Barry Diller was on a hiking trail in Costa Rica when one of his dogs was eaten by a crocodile. His wife, Diane von Furstenberg, was with him. The dog, named Dina, was a clone of a Jack Russell terrier named Shannon, who had been part of their lives since 1999, when Diller found her loose on a road in County Wicklow, Ireland, and flew home with her in his luggage. Shannon lived for over a decade between Beverly Hills and a Connecticut country estate called Cloudwalk. When she died, Diller paid a laboratory in South Korea $100,000 to clone her DNA. He went back four more times. Dina was the one he had brought to Costa Rica.
In November 2025, Tom Brady announced something in the same category: his current dog, Junie, is a clone of a pit bull mix named Lua, who died in December 2023. Brady used Colossal Biosciences, a Texas-based biotechnology company he had invested in. DVF and Diller had used a South Korean laboratory called Sooam Biotech, nine years earlier.
Both were also in Venice in June 2025, among the guests at the wedding of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sรกnchez.
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What Connects Tom Brady and Diane von Furstenberg
Tom Brady and Diane von Furstenberg share two documented connections: both were guests at the Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sรกnchez wedding in Venice in June 2025, and both paid a biotechnology company to clone a dog they had lost, DVF in 2016 and Brady in 2025.
Brady, 48, retired from the NFL in February 2023 after 23 seasons and seven Super Bowl championships. He is two seasons into a 10-year, $375 million contract as Fox Sports’ lead NFL analyst, a record for sports broadcasting, and holds minority ownership stakes in the Las Vegas Raiders, Birmingham City FC, and the Las Vegas Aces.
DVF, 79, launched her label in New York in 1972 and introduced the wrap dress in 1974. She sold the business in 1983, survived tongue cancer at 47, and rebuilt her fashion brand into one estimated at $1.2 billion. Her husband, Barry Diller, 84, is chairman of IAC and Expedia. They have been married for 25 years.
The Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sรกnchez Wedding in Venice
The wedding of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sรกnchez ran over three days in Venice in June 2025. The welcome party took place near the Madonna dell’Orto church on June 26. The ceremony was held on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore on June 27. The guest list of roughly 200 included Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, Queen Rania of Jordan, Kim and Khloรฉ Kardashian, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kris Jenner, and Sam Altman. Lady Gaga and Elton John reportedly performed at the reception.
Brady was photographed leaving the Gritti Palace Hotel alongside Usher on the wedding day. DVF attended with Barry Diller.
DVF has a home in Venice independent of that event. In late February 2026, eight months after the Bezos ceremony, she hosted the launch of her Fall 2026 collection there for roughly 100 clients of her new European distribution partner, Italy-based Brama Group. The collection is titled “La Serenissima,” the historical name for Venice.
The Dog Each of Them Paid to Clone
Diane von Furstenberg, Barry Diller, and Shannon
Shannon arrived in Diller’s life as a stray on a road in County Wicklow in 1999. He brought her home in his luggage. For over a decade she was a fixture at the couple’s annual pre-Oscars parties in Beverly Hills, where she once climbed onto the roof of their hacienda while Joan Collins and Diana Ross stood in the garden below. DVF named a wrap dress design after her.
Shannon died in the early 2010s. Diller paid Sooam Biotech, a South Korean laboratory, $100,000 to clone her DNA. The first two confirmed clones were named Deena (also written DiNA, a play on DNA) and Evita. A third clone (named Tess, short for test tube) came later. By the time Diller published his memoir “Who Knew” in May 2025, the total had reached five. DVF named a second dress after Deena.
One of those five was Dina, the clone Diller took to Costa Rica. After the crocodile, he told the Irish Times: “A country I’ll never return to.”
He calls the four that remain Shannon’s daughters.
Tom Brady and Lua
Brady’s dog Lua was a pit bull mix he had adopted with his ex-wife Gisele Bรผndchen. Lua died in December 2023. Brady arranged for a blood sample to be drawn from her before she died to preserve her DNA. He is an investor in Colossal Biosciences, the Texas-based company he used to produce the clone. The result, a dog named Junie, was publicly announced in November 2025. Colossal released the news on the same day it acquired Viagen Pets and Equine, the company that had previously handled pet cloning for Barbra Streisand and Paris Hilton. Viagen’s standard fee is $50,000 per dog.
Brady told People Magazine: “A few years ago, I worked with Colossal and leveraged their non-invasive cloning technology through a simple blood draw of our family’s elderly dog before she passed.”
Where Brady and DVF Are in 2026
Two seasons into his Fox Sports contract, Brady has settled into the role. NFL viewership on the network rose 6% year on year during the 2025-26 season, averaging 18.7 million viewers per game, the second-highest NFL average Fox has recorded since tracking began in 1988. NoBull, the performance apparel brand he is invested in, reached a $1 billion valuation in February 2026 after a $50 million funding round. Brady also joined the investor group behind the NFL’s new professional flag football league, announced in late March 2026, ahead of the sport’s scheduled appearance at the 2028 Olympics.
DVF relaunched into European wholesale through the Brama Group partnership in early 2026, with showrooms in Milan and Paris. In March she released a limited-edition beauty collection with Estรฉe Lauder called “InCharge,” timed to International Women’s Day. Her granddaughter Talita von Furstenberg, 26, runs the TVF for DVF creative line within the brand. DVF reclaimed control of her label in 2024.
Diller’s memoir “Who Knew,” published in May 2025, included his public acknowledgment of his sexuality for the first time after five decades of marriage. DVF spoke to Variety about it: “To me, he opened 50 years ago.”
The four surviving clones are still with Diller, who is 84 and calls them Shannon’s daughters. Brady named his clone Junie. DVF is 79 and running her label from a home in Venice. Brady is heading into his third Fox Sports season this fall. None of the dogs carry the name of the one they came from.
