Robin Williams’ widow forced to fight his children in court
By Tribute on November 5, 2015 | 11 Comments
The widow of the late great comedian and actor Robin Williams continues to suffer from grief more than a year after his tragic death, but it isn’t only the emotional grief of losing her beloved husband. She has also had to contend with legal issues.
It was only two and a half weeks after Robin’s death. She was out of their marital home. She was still in shock and then something inconceivable happened to her.
Married to Robin for three years, but with him for a total of seven years, Susan Schneider, 51, was accused by his children, Zachary, Zelda and Cody Williams, of trying to modify a trust agreement. In turn, she was forced to fight her stepchildren in order to keep her marital home and wedding gifts.
She told ABC news: “In fact [they said], ‘While you’re out of the house, we need to come in and take everything out. Eventually once we’ve gone through it all, you can decide – tell us which items are yours. And we’ll decide whether or not that’s true.'”
In the end, matters were settled out of court, and the settlement allows her to remain in the home and receive living expenses for the rest of her life.
“After being in the trenches with my husband for so long and trying to solve this thing, after seven years together in love, I was told that I might not be able to be able to keep our wedding gifts.”
In an emotional interview, Susan Williams said the shock and pain she felt at her husband’s death was deepened by the fact that she was not allowed back into the home they had shared.
“Two and a half weeks after Robin’s death I was still in shock. I wasn’t back in our home. I was told I might not be able to keep our wedding gifts. That, in fact, while you’re out of the house we need to come in and take everything out,” she told ABC News.
Mrs. Williams says she keeps his slippers in the same spot he left them in on the bathroom floor, and still feels his presence in the house. ~Sharon Salsberg
Comments & Discussion
Similar Articles
Live-action Aladdin + animated Aladdin re-release: DVD review
September 11, 2019 | Leave a Comment
We take a look at the new live-action Aladdin and the 1992 animated Aladdin, both of which released on Tuesday on Blu-ray and their respective bonus features.
Shelley Duvall’s cry for help and Dr. Phil’s ‘exploitative’ interview – update
November 18, 2016 | 13 Comments
A clip for today’s (Nov. 18) episode of Dr. Phil featuring actress Shelley Duvall has sparked a wealth of controversy. Check out the video and the details here.
Guy Ritchie slated to direct live-action Aladdin
October 11, 2016 | 2 Comments
Guy Ritchie will direct an upcoming live-action adaptation of the animated classic Aladdin. Check out who’s on board to produce and who’s written the screenplay!
Sorry – if she loved him that much, money and material things wouldn’t matter that much.
He owed his kids more than his mid-life crisis relationship.
Mike Hunt – Give your mindless head a shake!!! The first part of your comment should apply to his selfish and inconsiderate children!!!! He owed his kids NOTHING!! Are you aware that a parent is not……NOT obligated to leave ANYTHING to their children?? A parent’s responsibility is to bring a child into the world, care for it, and teach it how to face adulthood and take care of itself – nothing more. Those adult children all earn their own money, and have their own lives and don’t need to suck the life or lifestyle out of Robin’s wife – either legal or common-law. They sound like a bunch of PATHETIC vultures and have NO respect for the woman their dad deeply loved – and therefore – no respect for their dad or his feelings or life choices…..and you speak in defense of those nitmorphs.
I agree with Kitty. Plus Mike Hunt’s comments are stupid and insensitive.
Kitty, I agree with you 100%!
Are any of us entirely sure that the focus of the article on the possessions wasn’t from the writer and not the widow? It seems more to me like the writer decided to focus on the wedding gifts and not the marital home. Sorry, but kicking a widow out of the home she shared with her husband sounds more like the kids were greedy and not her. We all know how writers for things like this like to sensationalise and put their own spin on things. I say shame on the Tribute.ca writer who chose to make this woman look bad rather than showing people how unfairly she was treated.
Went through same bs as SOON AS SOMEONE DIES ,families come out of the woodwork & it’s all about $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ fights,arguments ,ete,etc.I walked away & said “you figure it out” Ha
What article did you read anonymous? There was no spin in this article, if anything, it seemed sympathetic to the widow. However, I’m not surprised someone saying nasty stuff doesnt want to give their name, “anonymous.”
I think the widow was entitled to the house and wedding gifts. Robin Williams would have wanted her looked after to some extent. There did not seem like any hint that he would take his own life. He could have lived well into his 90s and she may have stayed by his side. Who knows.
Why did anything need to be done right away? Courtesy. as well as the state they were all in, would have dictated the order of the day. Surely they had a trustee to referee some protocol for all family involved quickly…where was he(she)? None the less, her home is her home. No one should have been in, unless invited, especially under the circumstances. The home or items were’nt going anywhere and I assume she wasn’t either at the time.
Well meaning family members make bad decisions during stressful times but it doesn’t look well on the kids to descend on the grieving step-mother. The facts are, she was married to him. He chose his life. How he lived it and how he went out. He was in fact a brilliant troubled man. Clearly he was under a great deal of stress. What a loss for all. He will be greatly missed
Good articles. How troubling.Hard enough to lose one’s spouse. How much harder to lose him to suicide; then add the shock and insult from his children on top of all that. Very sad. Speaks volumes about his children. Robin and Susan look so happy together in the pic. If she made him happy, and he made her happy, then that’s what its all about. One would hope that his children would be happy for their father to have found someone to complete him.
S’pect