TV king Reg Grundy was ‘heartbroken’ over spat with child Viola La Valette
TELEVISION tycoon Reg Grundy gave his estranged daughter $320,000 a year, several homes in Sydney and Los Angeles and a luxury lifestyle, but it seems he could never win her love.
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- Reg Grundy’s daughter and widow fight for TV king’s estate
- Australian TV legend Reg Grundy dead at aged 92
TELEVISION tycoon Reg Grundy gave his estranged daughter $320,000 a year, several homes in Sydney and Los Angeles and a luxury lifestyle, but it seems he could never win her love.
Instead, according to his wife Joy, the TV legend’s only child Robin Kim Grundy — now 61 and known as Viola La Valette — refused to see her father, cutting off all contact 22 years before he died a heartbroken man.
Mrs Grundy, who became Grundy’s second wife in 1971, has vowed to defend a legal claim from Ms La Valette for a huge slice of his estate.
“I must respect Reg’s wishes,” Mrs Grundy, who inherited her husband’s estate after his death last year aged 92, told The Daily Telegraph in an exclusive interview.
“She was 56 when he wrote his last will and his decision was to leave her what he believed was an appropriate and just amount, which he had been giving her for decades, and which enabled her never to work in her life, to fly first class and live in five-star hotels.”
She revealed the last phone conversation between Ms La Valette and Mr Grundy, who built a global TV empire with Australian hits such as Neighbours and Wheel of Fortune, was in 1994.
His daughter, then known as Robin Kim Grundy, demanded her father disembark a cruise in Alaska and fly to her at a New York hotel to discuss their relationship.
On arrival the following day Mr Grundy discovered his daughter had checked out an hour before without explanation or a message.
READ MORE: TV pioneer Reg Grundy built empire up from one game show
Ms La Valette was born during Mr Grundy’s brief marriage to Lola Powell in the 1950s and is seeking tens of millions of dollars in addition to the existing annuity to support her lifestyle, which has included annual cosmetic procedures, five-star global travel and hotels and ballet lessons.
She is claiming the $320,000 a year she inherited for life is inadequate. After attending a court hearing on Monday over Mr Grundy’s estate, Joy Grundy said she felt she needed to reveal details of her intensely private husband’s relationship in an effort to protect his hard-won reputation as a gentleman, loving father and ethical television tycoon.
“His daughter had rejected him and denied him contact,” Mrs Grundy said. “Reg was a very private gentleman. The great sadness he carried was the loss of his daughter.”
Mrs Grundy said the New York incident was a final blow in an emotional rollercoaster directed by Ms La Valette, who insisted her father was to know nothing about her despite receiving funding from him for her luxury lifestyle.
Mr Grundy bought his daughter apartments in Sydney’s Bellevue Hill and Lavender Bay and Beverly Hills in Los Angeles. He transferred his mother’s Double Bay apartment to his daughter and in 1995 “to his shock” she gave it to her milliner, Mrs Grundy said.
“There was never any tension over money,” she said. “What ever she desired, we gave her.
“I think Reg loved her, always. But perhaps in the last 10 years he was numb. He accepted she had irretrievably destroyed the relationship. He was heartbroken.”