Who is Victoria Perry? All about Harvard economist Larry Summers' first wife amid Epstein email controversy

Former Harvard president and economist Lawrence H. Summers is under intense scrutiny following the release of newly uncovered correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein. Public curiosity has grown about his personal life that includes fresh interest around his first wife, Victoria Perry.

Victoria Joanne Perry had earned an impressive set of academic and professional credentials long before she had met him. The daughter of Charles H. Perry and Joanne Springer Perry was raised in a household rich with finance and academia.

Her father was in securities, and her mother taught mathematics at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Their daughter grew up to become a scholar in her own right, graduating summer cum laude from Yale and later earning a degree in law from Harvard Law School.

Lawrence Summers, former US Treasury secretary under Bill Clinton, said he would step back from public commitments after documents showed he asked Jeffrey Epstein for advice on pursuing an extramarital relationship with a female mentee.⁠ https://t.co/2LbHKmxL4H pic.twitter.com/vaylLBGm1Z

— Financial Times (@FT) November 18, 2025

When she became engaged to Summers in 1984, Perry was newly employed as an associate at law firm Hale & Dorr, based in Boston. The couple wed that September, which was Summers' first marriage.

Lawrence Summers, at the time, was building his own reputation as an up-and-coming economist, having just completed a Ph.D. from Harvard and finished a stint on the President’s Council of Economic Advisers.

A look into Victoria Perry's life with Lawrence Summers as the former Harvard president faces criticism for his link to Jeffrey Epstein

The couple had three children together - twin daughters, Pamela and Ruth, and a son, Harry. During Summers’ early career in academia and policy, Perry largely stayed behind the scenes, with her husband advancing to more influential positions of power including chief economist at the World Bank, Treasury Secretary and eventually president of Harvard University.

Their marriage did not survive Summers’ move into the presidency at Harvard in 2001. Summers married Harvard English professor Elisa New in 2005, following years of dating.

But while his enduring relationship with New would become a topic of campus discussion in the course of his troubled presidency, Perry herself would remain a completely private figure following her divorce.

🧵DEEP DIVE INTO THE AUTHORS.
Lawrence Summers met with Jeffrey Epstein more than a dozen times after Epstein’s conviction—then took a $110,000 donation from him for his wife’s nonprofit, which made poetry videos. This was in 2016, so the records are not in my datset. https://t.co/6bXL3RR5ec pic.twitter.com/EttiFpnDs9

— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) February 10, 2025

Summers’ name appears in more than 23,000 documents released by the House Oversight Committee as an individual who remained in touch with Jeffrey Epstein up until shortly before his arrest.

The emails, which contained deeply personal exchanges and discussions about Summers’ romantic pursuits, led Summers to apologize for his conduct publicly and announce he would step back from professional obligations to “rebuild trust.”

Today, Victoria Perry is a woman who exists largely as a successful legal scholar and attorney, one with a tragic story that grew darker largely through her connection with her ex-husband.

As Lawrence Summers comes under scrutiny, resignations and increased public pressure, the name Perry appears as a reminder of the more private years before he became a national figure.