During that time, Gabor was “locked away in her mansion laying in a hospital bed being fed through tubes in her navel, not able to speak, see, write or hear. Nor knowing who she was or how famous she was,” her rep Ed Lozzi said in a statement to PEOPLE.
While she was incapacitated, long-held tensions between her husband, Frederic von Anhalt, and her only child,Francesca Hilton, continued to rise. Hilton, whose father, hotel magnate Conrad Hilton, was married to Gabor from 1942 to 1947,diedsuddenly of an apparent stroke/heart attack in 2015. She was 67. Before her death, Hilton and von Anhalt, her mother’s ninth husband, frequently battled over Gabor’s finances and care.
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The family’s bad blood made it back into the courts in 2012, when Hilton filed a petition requesting an independent conservatorship be created to monitor the health and financial interests of her mother. A judge granted the request, but Hilton’s plan backfired when the court appointed von Anhalt as temporary conservator. While the judge ordered the money only be used towards Gabor’s medical needs, Hilton claimed her stepfather was using the money to throw lavish parties, according to theLos Angeles Times.
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After her death last year, Hilton’s friend and publicist toldRadar Onlinethat she never reconciled with her estranged stepdad,Forbesreports. In fact, shortly before she died, Hilton left von Anhalt with a parting insult,reportedlysaying, “My mother wanted to be a princess, so she married an evil queen.”
But the drama continued even after her death, which occurred so suddenly that no plans had been made for her final resting arrangements. With no immediate family outside of her mother, Hilton’s body remained in the morgue for days until von Anhalt himself took control. After initially calling for an investigation into her death, alluding that she had committed suicide, authorities ordered an autopsy and did not allow her stepfather to claim the body.
Von Anhalt told theNew York Daily Newsthat he did not tell Gabor of her daughter’s death, explaining, “Zsa Zsa is not aware of the news and I will not let anybody get close to my wife and tell her. She will not know about it … She is a target for strokes. She’ll be 98 in a couple weeks with blood pressure on the rise. I don’t want her to have bad news.”
He also addressed his relationship with Hilton, saying, “I didn’t get along with her, but my wife loved her.”
Although theDaily Newsreports Gabor’s home was sold to a private investor in 2013 for a reported $11 million, Von Anhalt is allowed to remain in the house until 2019, per the agreement made when the house was purchased. However, he announced in a press conference outside the Bel-Air house on Monday that he wasn’t sure if he would stay.
“I can stay here until September 2019, plus 120 days … but I decided last night it’s very tough for me to be alone in a big house like that,” he said.
Von Anhalt also said that his choice to let Gabor stay at the house instead of receive care at a faculty was in her best interest.
“I was criticized from her family … but I said to myself, ‘This is the right way to do it.’ And I do it. I don’t listen to anybody. And that’s how she made it that long,” von Anhalt stated. “If I would have put her in a home in 2002, she would be gone long ago.”
source: people.com
