Dennis Hopper’s widow Victoria Duffy (pictured left) is in a heated estate battle with her adult stepchildren that is an extension of the legal wranglings that started when Hopper filed for divorce in January — a divorce that wasn’t final by the time the 74-year-old actor’s death in May from complications of prostate cancer, as discussed in HousingWatch’s “Dennis Hopper Heirs Sell to Give Widow Hell.”
Unresolved divorces can spill over into a fight among heirs, says legacy attorney Andrew Mayoras, co-author with his wife, Danielle, of “Trial & Heirs: Famous Fortune Fights!” (Wise Circle Books), which uses celebrity inheritance catastrophes and courtroom clashes over estate contests as a way to give advice to families.