephan's mother's house in Hewlett, Long Island.

It was the hottest day of the year. The flowers wilded and died and people were dripping with sweat.

'Despite the sweltering heat, the wedding was magical. My past, present, and future came together under those tents.

'At the center of it all was Stephan. Sixteen and a half years after meeting my sexy, creative soulmate, the love of my life I was finally marrying him.

'Stephan wore a white linen double-breasted tux and the biggest smile you ever saw.'

Donna's career flourished and she was dressing celebrities like Susan Sarandon, Angelica Huston, Isabella Rosselini, Sigourney Weaver, Annete Bening, Uma Thurman and Diane Sawyer.

She made twenty suits for President Bill Clinton

She became close friends with Demi Moore and Liza Minelli. But her best buddy was Barbra Streisand.

James Brolin, Barbra Streisand, Jamie Foxx, Grace Hightower, and Donna at the of Night of Legends Event in East Hampton last year

'I want you to know how much I love my dear, dear friend Donna Karan…and how much I admire and believe in what she is doing as a designer, philanthropist, and visionary,' the megastar writes in Donna's book

Demi Moore in a hand-cut devore dress designed by her friend Donna. The twosome traveled to Austria for daily enemas and leaches were applied to their toxic or stress points to suck out poisons

In the foreword to Karan's book, Streisand writes:

'I want you to know how much I love my dear, dear friend Donna Karan…and how much I admire and believe in what she is doing as a designer, philanthropist, and visionary.

'The side of Donna you haven't read about – she is the most scattered, disorganized human being you'll ever meet. Her attention s fleeing, and she's always changing her mind. She can't remember anything… Chaos is her middle name.

'Donna and I bonded immediately. We were two nice Jewish girls from New York, vacationing, dieting, and laughing – sometimes fighting, but always laughing.'

'Sometimes the road to true love is messy. You have to trust your heart, no matter the circumstances.

In turn Karan writes: 'She is my spiritual sister. Fashion may have introduced us, but our parallel lives and shared hunger for something deeper and more meaningful have been our glue.

'We were destined to be close friends.'

The two frequently visited each other – Donna flying to Los Angeles or Barbra coming to New York.

'We just clicked. We had the same passions, obsessions, and taste in clothes and decor. Stephan called her "wife number two".'

Barbra loves boat trips because they are like floating hotels and you never have to unpack. Donna became addicted to private planes.

Barbra developed a talent for day trading with incredible returns.

They both transitioned into alternative healing and spiritual therapies, dream work, meditation and other exercises.

Life with Stephan was heaven – until he developed lung cancer in 1995 and had a spot removed. Three years later, the cancer struck again.

Donna, here with the Dalai Lama, has sought out psychics, astrologists and card readers and writes that 'psychics have saved my life, no doubt about it'

Donna's worst fear was 'losing the love of my life, my rock'.

Stephan had cancer seven years and then nothing more could be done but to make him comfortable. They renewed their vows in the backyard of their Hamptons home. He was too sick to travel. When he died, she says, 'I was in free fall.'

'Sometimes the road to true love is messy. You have to trust your heart, no matter the circumstances.'

Stephan had been an equal partner in the global success of Donna's company and with their decision to take the company public, the stock never regained its value. But they were still making big money and gave each other big presents. To cheer Stephan up while he was in the hospital, Donna bought him a Lamborghini Diablo.

Donna's friendship with Demi Moore led to a trip to Austria for leech therapy after Stephan's death in 2001.

At Dr. Nonna Brenner's Healing Center in Austria, they had a daily enema and then leaches were applied to their toxic or stress points to suck out poisons.

'Mine were mostly on my back and neck, with a few on my chest. They'd sit there for a half hour until they were so blown up with blood they practically fell off leaving pink rings on my skin. I felt a little light-headed. For days afterward, I felt emotionally lighter, too'.

They look like twins but this is Donna (on the floor) with daughter Gaby, 41 wearing classic Karan frocks

Donna sought out psychics, astrologists and card readers and writes that 'psychics have saved my life, no doubt about it'.

Once she was headed to Florence, Italy on a design trip when the pilot discovered an electrical problem.

Donna wanted to wait out the repair but decided to call her psychic who advised her the number on the plane was a 'bad number' and 'Don't fly it under any circumstances'. She flew out the following day.

Donna fell in love with Haiti and founded Urban Zen in celebration of Stephan's legacy.

Urban Zen's mission is to present the work of Haitian artisans to the wider world.

Stephan, a painter and sculptor, honored those who worked with their hands and it is in his spirit that she now pursues this mission.

Stephan, along with Donna, had founded Donna Karan Collection.

He was considered fashion empire's other half when he died at age sixty-two in 2001.

Birth and death have been Donna's greatest teachers.

'At the end of the day, it's not what you wear or even what you've accomplished that matters. It's who you are, who you love and how you live.'

My Journey by Donna Karan and published by Ballantine Books is available on Amazon