Sumner Redstone’s Ex-Girlfriend Stood to Gain House and $50 Million, New Court Filing Shows
In the protracted battle over who should control Sumner Redstone’s health care, one-time girlfriend Manuela Herzer has argued she rightly should have that responsibility and that she is motivated only out of her love for the 92-year-old media magnate.
But Redstone’s lawyers have argued for weeks that Herzer was motivated not by her love of Redstone but her desire to cash in on his future estate. On Tuesday, a court filing with Redstone’s lawyers suggested how much was at stake: $50 million and ownership of his Beverly Park home, valued at another $20 million.
That’s how much Herzer, 52, stood to gain before October of last year, when Redstone ejected her from his home, removed her as his health care agent and directed that the home and $50 million go to his charitable foundation, according to the court filing.
The revelations come a week after Redstone’s daughter, Shari, stated in a declaration to a Los Angeles probate judge that her father’s well being had improved markedly since Herzer was removed from his life. Shari Redstone said that Herzer had received “$70 million in cash/assets” from her father over the last six years and that her fight to be restored as his health care advocate was “causing my father tremendous stress and agitation.”
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David J. Cowan is set to rule at the end of the month on a motion by Sumner Redstone’s lawyers to throw out Herzer’s attempt to be re-installed as his health care agent. The billionaire’s lawyers, in their latest court papers, belittled Herzer for asking that declarations from Redstone’s doctor and his daughter be disregarded. “Ms. Herzer claims ‘prejudice,’ but refuses to answer the obvious question: ‘To whom?'”
Herzer’s lawyers did not immediately respond to the latest arguments from Redstone’s attorneys. However, her lead counsel, Pierce O’Donnell, has previously rejected claims that Herzer was merely after the billionaire’s money. “The truth is that Manuela Herzer was a devoted, loyal and caring friend of Sumner Redstone for almost two decades,” the attorney said in a statement last week. “The attacks on her are baseless and transparent attempts to obfuscate the truth about Mr. Redstone’s tragic mental incapacity and manipulation.”
Redstone stepped aside last week as chairman of CBS and Viacom and was replaced by Les Moonves and Phillipe Dauman, respectively.
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