New Orleans Saints and Pelicans owner Tom Benson apparently does not like his daughter and grandchildren. And to hear Benson talk, they apparently feel the same way about him.
In a deposition given by Benson last March, he stated that he wanted to leave “zero” in a family trust saying that it was because, in his words, “tried to kill me for one thing.”
When asked, “How so?” Benson replied, “By picking on my wife and when I wasn’t feel[ing] very good, they were very hostile.”
He continued: “They attacked me, you got to know. That’s why I don’t want to leave them anything. OK? I found out they didn’t love me very much, trying to stab me in the back, wanted to take over everything, brought me to court saying I was crazy. You don’t need any more than that.”
It seems as though this has stemmed when Benson wanted to insert his third wife into his business ventures and leave her as his successor instead of his daughter and grandchildren. They tried to claim that Benson was “mentally incompetent” and thus wasn’t in the right frame of mind to make that kind of decision, thereby staying on as successors to Benson’s business empire.
This seems like something straight out of Arrested Development. A rich owner getting up there in age wants to name his third wife his successor while his daughter and grandchildren all want to make him mentally incompetent and thus retain their power as successors. This just goes to show that even rich families can be just as or even more dysfunctional than regular families.
[ESPN]
