The news of Steve Bing’s death came out late Monday, and by Tuesday evening, the LA County Medical Examiner confirmed what was widely assumed: Steve Bing’s cause of death was suicide, sadly. He was 55 years old, and he left behind two children. Sort of. Of course it’s a lot more complicated than that. One of his children is Damian Hurley, the only son of Elizabeth Hurley, who issued the classy statement seen above on her Instagram. The other child is Kira Kerkorian. Bing wanted no part in raising his kids or being involved in their lives in any substantive way. So… what will happen to his massive fortune? Especially since no one knows if he even had a will?
The death of millionaire socialite Steve Bing could revive a family feud over whether his two children – a son with actress Liz Hurley and a daughter with tennis player Lisa Bonder – will inherit the family wealth. Bing, 55, took his own life in Los Angeles on Monday, leaving a $590 million fortune and a tangled legacy involving two children he had hardly met.
Paternity tests proved that Bing was the biological father of Hurley’s son Damian and Bonder’s daughter Kira Kerkorian, but neither grew up in his home. Bing’s father, Dr Peter Bing, last year tried to cut Damian and Kira out of a trust he had set up for his heirs – arguing that ‘I do not consider them my grandchildren’. However, Steve Bing and Liz Hurley joined forces to oppose Dr Bing’s gambit, which was dismissed by a US judge – leaving Damian and Kira in line for a share of the reported $480 million fund.
It is not yet clear who will inherit Steve Bing’s own fortune, or whether he made a will. California law says that the surviving children – in this case Damian and Kira – will normally inherit an estate if there is no will.
Hurley had rejected Bing’s money in 2002 but said yesterday that they had ‘become close again’ recently and spoken on Damian’s 18th birthday. Steve Bing was proved to be the father of Damian Hurley in 2002 by a DNA test which was ordered by a British court. Bing offered to pay $2.9 million into a trust in Damian’s name, but Hurley said the money was ‘not wanted or welcome’ and said she would not accept a penny. ‘I have always made it perfectly clear to Stephen Bing, the father of my son Damian, that I don’t want any financial help from him whatsoever,’ she said at the time. ‘However, following legal proceedings instigated by himself and opposed by me, it appears that one cannot stop someone trying to give you money. Fortunately one can refuse to accept it. This I have done.’
I actually forgot some of that backstory, which is why I included that part of the DM’s coverage. I forgot that Liz Hurley refused to take the money offered by Bing once the paternity test came through. I do remember that scandal though – Hurley thought she and Bing were seriously dating and he tried to ghost her when she got pregnant. It was an international scandal at the time! Anyway, my guess is that Liz Hurley and Damian will not look to have a messy fight in the American courts over Bing’s estate. As for Kira… I have no idea, I really don’t. My guess is that both of Bing’s children will leave it to other family members to fight over.
Photos courtesy of Getty, Instagram.
