Throughout Larry King’s 87 years on Earth, he accomplished an awful lot. For example, King became one of the most famous interviewers who didn’t host a traditional late-night talk show. Of course, getting good conversations out of the stars is an art as evidenced by the fact that so many celebrity interviews have gone wrong over the years. Fortunately for the vast majority of people who were interviewed by King, he was so famous in large part due to his ability to have relaxed and revealing conversations with the stars. Sadly, however, nobody is perfect and King memorably had an awkward interview with Jerry Seinfeld.
When Larry King sat down for an interview, he always wanted the resulting headlines to revolve around the answers he was able to get out of his guests. Unfortunately, however, King was no stranger to winding up in the headlines himself, often due to his tumultuous love life. If that wasn’t bad enough, after King passed away he wound up in the headlines one more time due to the battle over his estate.
Larry King’s “Secret” Will Is Revealed
On January 23rd of 2021, the world learned of the unfortunate passing of Larry King. Given the fact that King was alive for 87 years and he accomplished much, most people who learned that he was no longer among the living celebrated his life instead of mourning his passing. When it came to the people who were closest to King, however, it easily could have been much harder to accept Larry was gone. Worse yet, it wouldn’t take long for it to become clear that there was going to be a battle over Larry King’s estate.
According to reports, Larry King left behind a $2 million estate and many, many millions more in a trust when he passed away. With that in mind, you may think there would be no need for anyone to argue about King’s money since there was more than enough to go around. In reality, however, the fact that King was in the middle of divorcing his longtime wife before his passing and that there was a new will complicated things greatly.
Since Larry King and Shawn Southwick were married for more than twenty years and their divorce wasn’t finalized, most people assumed that a lot of his money would go to his wife. However, given the fact that King once said that he and Southwick "just hit a point where we didn't get along", it seemed very possible that Larry no longer wanted to leave anything to Shawn. According to a handwritten will that was revealed following King’s passing, the latter was the case because he left Southwick nothing.
The Battle Over Larry King’s Estate
Putting aside the details of Larry King’s life at the time of his passing, it always seems suspicious when relatives of a rich person produce a handwritten will that leaves more money to them. With that in mind, it makes sense that when the new will was revealed, Shawn Southwick told Page Six that she was going to battle to get a portion of what King left behind.
“We had a very watertight family estate plan.” According to what Shawn Southwick said to Page Six, she and Larry King put together his real will “as a couple” in 2015. “It still exists, and it is the legitimate will. Period. And I fully believe it will hold up, and my attorneys are going to be filing a response, probably by the end of the day.” On top of that, Shawn claimed that the two children she had with King, both of whom were provided for no matter what, had no idea their father had supposedly changed his estate plans.
Over the years, there have been many examples of legal battles over estates that have gone on for years. For example, it is well known that when Anna Nicole Smith’s tycoon husband passed away, the model and his family got into a long-lasting legal battle over his money. With that in mind, most people assumed that when Shawn Southwick revealed she was going to fight in court to get a piece of Larry King’s estate, the lawsuits would last a very long time.
Fortunately for everyone involved, it didn’t take long for Shawn Southwick and the beneficiaries of Larry King’s “secret” will to settle their differences in court. While the details of the settlement are unknown, it is clear that many estate experts felt the new will wouldn’t stand up in court. Of course, when legal experts weigh in on court cases from afar, it is always smart to take their opinion with a grain of salt.
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