King amended his will in October 2019, two months after he filed for divorce from Shawn.
Larry King's wife Shawn is contesting his amended will, in new legal documents obtained by ET. The late TV personality wrote an updated will in 2019, leaving his $2 million estate to his five children, two of whom are now deceased. Shawn was not included in the amendment.
The handwritten will, obtained by ET, is dated Oct. 17, 2019; King filed for divorce from Shawn two months earlier, in August 2019, after 22 years of marriage.
King stated in his amended will that he wanted his kids Chaia, Andy, Larry Jr., Chance and Cannon to get all of his fortune and divide it equally. Sadly in 2020, King's 65-year-old son, Andy, died in July while his 51-year-old daughter, Chaia, died a month later.
A source previously told ET that Shawn planned to contest the updated will in court. On Tuesday, she filed her official legal objection, which states that, despite King's divorce filing, which was never finalized, "Shawn was actively involved in Larry’s career and businesses, was a partner in many of them, and continued in that role up to Larry’s death, and currently. Shawn is the one with the most knowledge of Larry’s businesses, assets and wishes."
Shawn's filing contests King's handwritten 2019 will, claiming that it is not sufficient to replace King "official" will, a formal document which was filed in July 2015 and named Shawn as the executor of King's estate. The 2015 will also names Shawn the sole trustee of the King Family Trust, an estate planning trust in charge of King's name and likeness rights, as well as the sole shareholder of King's companies, LK Productions and Larry King Enterprises, Inc., which would allow her to appoint officers and directors to those companies, if necessary.
The documents also claim that Shawn recently became aware of a "secret account," through which King would "make gifts to various individuals from community property, without Shawn’s knowledge." According to the filing, these gifts include over $266,000 paid to his son, Larry King Jr.
"Clearly, as the recipient of these improper gifts, Larry Jr. is conflicted in representing Larry’s estate," the docs claim. "Shawn further believes that Larry Jr. exerted undue influence over Larry in connection with some or all of these gifts and with the handwritten will."
Rachel Stockman, president of Law&Crime Network, told ET of King's handwritten will on Tuesday, "You can see a portion of it he crossed over, but if this holds up, it is clear that he essentially cut his wife Shawn out of his will."
King died on Jan. 23 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, just five months after Chaia's death. He was 87.
Shawn told ET that her late husband died from a sepsis infection, unrelated to COVID-19. That cause of death was later confirmed by his death certificate.
"It was an infection, it was sepsis," she shared. "Well, he was finally ready to go, I will tell you that. You know, he never wanted to go but his sweet little body was just, it had just been hit so many times with so many things and once we heard the word COVID, all of our hearts just sunk. But he beat it, you know, he beat it, but it did take its toll and then the unrelated infection finally is what took him, but boy, he was not gonna go down easily."
See more on King in the video below.
RELATED CONTENT:
