Larry King’s widow has filed court documents asking to be named the executor of his estate after being excluded from the late TV host’s revised will.
Shawn Southwick King, who was estranged from her husband at the time of his death in January, submitted a Petition for Probate, according to People on Wednesday.
Shawn is acting based on Larry’s will from 2015 in which she was named executor a she seeks to ensure that document’s validity.
A revised handwritten will dated October 2019 and found after his death stipulated that his estate should be divided equally between his five children and cut out Sawn completely.
A court hearing on the matter has been set for May 4, People reported.
Larry King’s widow Shawn has filed court documents asking to be named executor of his estate after being excluded from the late TV host’s revised will. A hearing has been set for May 4
Following his death from sepsis at age 87 and the discovery of the revised will, the veteran journalist’s son Larry Jr. was appointed executor of the $2 million estate.
Larry, 59, is the eldest of King’s five children and has two living half-brothers Chance, 21, and Cannon, 20, from King’s marriage to Shawn.
Half-siblings Andy and Chaia both passed away in 2020.
The TV personality’s handwritten will of 2019 read: ‘This is my Last Will & Testament. It should replace all previous writings. In the event of my death, any day after the above date I want 100 percent of my funds to be divided equally among my children Andy, Chaia, Larry Jr., Chance & Cannon.’
Shawn, 61, was married to Larry from 1997 until 2019, when Larry filed for divorce for the second time after initially retracting his 2010 filing.
The pair subsequently embarked upon a rocky divorce battle with Shawn, his seventh wife, seeking $33,100 in monthly spousal support.
Complicating matters relating to the will, the couple’s divorce had not been finalized at the time of Larry’s death.
Shawn, pictured in 2018, was estranged from her husband at the time of his death in January. She submitted a Petition for Probate based on his 2015 will, according to People Wednesday.
Following the Larry’s death in January at age 87, a revised handwritten will from 2019 was found in which he left his $2 million estate to his five children and excluded Shawn completely
Larry Jr. 59, pictured second from left, was appointed executor based on his father’s revised will. His half-siblings Andy, far left, and Chaia, third from left, both died in 2020. Also pictured with their parents are Larry and Shawn’s two sons Chance, now 21, and Cannon, now 20
Shawn has claimed she was blindsided to learn that her estranged husband had completely disinherited her before his death.
She has claimed that she and King had a ‘very watertight family estate plan’ they put together ‘as a couple’ in 2015 and has suggested that Larry could have been pressured into making the revision.
‘It still exists, and it is the legitimate will. Period,’ she told Page Six. ‘And I fully believe it will hold up.’
Shawn claimed to Page Six that she had become close with her former husband once more, despite a rumored estrangement when they first filed for divorce, and they spoke to each other every day.
‘Based on the timeline, it just doesn’t make sense,’ she said of their alleged estrangement and reconciliation.
‘It beats me!’ she also responded when asked about why he may have amended his will.
She added that sons Chance and Cannon were also ‘shocked’ to learn that she had been written out of the will.
Larry filed for divorce from his seventh wife in 2019 but the divorce had not been finalized at the time of his death. Shawn has claimed she and King had a ‘very watertight family estate plan’ put together in 2015 and has suggested Larry could have been pressured into the change
‘Based on the timeline, it just doesn’t make sense,’ she told Page Six, adding she believes the 2015 document ‘will hold up.’ She added that sons Chance and Cannon (pictured in 2018) were also ‘shocked’ to learn that she had been written out of the will
If Shawn is successful in winning a share of the money, it would likely only net her $300,000, as the $2million could be divided between her, King’s three surviving children, and the descendants of Andy and Chaia.
‘It’s the principle,’ she claimed of her legal challenge.
Larry’s death in hospital in Los Angeles came after he successfully battled COVID-19 only to succumb to an infection.
His advanced age and poor health placed him at elevated risk. He had suffered numerous health issues in the past, including a heart attack, prostate and lung cancer, a stroke, and type two diabetes.
His death was not directly related to his hospitalization for COVID-19 in December, according to his death certificate obtained by People.
Shawn has said that King’s last words to her were over a video call from the hospital: ‘I love you, take care of the boys.’
Larry succumbed to sepsis in a LA hospital in January after successfully beating COVID-19. Shawn has said his last words to her over a video call were: ‘I love you, take care of the boys’
She told Entertainment Tonight: ‘It was an infection, it was sepsis. 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 sank.
‘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.’
Following his death, his three surviving children paid tribute to him in a statement posted to Facebook.
‘We are heartbroken over our father’s death, and together with our extended family mourn his passing,’ Larry, Chance and Cannon said.
While ‘the world knew Larry King as a great broadcaster and interviewer,’ he ‘was the man who lovingly obsessed over’ their daily schedules, they shared.
In addition to caring for their well-being, the trio said their father took pride in their accomplishments, regardless if they were ‘large, small, or imagined’.
Following his death, his three surviving children paid tribute to him in a statement posted to Facebook. ‘We are heartbroken over our father’s death, and together with our extended family mourn his passing,’ Larry, Chance and Cannon said (pictured at his 80th birthday in 2013)
Larry and Shawn King are seen in 1997, the year they married, above
THE HIGH-PROFILE ROMANCES AND UNSUCCESSFUL MARRIAGES OF LARRY KING
Larry was known for his string of high-profile romances and unsuccessful marriages, eight in total to seven different women.
In his 1982 autobiography, Larry King described himself as a great date, but a lousy husband. Part of his problem was due to an abiding need to be seen with models and celebrated beauties.
1. FREDA MILLER (1952-1953; annulled)
King’s first walk down the aisle was with his high school sweetheart Freda Miller at 18, but the union was annulled the following year at the behest of her parents.
2. ANNETTE KAYE (1961-1961)
King then married his second wife, Annette Kaye in 1961 but they separated within months.
Their relationship was brief but fruitful and resulted in a son that King didn’t meet until 33 years later.
‘I knew there was a Larry King Jr out there, I’d heard that, but I didn’t know he was mine. The marriage was very short and she told me if it’s a boy, I’m gonna name him Larry King Jr,’ explained the elder King to The New York Post in 2009. ‘Then I never heard again.’
3. ALENE AKINS (1961-1963) (1967-1972)
Larry King (right) stands with Playboy Bunny Alene Akins
Shortly after his relationship with Kaye was over, King went on to marry Playboy Bunny Alene Akins with whom he adopted a son named Andy and had a daughter named Chaia.
King and Akins separated after a couple of years, only to remarry again in 1967 and divorce for a second, final time in 1972.
4. MARY ‘MICKEY’ SUTPHIN
During his four-year separation from Akins, King found time to wed his fourth wife, Mary ‘Mickey’ Sutphin, with whom he had a daughter named Kelly.
Kelly was later formally adopted by Sutphin’s second husband.
5. SHARON LEPORE (1976-1983)
Larry King and fifth wife Sharon Lepore
In 1976 King tied the knot with a former math teacher and production assistant named Sharon Lepore.
The union lasted seven years, making it King’s second longest marriage to date.
Two years into the marriage King declared bankruptcy, owing more than $300,000. He and Sharon were divorced in 1982.
6. JULIE ALEXANDER (1989-1992)
Larry King is pictured with his sixth wife (and seventh marriage), Julie Alexander in 1990
He remained single for a long stretch of six years between his sixth and seventh marriage to Philadelphia-based businesswoman Julie Alexander.
In the summer of 1989, King met Julie and proposed on the very first date. They married three months later, were separated by 1990 and formally divorced two years later. ‘I love being in love,’ he told Anderson Cooper in a 2009 interview.
7. SHAWN SOUTHWICK (1997-2019)
King was last married to Shawn Southwick, with whom he shares two sons, Chance and Cannon
In 1997, King married his seventh and last wife, Shawn Southwick – a singer, actress and TV host that was 26-years his junior.
The couple married in a Los Angeles hospital room three days before King underwent heart surgery to clear a clogged blood vessel. They welcomed two sons, Chance, born March 1999, and Cannon, born May 2000.
On their tenth wedding anniversary in 2007, Southwick joked that she was ‘the only wife to have lasted into the two digits.’ Three years later, the couple filed for divorce in 2010 after Shawn had an affair with her son’s much younger baseball coach. At the same time, rumors were swirling that King was having an affair with Shawn’s sister, which both parties vehemently denied.
The couple reconciled but eventually called it quits after 22-years of marriage in August 2019. Southwick said she was ‘totally blind sighted’ by King’s bombshell court filing.
