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Revealed: why Hopper wanted deathbed divorce
Wife Victoria loses her inheritance if she’s not living with him when he dies
The final days of the Hollywood actor-director Dennis Hopper, terminally ill with prostate cancer, are beginning to rival a Hopper movie for bizarre behaviour. Having suddenly announced in mid-January that he wanted a deathbed divorce from his wife Victoria Duffy, the 73-year-old star has since won a restraining order which forbids her to go within 15 yards of him.
Why Hopper would do this is now much clearer after the judge in the divorce case unsealed a copy of the 'prenup' Hopper and Duffy signed before their wedding 14 years ago.
Under the terms of the agreement, in the event of a divorce Hopper would keep all his property - including his complex on Venice Beach, Los Angeles, and large parcels of land in Arizona and New Mexico - and his art collection.
In addition, Victoria would have only 60 days to get out of the marital home. That gives her until March 11.
Most important - and key to the recent goings-on - Victoria was due to inherit 25 per cent of his estate if she and Hopper were still married and living together at the time of his death. But if they are divorced, she gets nothing. (Though she is allowed to keep what she brought to the marriage - two computers, two bookcases full of books, her granny's furniture and a 1973 VW Karmann Ghia.)
So now we know why Hopper is so desperate to stay alive - so that the divorce can proceed and Victoria's 60-day limit pass by.
Quite why Hopper wants his wife to inherit nothing is not so clear. She claims he's under pressure from his older children from a previous marriage, who now stand to carve up a great inheritance.
Hopper's doctor, David Argus, insists the Easy Rider and Blue Velvet star is of sound mind, even if he does not have long to go. And he also claims that Hopper has a better chance of survival if Victoria stays away from the hospital where he's dying - hence the restraining order.
"It is my belief and recommendation that the less Mr Hopper has to do with his estranged wife at this time, the more likely he is to have his life extended," Argus said.
Hang on in there, Dennis. ·
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Marge Margot - I concur. We in the neighborhood want Dennis around a bit longer than Vicky may want. Bye Vicky, don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out!
Victoria deserves nothing...she's obviously a gold digger, who saw her salvation from the dead end job as waitress/hostess job when she 'ensnared' Mr Hopper 14 years ago.(he, being 30+ years older than the twenty something Victoria).it's not rocket science!! .she had absolutely nothing, no education, no career or future and knew, as all gold diggers do, that her ONLY chance at becoming wealthy was to marry an older rich man...
She milked him for years, rode on a high horse (proverbially and literally, as he bought her all the show horses she asked for, plus a ranch)....alienated many of his true friends with her arrogance and rudeness. Countless numbers saw through her 'act'. which was profound, hypnotic, thorough, and exceptionally revolting..
To demand that the will be read, as he lay in bed in excruciating pain from the cancer in his bones at Christmas time...is the stuff horror movies are made of...
To have kept the little child away from her dying father at Christmas, a cruel blow to both father and child...most likely the last christmas they could have shared! Knowing this full well, she absconded with the child not telling Dennis where she was going.....he had to find out from her LAWYER, according to reports....cruelty and evil have no limits, it seems, with this woman....
She abandoned him when he needed her most...during a horrendous, painful battle against bone cancer last summer to rent a home in the Hamptons, with the little girl......
.This is a very sad story, indeed, and the saddest of all is that the child has been (and is still being) used as pawn in her mother's game......wow..Victoria
take your VW, books and computers and go back to the bottom where you came from...yuck....
Dennis will surely provide for the little girl....as she is one of his children...
The truth will prevail in this horrific story of greed, manipulation, arrogance and abandonment.....