19 Celebrity Wills and Inheritances That Took an Unexpected Turn

Celebrity estates can get complicated fast. There are enormous fortunes, famous homes, valuable intellectual property, family trusts, old wills that were never updated, and, every once in a while, a final request involving thousands of red roses or a very pampered cat.

Some of the best-known celebrity inheritance stories are also more complicated than the headlines suggest. A person may control a trust without personally owning everything in it. An estate's reported value may not be the amount an heir actually receives. And sometimes the strangest part of the story is who received nothing at all.

24/7 Tempo reviewed probate filings, court records, official financial reports, contemporaneous news coverage, and other reliable sources to revisit 19 celebrity wills, estates, and inheritances that took an unexpected turn.

• Inherited from: Gloria Vanderbilt (mother)
• What he inherited: The residue of her estate, with the exact value not publicly established

Anderson Cooper spent years saying he did not expect a giant Vanderbilt trust fund, and his mother's will largely proved the point. Gloria Vanderbilt left her Midtown Manhattan co-op to her eldest son, Leopold Stokowski, while Cooper received the rest of her property. Reports often turn that into a "$1.5 million inheritance," but that figure was an estimate of Vanderbilt's estate, not a verified check written to Cooper. It was still a far cry from the enormous Vanderbilt fortune people assumed remained in the family.

• Received through: Royal succession when Charles III became king
• What he received: The Duchy of Cornwall and its income as the new Duke of Cornwall

Prince William's situation is not a normal inheritance. When Queen Elizabeth II died in September 2022 and Charles III became king, William became Duke of Cornwall and took responsibility for the Duchy of Cornwall, a private estate created in 1337 to provide income for the heir to the throne. He does not simply own the estate like an ordinary piece of inherited real estate, and its capital must be preserved for future dukes. For the financial year ending March 31, 2026, the Duchy reported a distributable surplus of £21.6 million. Royal succession has its perks, but the paperwork is considerably more complicated than being handed the keys to a house.

• Inherited from: Lisa Marie Presley (mother)
• What she inherited: Beneficiary interests and control as sole trustee of Lisa Marie Presley's Promenade Trust

Lisa Marie Presley's death in January 2023 set off a dispute over who should control her Promenade Trust. Her mother, Priscilla Presley, challenged a 2016 amendment that replaced Priscilla and a former business manager as successor trustees with Lisa Marie's children Riley and Benjamin Keough. Benjamin had died in 2020. The family eventually reached a settlement, and a Los Angeles judge approved Riley as sole trustee. The trust includes the family's interests connected to Graceland, while separate sub-trusts protect the interests of Riley's younger half-sisters, Harper and Finley Lockwood. Riley gained enormous responsibility along with her inheritance.

• Inherited from: Carrie Fisher (mother)
• What she inherited: Fisher's living-trust interests and an estate containing about $6.8 million in probate assets, plus intellectual property and publicity rights

Carrie Fisher died on December 27, 2016, followed by her mother, Debbie Reynolds, the next day. Fisher's estate documents named her only child, Billie Lourd, as beneficiary of the Carrie Fisher Living Trust. Probate records later valued the assets passing through Fisher's probate estate at about $6.8 million, including bank and investment accounts, personal belongings, a vehicle, business interests, and rights associated with Fisher's career. The back-to-back deaths also complicated the larger Fisher-Reynolds family estate, but Billie's inheritance from her mother is the part clearly documented in the probate record.

• Inherited from: Paul Walker (father)
• What she inherited: Sole beneficiary of an estate initially estimated at about $25 million

When Paul Walker died in a car crash in November 2013, court records showed that his daughter Meadow was the sole beneficiary of his estate. Probate filings initially estimated its value at roughly $25 million. Meadow later received settlements related to her father's death as well, but those were separate legal matters rather than part of the inheritance itself. In 2015, she founded the Paul Walker Foundation, which focuses on ocean and wildlife conservation, turning part of her father's public legacy toward causes he cared about.

• Inherited from: L'Wren Scott (partner)
• What he inherited: Her entire probate estate, estimated at about $9 million

Fashion designer L'Wren Scott left her entire estate to longtime partner Mick Jagger when she died in 2014. Probate papers filed in Manhattan valued the estate at about $9 million, including a Manhattan condominium estimated at $8 million along with jewelry, clothing, furnishings, vehicles, and other personal property. Scott and Jagger had been together for more than a decade but never married, making her written estate plan especially important. Without it, the outcome could have looked very different.

• Inherited from: Aaron Spelling (father)
• What she inherited: About $800,000 despite her father's fortune being estimated around $500 million

Aaron Spelling created some of television's biggest hits and was estimated to be worth roughly $500 million when he died in 2006. His daughter Tori received about $800,000. That is obviously a significant amount of money in normal-person terms, but it was a tiny fraction of her father's reported fortune, most of which went to his wife, Candy Spelling. Tori has discussed the inheritance publicly over the years, including acknowledging that she could have burned through a much larger amount given her spending habits at the time.

• Inherited from: Joan Crawford (mother)
• What she inherited: Nothing under the will, followed by a settlement after challenging it

Joan Crawford's 1976 will specifically excluded her adopted children Christina and Christopher, stating that she was making no provision for them for "reasons which are well known to them." The two challenged the will after Crawford's 1977 death and eventually settled with the estate for a combined $55,000. Christina published Mommie Dearest in 1978, but the timing matters: Crawford had signed the will before the memoir was published. The book presented Christina's allegations about her childhood, allegations that other members of the family later disputed.

• Inherited from: Jack Benny (husband)
• Unusual final gift: One long-stemmed red rose delivered every day for the rest of her life

Jack Benny built his career as one of America's great radio and television comedians, with his famously cheap persona and terrible violin playing serving as long-running jokes. Offstage, one of his final gestures was considerably sweeter. After Benny died in December 1974, his widow, Mary Livingstone, wrote that she continued receiving one long-stemmed red rose every day and learned that Benny had made a provision for the deliveries to continue for the rest of her life. They reportedly kept arriving until Livingstone died in 1983.

• Inherited from: Robin Williams (father)
• What she inherited: A share of personal property under his trust, while his publicity rights went to charity

Robin Williams' estate plan drew attention for something his children did not inherit. His trust directed clothing, jewelry, certain photographs, entertainment memorabilia, and awards to his surviving children in substantially equal shares. His rights to his name, signature, photograph, and likeness went instead to the charitable Windfall Foundation, with instructions that those publicity rights not be exploited for 25 years after his death. That restriction runs until 2039 and was unusually forward-looking at a time when digital recreations of performers were becoming increasingly realistic.

• Inherited from: James Gandolfini (father)
• What he inherited: A $7 million life-insurance trust, his father's clothing and jewelry, and a share of Italian property

James Gandolfini's estate planning was more complicated than simply leaving his son a percentage of his will. Court documents showed that Michael Gandolfini was already provided for through a trust holding a life-insurance policy worth about $7 million. Under the will, Michael also received his father's clothing and jewelry and a 50% interest in Gandolfini's property in Italy alongside his half-sister Liliana. Years later, Michael played a young Tony Soprano in The Many Saints of Newark, giving this father-son legacy a second, entirely nonfinancial chapter.

• Inherited from: Kurt Cobain (father)
• What she inherited: Trust and estate income along with control of her father's publicity rights

Frances Bean Cobain inherited significant financial interests connected to her father Kurt Cobain's estate. She also gained control of the rights to his name and likeness after Courtney Love stepped down from the company managing those rights as part of an agreement involving a $2.75 million loan from Frances' trust. Divorce filings later offered an unusually detailed glimpse at the money involved: from July 2016 through June 2017, Frances reported receiving about $95,496 per month in royalties from her father's estate plus another $6,784 per month in dividends. She also once owned Kurt's famous MTV Unplugged guitar, which ultimately went to her former husband Isaiah Silva as part of their divorce settlement.

• Inherited from: Michael Jackson (father)
• What she inherited: Beneficiary rights in the Michael Jackson Family Trust alongside her brothers

Michael Jackson's will transferred his assets into the Michael Jackson Family Trust rather than handing individual properties directly to his children. The trust allocated 40% for his three children, Prince, Paris, and Bigi Jackson, 40% for his mother Katherine, and 20% for charity. Paris therefore became a beneficiary of one of entertainment's most valuable and complicated estates rather than simply receiving a lump-sum inheritance. The estate has continued generating enormous revenue while remaining under administration, and Paris has also participated in court proceedings involving how estate money is managed and spent.

• Inherited from: Heath Ledger (father)
• What she inherited: The benefit of his estate after his family gave up the shares left to them

Heath Ledger signed his will in 2003, two years before his daughter Matilda was born. As written, the document left his property to his parents and sisters and did not mention Matilda or her mother, Michelle Williams. After Ledger died in January 2008, his father made clear that Matilda would be provided for. Later that year, Kim Ledger publicly confirmed that the family had gifted everything from the estate to her. It was a remarkably clean resolution to the kind of outdated-will problem that can turn into a years-long family battle.

• Inherited from: Aretha Franklin (mother)
• What he inherited: His mother's primary home with his children, her cars, and a share of music and copyright income

Aretha Franklin's estate became one of the strangest probate cases in recent memory. After her 2018 death, her family discovered two handwritten wills in her suburban Detroit home. One dated 2010 was found in a locked cabinet. A later 2014 document was found between couch cushions. In 2023, a Michigan jury ruled that the couch-cushion document was Franklin's valid will. Under it, Kecalf and his children received Franklin's main home in Bloomfield Hills, while Kecalf was also designated to receive her cars. The document indicated that music and copyright income would be shared among her sons rather than belonging to Kecalf alone.

• Inherited from: Harry Houdini (husband)
• What she inherited: Estate interests and his dramatic collection, while his major magic equipment went to his brother

Bess Houdini became the executrix of Harry Houdini's estate after his death in 1926, but the familiar story that she simply inherited all of his props and secrets is not accurate. Houdini left most of his library to the Library of Congress, his dramatic collection to Bess, and his theatrical effects, new mysteries, illusions, and related equipment to his brother Theodore Hardeen. Bess did possess something more intriguing: a private code she and Houdini had created before his death. She later participated in séances hoping that Houdini could use the code to prove he had communicated from beyond the grave. No convincing message ever arrived.

• Inherited from: Karl Lagerfeld (owner)
• What she inherited: Lagerfeld said he intended to provide for her, but the amount and legal structure have never been publicly confirmed

Karl Lagerfeld adored his Birman cat Choupette and repeatedly talked about making sure she would be cared for after his death. Before he died in 2019, Lagerfeld even said Choupette would be among his heirs. That eventually morphed into headlines claiming the cat inherited a specific slice of his enormous fortune. The problem is that the details of such a bequest have never been publicly documented. Choupette already had money of her own from modeling and advertising work, and she continued living with Lagerfeld's former housekeeper Françoise Caçote. So yes, Lagerfeld intended to take care of his famous cat. No, we cannot responsibly put a verified inheritance figure next to her name.

• Inherited from: Amy Winehouse (daughter, who died without a will)
• What he inherited: Amy's estate alongside her mother, Janis Winehouse, under English intestacy rules

Amy Winehouse died in 2011 without leaving a valid will. Probate records showed assets of about £4.25 million before debts and taxes and a net estate of roughly £2.94 million at the time. Under intestacy rules, the estate passed to her parents, Mitch and Janis Winehouse, while Mitch was appointed administrator. Her divorced former husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, did not inherit. Remarkably, a 2026 High Court decision involving property from Amy's estate again confirmed the basic history: she died intestate, and her estate passed to her parents.

• Inherited from: David Cassidy (father)
• What he inherited: The bulk of his father's probate estate, plus separate retirement and life-insurance benefits

David Cassidy's 2004 will was unusually explicit about one thing: daughter Katie Cassidy and her descendants were not to receive benefits under it. His son Beau was the principal beneficiary, while some music memorabilia went to Cassidy's half-siblings. Early probate filings estimated David's assets at only about $150,000, although later court documents showed Beau was also the beneficiary of a retirement plan worth more than $450,000 and a life-insurance policy worth about $1 million. Those non-probate benefits made the final picture considerably larger than the first headlines suggested.