A 92-year-old media mogul’s brief, expletive-ridden deposition was heard yesterday in a Los Angeles court that is charged with determining whether he possesses the mental capacity to manage his personal affairs.
Sumner Redstone’s testimony was recorded on Thursday morning at his mansion in Beverley Hills. It was aired yesterday, at the start of a case that pits the billionaire’s daughter, Shari, against his former girlfriend, Manuela Herzer.
If he is judged to be mentally incompetent after a week-long trial that will expose his personal life to public scrutiny, it could trigger a larger battle for control over a $42 billion empire that includes Viacom and the television network CBS.
Ms Herzer, who had been made a beneficiary of his trust and was charged with the supervision of his healthcare, was ejected from the Sumner household last October. She filed a suit the following month, claiming Ms Redstone and her father’s nurse had taken advantage of his diminished mental capacity and conspired to force her out of the management of his affairs.
“Who is Manuela Herzer?” Mr Redstone was asked by her lawyer.
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“Manuela is a f***ing bitch,” he replied. He repeated this assessment several times in his testimony, which was interrupted by adjustments to his dentures and by an interpreter who was apparently required to translate his slurred speech.
Mr Redstone said that he had once been in love with Ms Herzer and told a lawyer for Ms Redstone that he wanted his daughter to make his healthcare decisions. He said that he had ejected Ms Herzer from his house because “she lied to me”.
Pierce O’Donnell, Ms Herzer’s lawyer, said the testimony proved that the mogul lacked mental awareness. Judge David Cowan seemed to doubt this. “Why does this testimony show that he lacks capacity?” he asked Mr O’Donnell. “Your burden now is a hard one.”
Ms Herzer met Mr Redstone in 2000 when she was a 36-year-old divorced mother of three and he was in the midst of a separation from his own wife of 52 years. They dated for a while and she is said to have declined his proposal of marriage but they remained close even as he married and divorced and dated other women.
Since 2009 he has showered her with gifts of property and cash said to be worth $70 million and she became a beneficiary of his trust. In court papers she said that she moved in with him, at his request, in 2013, to help him manage his healthcare, alongside his then girlfriend, Sydney Holland.
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Ms Holland is said to have been thrown out of the Redstone mansion in August of last year, after confessing infidelity. Two months later, in October, Ms Herzer, too, was ejected.
Lawyers for Ms Redstone have filed documents suggesting that Ms Herzer and Ms Holland received $150 million from her father between 2010 and 2015.