Elizabeth Hurley Lashes out After Son Damian Cut From Father Steve Bing's Will
Elizabeth Hurley is horrified by the 'callous' treatment from her late ex-boyfriend Steve Bing's [...]
Elizabeth Hurley is horrified by the "callous" treatment from her late ex-boyfriend Steve Bing's father, who cut Bing and Hurley's son Damian Hurley out of Bing's will. Bing took his own life in June 2020. The movie producer and financier was 55. He reportedly died thinking his family was taken care of, but his father, billionaire Dr. Peter Bing, appealed the changes Bing made to his will before his death.
Bing's relationship with Damian, 19, was almost nonexistent until he called him for the first time before Damian turned 18, reports the Daily Mail. Before his death, Bing changed his will to make sure Damian and his daughter from a previous relationship, Kira, would be financially secure. Bing beat Peter's first attempt to exclude Damian and Kira from family trust funds before his death. Peter recently appealed the decision again and won, the Daily Mail now reports. Damian could have been entitled to up to $250 million before the decision.
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Hurley, 56, remained silent on the issue until she told the Daily Mail in a statement this weekend that she is appalled by the "callous" way Peter has treated his own grandson. "When Stephen took his own life, he died thinking his children were going to be taken care of," Hurley said. "What Stephen wanted has now been callously reversed. I know Stephen would have been devastated."
Lisa Kerkorian, Kira's mother, agreed with Hurley. "As a mum, I wonder why on earth this had to happen," Kerkorian told the Daily Mail. "Why make two innocent kids into victims?"
"Damian's grandfather, Peter Bing, had attempted to have Stephen's children, including Damian, disregarded as his grandchildren in the irrevocable trust he had previously set up," Hurley added. "Stephen fought very hard in his last year to have his children recognized and repeatedly told me how incredibly important this was to him. He was happy beyond belief that the trial verdict ruled that Damian was to be treated like his sister's children as far as the trust was concerned." The Bedazzled star said she was "relieved" that Bing would never know that Damian's family was successful in their appeals.
The fortune that was thought to be going to Damian and Kira, 23, will now go to the children of Bing's sister Mary. The will battle headed to the courts in the last years of Bing's life. Bing previously refused to acknowledge he was Kira and Damian's father and even wrote a will while Hurley was pregnant that would cut out Damian. However, he changed his will to include the two. This led to court action from Peter, who wanted Damian and Kira cut out of the "grandchildren trusts" he set up, arguing that Bing's children were born out of wedlock.
In July 2019, Hurley and Kerkorian teamed up for the first time to stop Peter's appeal and won. However, four months after Bing died, Peter, 90, appealed the decision and a judge ruled that Peter could now cut Damian and Kira out. "Damian and Kira have been disinherited from the Bing family trust," Kerkorian told the Daily Mail. "There's no recourse, they can't go back. They lost. It's been very painful for them and left a family void for Damian and Kira to deal with."
Bing was found dead in his Century City, California apartment on June 22, 2020. His death was ruled a suicide. "Our time together was very happy and I'm posting these pictures because although we went through some tough times, it's the good, wonderful memories of a sweet, kind man that matter," Hurley wrote in an Instagram tribute last year. "This is devastating news and I thank everyone for their lovely messages."