Anne Heche’s family have been left battling out the distribution of her estate, following the Hollywood star’s death earlier this year, as reported in the Daily Mail.
Ms Heche died from injuries sustained in a fireball car crash in August in Los Angeles. She had driven her Mini Cooper into a house, where it exploded, and she was left badly burned and in a coma. Her life support machine was turned off on 14th August.
A coroner ruled that the Emmy-award winning film and television actor died from inhalation injuries and severe burns, and the death was ruled an accident.
Control over the will
Ms Heche died without leaving a will, and her oldest son, Homer Laffoon (20) has applied for control over her will and for he and his half-brother, Atlas Heche Tupper, 13, to be made Ms Heche’s sole heirs. He also wants to be named at Atlas’s legal guardian.
However, Atlas’s father, the actor James Tupper, says he was the named person charge of Ms Heche’s estate in an email from when they dated in 2011. In a legal filing, he says Homer is too young, unemployed and that he was estranged from his mother and half-brother.
Control of assets
In the email, James Tupper says Ms Heche wrote that she wished all of her assets were controlled by himself and used to raise her children and then be given to the children.
The actor also says Homer changed the locks on the apartment Ms Heche shared with her younger son, allegedly preventing Atlas from retrieving his belongings. He says the two half-brothers have not been in contact since Ms Heche died.
Homer’s legal team told TMZ they were confident that the oldest son would be the eventual winner in court after he was temporarily appointed in charge of the estate.
Value of the estate
In the original petition to the court, Homer says it is not clear how much money or property Ms Heche had. The court will need to determine the value of her estate and work out what properties she owns.
In 2021, reports circulated that she was selling her Los Angeles Lake Cottage for around $2 million, although this property was joint owned with an ex-partner. She is also thought to have owned another home in Los Angeles worth $4 million.
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