At the beginning of the year, Dennis Hopper was given just weeks to live and the first thing he did upon hearing the news…….file for divorce from his wife. (His 5th wife for those keeping count.) While Dennis managed to live well beyond the few weeks that his doctor’s gave him back in January, he was unable to see the divorce through before he passed away last week.
So where does that leave his wife and other heirs? “Battle Royale” might be my first guess.
Under the couple’s prenuptial agreement, his wife Victoria is slated to get 25% of Dennis’ estate, plus the proceeds of a life insurance policy. The other heirs of Dennis may want to lawyer up however, because according to TMZ she is only entitled to her share under the prenup if the couple was “married and living together” at the time that Dennis died.
While ultimately up to the judge overseeing the estate administration, making a case against the current wife may just work. Victoria was reportedly living in a guest house on Dennis’ property, but not in the family home, and it is public knowledge that he was in the middle of trying to get a divorce when he died. The trouble for the other heirs is that Victoria’s lawyer’s no doubt instructed her to drag her feet every step of the way so she could hang on until Dennis passed away. She did just that and now it appears she can make a viable claim that in fact they were still technically married and living on the same property together.
Now we’ll just have to wait and see if “separated and living within shouting distance” is close enough to “married and living together” for the trier of fact.
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