The late journalist's wife also values his estate to be much lower than $2 million.
The legal battle over the late Larry King's estate continues. Larry's wife, Shawn King, has filed court documents to be appointed administrator of his estate.
The late TV personality wrote an updated will dated Oct. 17, 2019, leaving his entire estate to his five children, two of whom are now deceased. Shawn was not included in the amendment and is currently contesting it, as well as the efforts by his 59-year-old son, Larry King Jr., to be administrator of the estate. In court documents obtained by ET on Friday, she petitioned to be appointed administrator of her late husband's estate and included a copy of Larry's will dated July 7, 2015, which states that he nominates her to serve as the executor of his estate. A hearing on the case is scheduled for Feb 24.
In the new court documents, 61-year-old Shawn also estimates the value of the property of Larry's estate to be substantially lower that what Larry Jr. estimates it to be. Shawn estimates the value of the estate to be $350,000, while Larry Jr. estimates it to be worth $2 million.
Larry filed for divorce from Shawn in August 2019 after 22 years of marriage, though their divorce was never finalized. He stated in his amended will that he wanted his children -- Chaia, Andy, Larry Jr., Chance and Cannon -- to get all of his fortune and divide it equally. Sadly, his 65-year-old son, Andy, died in July 2020, while his 51-year-old daughter, Chaia, died a month later.
Shawn filed a legal objection to the updated will on Tuesday, which states that despite Larry's divorce filing, "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's "official" will, the formal document that was filed in 2015. 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 Larry 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 Larry Jr.
"Clearly, as the recipient of these improper gifts, Larry Jr. is conflicted in representing Larry’s estate," the documents 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."
ET spoke with Shawn late last month, and she said she and Larry remained close until his death on Jan. 23. He was 87 years old. Shawn shared two sons with Larry -- 21-year-old Chance and 20-year-old Cannon.
"Larry and I, you know, we never finalized our divorce," she noted. "In my heart, I didn't think it was really going to happen and it never did. We were partners in every sense of the way, in business, and in, well, first in our family and then in business. But we're a close family. You know, family is the most important thing, and God."
She also revealed his final words to her.
"We were able to do FaceTime in the hospital and it was hard for him to talk, but the one message that he wanted to make sure I heard was, 'I love you, take care of the boys,'" she said.
Watch the video below for more.
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