Larry King’s widow went to court to challenge a handwritten will that intends to divide the talk show host’s property between his children.
Shawn Southwick King argues that her husband had “questionable mental capacity” at the time the will was signed, just two months after he filed for divorce. According to his lawyers, King had just suffered a stroke and was susceptible to “outside influences”.
King died on January 23 at the age of 87. He left Shawn and his two sons, Cannon and Chance, as well as Larry King Jr., a son from a previous relationship. At the time of his death, the divorce had not yet been finalized.
In a petition filed on February 10, Larry Jr. presented the handwritten will, dated October 17, 2019, which states that King wanted “100% of my funds to be divided equally among my children”
At the time, King had five children. Two of them – Chaia and Andy – died weeks apart in 2020.
In his filing on Tuesday, Shawn argues that the handwritten will “has no legal effect”. She says this conflicts with the will he signed in 2015, in which he was appointed executor of the estate. She also became the sole administrator of the King Family Trust, which appears to hold most of her husband’s assets.
She also accuses her stepson of exercising undue influence over her father in recent years. She claims she recently discovered a “secret account”, of which King gave her son more than $ 260,000. She claims that inappropriate gifts were owned by the community and suggests that she may try to recover some or all of them.
In his petition, Larry Jr. argued that his father and Shawn were no longer together at the time of his death. Their house had been sold and they lived separately.
But Shawn’s lawyers say King has allowed the divorce petition to lose momentum and that the couple could still have reconciled.
“After the request, the parties went to counseling, were still talking, and reconciliation remained possible until Larry’s health conditions made it impractical,” the suit said.
Larry Jr. asked the court to appoint him a special estate administrator. He also said that new directors needed to be appointed to his father’s companies: Larry King Enterprises and LK Productions. He said that someone needed to pay several bills and that King’s assistant and health workers were not paid. He also said that King’s image was being violated by online marketers and that action was needed to prevent it.
Shawn replied on Tuesday that the companies are loan companies, which no longer have active businesses due to the death of her husband. She also claims that they are part of the trust she controls.
According to Shawn’s testimony, King separated from Larry Jr.’s mother before Larry Jr. was born. She claims that King never met his son until he was in his 30s, and that he didn’t know about Larry Jr.
“The petitioner has never been involved in Larry’s career or business and it would be highly inappropriate to put him in a position to represent Larry’s estate,” says his lawsuit.
A hearing was provisionally scheduled for February 24 in the Los Angeles County probate court.