Robin Williams’s Widow and Children Tangle Over Estate

Robin Williams’s Widow and Children Tangle Over Estate

By DAVE ITZKOFF FEB. 2, 2015


Zak Williams, Robin Williams and Susan Schneider Williams in 2012. Credit Kevin Mazur/WireImage, via Getty Images  

Nearly six months after the death of Robin Williams, the Academy Award-winning actor and comedian, his widow and his children have become engaged in a contentious legal dispute over his estate.

Court documents filed in December and January outline a bitter disagreement over money and property between the widow, Susan Schneider Williams, who was Mr. Williams’s third wife, and Zak, Zelda and Cody Williams, the comedian’s children from two previous marriages that ended in divorce.

At stake is not only a portion of the wealth that Mr. Williams accumulated in a film, television and stage career of some 40 years, but also cherished belongings that include his clothing, collectibles and personal photographs.

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In legal papers filed just before Christmas in San Francisco, lawyers for Mrs. Williams presented her view as to what she is entitled to from the estate. This petition complained that some property was “unilaterally removed” from their home “days after Mr. Williams’s untimely death.”

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As a result, the papers assert, since she lost “her husband through a shocking and emotionally charged event,” Mrs. Williams has not been “given time to grieve her loss free from the frenetic efforts to interfere with her domestic tranquillity.”

Mr. Williams’s children — Zak, 31, his son by his first wife, Valerie Velardi; and Zelda, 25, and Cody, 23, his daughter and son by his second wife, Marsha Garces Williams — filed their response in January.

They say in their filing that they “are heartbroken” that Susan Schneider Williams — who they note was married to their father for “less than three years” — has “acted against his wishes by challenging the plans he so carefully made for his estate.”

Read more:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/03/movies/robin-williamss-widow-and-children-tangle-over-estate.html

Robin Williams' widow Susan Schneider 'fights his three children over personal property left in the late comedian's will'

By MailOnline Reporter

Published: 17:36 EST, 2 February 2015  | Updated: 19:22 EST, 2 February 2015

Robin Williams' widow Susan Schneider has filed a lawsuit against the late comedian's three children in a fight over property left in his will, TMZ report.

The site reports that Schneider has filed legal documents complaining someone entered the house she shared with Williams days after his death - following his tragic suicide in August last year - and removed belongings that she felt entitled to.

The New York Times have reported that the court documents were filed in December and January in a bitter legal dispute over his estate.


Lawsuit: Robin Williams' widow Susan Schneider (pictured here in November 2009) is fighting his three children over personal property left in the late comedian's will, TMZ report


Dispute: Zelda Williams, 25 - pictured here with father Robin in 2009 - is said to be at the center of a lawsuit against her and her two other siblings, from the late comedian's third wife Susan Schneider

Read more:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2937079/Robin-Williams-widow-Susan-Schneider-fights-three-children-personal-property-left-late-comedian-s-will.html

Widow, children of Robin Williams fight over estate

ASSOCIATED PRESS
February 2, 2015, 5:01PM
Updated 59 minutes ago.



FILE - In this Nov. 13, 2011 file photo, Susan Schneider, from left, Robin Williams, and Zelda Williams arrive at the premiere of "Happy Feet Two" at Grauman's Chinese Theater, in Los Angeles. Williams' children and wife are fighting over the late comedian's estate in a California court. In papers filed in December 2014 in San Francisco Superior Court, Williams' wife, Susan, accuses the comedian's children from two previous marriages of taking items without her permission. (AP Photo/Katy Winn, File)

SAN FRANCISCO — Robin Williams' children and wife are fighting over the late comedian's estate in a California court.

In papers filed in December in San Francisco Superior Court, Williams' wife, Susan, accuses the comedian's children from two previous marriages of taking items without her permission. She asks the court to exclude the contents of the Tiburon home that she shared with Williams and was bequeathed to her from the jewelry, memorabilia and other items Williams wanted the children to have.

The children, Zachary, Zelda and Cody, counter that Susan Williams is trying to change the trust agreement and rob them of the late actor's clothing and other personal items.

Read more:

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/entertainment/3474252-181/widow-children-of-robin-williams

Excerpt:

In his will, Robin left his estate in its entirety to a trust whose beneficiaries included his three children. It was updated after he and Susan tied the knot in 2011 with provisions for her. She also has two children from a previous relationship.

Zak, Zelda, and Cody say Susan's filing "adds insult to terrible injury" and is a means to "prevent them from receiving what their father wanted them to receive." They also allege that she "acted against [their father's] wishes by challenging the plans he so carefully made for his estate."

According to TMZ, the late actor left his personal effects, including his Oscar for the movie Good Will Hunting, movie memorabilia, action figures, graphic novels, theater masks, and other items to his kids.

https://celebrity.yahoo.com/blogs/celeb-news/robin-williams-s-widow-and-three-kids-head-to-court-over-his-estate-000907714.html

Wow, AD! I just stumbled on this and you have had it for weeks! 

Robin Williams' family prepare to fight for his fortune

THE family of Robin Williams are to fight a bitter court battle over his £32.5million fortune just months after his suicide.

".....Among items both Ms Schneider and his children are claiming are his watches, said to include several rare and valuable timepieces, that she says were not included in jewellery left to his children.

Although her lawsuit acknowledges all his clothes were left to the children, she wants to keep the ring he gave her and the tuxedo he wore for their wedding in 2011.

Zak, Cody, and Zelda’s countersuit, however, claims they were unable to get their father’s possessions because Ms Schneider has “changed all the locks and installed security cameras” at the house.

Their spokesman Allan Mayer said the claim that they took valuables “is both despicable and wholly untrue”, while a long-time friend of Williams said: “This is now a broken family and that would have broken his heart.”...."
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/558216/Robin-williams-family-war-fortune

Robin Williams Channel 5 suicide film 'featuring lookalike porn film star' adds to family's pain

22:38, 15 February 2015  
By Halina Watts

A close family friend of the Oscar winner said the broadcaster should be “ashamed” for trying to profit from his tragedy

Robin Williams’ grieving relatives will be “utterly dismayed” that the suicide actor’s death is being recreated in a Channel 5 show.

A close family friend of the Oscar winner said the broadcaster should be “ashamed” for trying to profit from his tragedy.

It is believed the man portraying him in the documentary is a professional Robin Williams lookalike from France called Alain Poudensan, who has also starred in porn films under the name Alain L’Yle.

Mr Poudensan, 60, uses the name Alain Robin when impersonating the American star.

The Alain Robin website shows a photo of the lookalike with his arm around star Robin.


Doppelganger: Alain (left) with Robin.

Read more:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/robin-williams-channel-5-suicide-5169745

Attorneys for Robin Williams's heirs spar in court over estate

SAN FRANCISCO | BY EMMETT BERG
Tue Mar 31, 2015 11:52pm EDT


Reuters) - A probate judge on Monday instructed attorneys for the estate and heirs of Robin Williams to take eight weeks to work out disputes over property and money between the three adult children of the late comedian and his widow.

Susan Schneider Williams seeks items like the tuxedo her husband wore to their 2011 wedding and art and furniture from their home in Tiburon, California, where Williams committed suicide in August 2014. There is also a dispute over allowances to maintain that home, where she still lives.

Her attorney, James Wagstaffe, asked Judge Andrew Y.S. Cheng in San Francisco Superior Court to postpone the disposition of Williams's will for at least two more months, while a trustee for his estate and an attorney for his children lamented the will had gone to probate court.

Read more:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/01/us-people-robin-williams-idUSKBN0MQ27820150401

Judge asks Robin Williams' widow, children to settle estate battle outside courtroom

By VERONICA ROCHA

MARCH 30, 2015, 4:57 PM

judge is asking Robin Williams’ widow and his adult children to try and settle their dispute over the late actor’s estate before a court hearing in June..

Susan Schneider Williams filed a petition in December, saying his three children are claiming memorabilia that was bestowed to her. She also claimed some of her husband’s belongings were taken from their Tiburon home without permission.

At a court hearing Monday, the judge asked Williams and the actor’s children to resolve their differences informally and if they couldn’t, to return June 1.

But the fight over the late comedian’s property may ultimately be decided by his trustees.

“Susan’s contention of ambiguity is entirely irrelevant because the trust is clear and unambiguous about who has the 'final and absolute' authority to determine the disposition of the tangible personal property: that power is vested in the trustees,” the actor's trustees, Arnold Kassoy and Joel Faden, said in court documents.

Read more:

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-robin-williams-estate-court-20150330-story.html