And in the end, of course, all the children were left out of the loop. Sometimes he pointedly cut out two of the children - Linda and Hap - while being generous with Hilary and Rusty. Each version of the will showed different gifts to each child: zero, $100,000, $250,000, $500,000, $1 million, $2million, $3 million, to as much as 65 percent of the whole shebang.
Over the years, the children's inheritance seesawed. And he wrote several letters to his wife spelling out how he would like her to distribute what was left of his assets after her death.īut he left it entirely to her discretion.Īnd, he wrote, if any of the kids squawk and contest the will or trust - as they are doing now - she is to leave his children nothing. He created a trust in 1993, then changed that, too. There are a dozen versions of his will on file, from 1971, on the eve of his marriage to Denise Minnelli, the ex-wife of Hollywood director Vincente Minnelli, to 1995, a few months before his death.
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The senior Hale was clearly ambivalent about how to divvy up his estate. Like the various permutations of Hale's wills. Perhaps most intriguing are some of the documents provided as exhibits in the suits. The siblings are claiming varying chunks of the estate, from a couple of Impressionist paintings to a vast Sonoma County ranch and 65 percent of the assets. Three of the complaints were filed by the namesake, Prentis Cobb Hale III, nicknamed "Rusty." The fourth was filed by the other children: Hilary Hale Spencer, Linda Bucklin and Hap Hale. As soon as I get my muzzle off me, I promise, I will tell."įor now, gossip mongers must content themselves with tidbits gleaned from reams of court papers filed in the four civil suits. "My lawyer put a muzzle on me," she said in her lilting Slavic accent, clearly as disappointed as her gossip-seeking caller. "It's a family affair," said William Bucklin, the husband of a daughter, Linda Hale Bucklin.Įven the normally irrepressible Denise Hale is mum. "I'm going to keep my thoughts to myself, thank you," said a son, Hamilton B. None of the relatives or lawyers wants to talk about the court cases or about why Hale disinherited his own children.
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The kids, feeling dissed at being left out of the final will, have initiated a slew of lawsuits and countersuits, full of accusations and innuendo, all couched in polite legalese.
Instead, he left everything - or at least, millions, in real estate, art, stocks, furnishings and plain cash - to society grande dame Denise Minnelli Hale, his second wife of 25 years and his kids' stepmother. It all started in February 1996, when department store magnate Prentis Cobb Hale, an heir himself to the Carter Hawley Hale stores dynasty, died at age 85, leaving nary a dime to his four middle-aged children. And not just any ol' money, but the kind of old money that families with money are especially sensitive about - The Inheritance.
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