NEW YORK - Brooke Astor, the 104-year-old grand dame of New York high society, is being fed a pauper's diet and is denied sufficient medical care and even decent heating during the winter, according to documents filed in a lawsuit by her grandson, Philip Marshall.
He accuses his father, Anthony Marshall, who is Astor's only child, of deliberately stinting on every aspect of his mother's care, while paying himself US$2.3 million annually for services as her legal guardian. Backing the suit are former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and David Rockefeller.
The grandson asserts that: "Her bedroom is so cold in the winter that my grandmother is forced to sleep in the TV room in torn nightgowns on a filthy couch that smells, probably from dog urine."
His father has "turned a blind eye to her, intentionally and repeatedly ignoring her health, safety, personal and household needs, while enriching himself with millions of dollars".
With a first hearing set for August 8, the suit alleges that Astor is the victim of abuse, and seeks to have 84-year-old Anthony Marshall removed as her legal guardian and replaced by Annette de la Renta, wife of fashion icon Oscar de la Renta, and by JP Morgan Chase Bank. As head of the Astor Foundation, she over the years gave US$200 million to various institutions. Anthony Marshall declined comment.
- INDEPENDENT
Lawsuit claims high-society figurehead living in squalor
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