Former Estée Lauder CEO William Lauder fathered a child with New York socialite Taylor Stein. While "Dancing Bear" cooed at the baby via email, he wanted to keep his illegitimate daughter secret from his mother.

Lauder's lawyers say that Stein and her lawyer, Edward Hayes, broke a confidentiality agreement that was supposed to prevent his mother, Evelyn, from ever learning he had an affair that led to a baby girl named Djuna. "This is exactly what Mr. Lauder didn't want to happen," his lawyer said in court yesterday. "He did not want to look his mother in her face and say 'Sorry.' "

Hayes contends that it's not mom that the confidentiality was designed to protect, but rather William's wife Karen. He claims Karen's friends were the ones who leaked word of Djuna to the press — and that she's the one to blame for the court case, having allegedly told Lauder that she would divorce him and prevent him from seeing their two daughters if he continued his efforts to visit Djuna and Stein.

In an email, Hayes says he only expressed one regret about his remarks:

I did say that I should not have said that I have more respect for some of the contract killers I have represented [than I have for] Karen for forcing William to do this. At least one contract killer I am fond of took offense that I would even discuss in the same sentence someone like himself who works for what he has, does not injure innocent people, and would certainly not be dissuaded from seeing his children by threats of money, with a wife who told her husband that she would ruin him financially and his relationship with his other children if he saw his daughter by another woman. (He also said, "I would kill any motherfucker that told me I could not see my daughter" — but I thought that better left unsaid.)

We're not sure what the lesson is here, except that having a baby mama seems expensive and hitmen sure are touchy these days.

(Photo by New York Social Diary)