LOS ANGELES – The estranged daughter of ailing screen legend Zsa Zsa Gabor is set to ask a Los Angeles court on Tuesday to appoint a conservator to oversee her 95-year-old mother’s affairs, her attorney said yesterday.
In the latest round of a bitter dispute between Francesca Hilton and Gabor’s ninth husband, Frederick von Anhalt, Ms Hilton says she fears that Ms Gabor is being isolated from her family and that her financial affairs may be exploited.
Ms Gabor is bedridden in her Bel Air home and has been fed by a tube since suffering a stroke, breaking her hip and having a leg amputated.
She has been in and out of hospitals over the last two years and is cared for by Mr von Anhalt.
Ms Hilton’s lawyer claimed, in a statement, that she had recently discovered Ms Gabor’s home is in default over missed mortgage payments and that Mr von Anhalt recently secured a $700,000 loan against the property.
Ms Hilton (64), Ms Gabor’s daughter from her second marriage to hotel baron Conrad Hilton, wants a court to decide “what is best for her mother, to determine whether Zsa Zsa is getting the best care she can afford, whether Zsa Zsa is being isolated or allowed to be with family and friends who love her, and whether her funds are being managed in her best interests”.
Mr von Anhalt could not immediately be reached for comment.
Attorney Kenneth Kossoff said that “in spite of her conflicts with von Anhalt, Francesca has been hoping he had Zsa Zsa’s interests at heart”.
However, having just recently learned that he took out a $700,000 loan, and that there was a notice of default recorded against the property in late February 2012 because he apparently has not been paying Zsa Zsa’s mortgage, “it became clear to Francesca that if she did not seek to protect her mother, then no one else would”.
The conservatorship petition, to be presented in the Los Angeles superior court, will allow the court to investigate Ms Gabor’s health, assets and total environment.
The Hungarian-born actress starred in 1950s films Moulin Rouge and Lili and became a fixture on the Hollywood celebrity circuit by virtue of her multiple marriages to wealthy men.
Ms Hilton, who is an actress and writer, has been estranged from her mother since a 2005 lawsuit involving family finances which was dismissed by a Los Angeles judge.
In the past year, Mr Von Anhalt has put the couple’s Bel Air mansion up for sale for $15 million.
He has also announced plans to auction Ms Gabor’s fur coats to help pay for her medical care and he claims that he plans to give Ms Gabor another baby through egg donation, artificial insemination and a surrogate mother.
– (Reuters)