The notoriously wild-living star is dedicating his last days to cutting his wife out of his will, and his life. Matthew Denby finds out why.
It’s a bitter family feud so shocking even Hollywood can’t believe it. Actor Dennis Hopper, who is dying of prostate cancer, last week blindsided his wife of 14 years, Victoria Duffy, by summoning divorce lawyers to his bedside.
The move was reportedly instigated by Dennis’s adult daughter from a previous relationship, Marin, 47, amid allegations that Victoria’s taste for the high life has been bleeding the actor dry.
“Dennis told me, ‘I’ve worked so hard to give Victoria everything she wanted, but it only fuelled her appetite for more and more luxury’,’’ a friend of the star told the New York Post.
Things have now become so ugly between Dennis and Victoria, who have a six-year-old daughter, Galen, she’s said to have barricaded herself into the lavish home they share with Marin in an effort to avoid being turfed out.
Victoria has been married to the Easy Rider star for a relatively long time, but under the terms of their pre-nup, she will be eligible for only one quarter of his fortune if they divorce.
“It’s truly a tragedy,” one friend of the couple says of their falling out. “And sadly it’s all about the money and who inherits what.”
Dennis, 73, has been battling prostate cancer since 2003, and it is believed the disease has spread to his bones.
US reports say he may only have weeks to live and is confined to hospital in LA. But although having only a limited time left, he has chosen not to reconcile with his wife, and is dedicating his last days to legal manoeuvrings.
Despite Dennis’s reputation for wild living, friends describe the couple’s 14 years together as “relatively happy”, which makes his sudden demand she leave their beachside compound all the more shocking.
There is much at stake, with three children from his five previous marriages all lining up for a cut of his wealth. Although he blew much of his movie earnings, Dennis’s involvement in the New York art scene paid off handsomely, and he has works valued in excess of $100 million.
“Dennis was worried that paintings and photographs were disappearing, and he didn’t like the explanations,” says a source.
Victoria, 41, was said to have tamed him, after a self-destructive lifestyle that reportedly saw him habitually carrying both a gun and a knife, and consuming enormous amounts of rum, beer and cocaine.
“All my early idols were alcoholics and drug addicts so I took to the bottle and let it carry me through my career,” he recently said. “Then there was the sex.”
It seems Dennis is determined to go out in much the same way he lived: defiant and the centre of attention.
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