Jerry Lewis Reportedly Cut Six of His Children Out of His Will (original) (raw)

Comedic legend Jerry Lewis died at 91 in August, and now, new information has reportedly surfaced about his last wishes. People reports that Lewis cut his first six children out of his will, making it so they will inherit nothing from his estate.

His Last Will and Testament, executed in 2012, was first reported by The Blast. In the will, Lewis apparently "intentionally excluded" Gary Lewis, Ronald Lewis, Anthony Joseph Lewis, Christopher Joseph Lewis, Scott Anthony Lewis, and Joseph Christopher Lewis and their descendants from his will, "it being my intention that they shall receive no benefits thereunder."

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Jerry Lewis and Patti Palmer, circa 1960, with their sons Gary and Ronald.

The six excluded children are from Lewis' first marriage, to Patti Palmer. According to the New York Times, the two were married from 1944 to 1980. A People article about their divorce from 1980 reported she requested a legal separation and $450,000 a year to support their youngest son, Joseph, who died of a drug overdose in 2009. Lewis opened up about Joseph's death to The Hollywood Reporter:

"To this day I don't understand it because it's unfair — not unfair to me, but unfair to him. That he went that way made the unfairness stupidity. But he was my son and he's gone, and there's not a lot I can do about that. I beat myself a thousand times. [My wife] will come to me and say, 'Are we beating ourselves again?' I will say, 'A little bit.' [She'll say]: 'You had nothing to do with that. You sent him out into the world when he was 25. You sent what you thought was a perfect human being. What he did with his time away from you is what the end result showed.' But I'll tell you this: You don't get over that."

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SanDee Pitnick, Jerry Lewis, and Dani Lewis at Jerry\'s 90th birthday party in New York.

Lewis reportedly left his estate to his widow, SanDee Pitnick, and their 25-year-old daughter, Danielle, is next in line for the inheritance. Lewis and Pitnick, a former Las Vegas dancer, were married in 1983, and adopted Danielle in 1992. The father and daughter had a close relationship, and she was working as his manager at the time of his death. "He passed peacefully at home of natural causes with his loving family at his side," she said in a statement following his passing.

None of Lewis's family members has issued a public statement on the will.