Music producer and reality TV star David Gest was still known as Liza Minnelli’s ex-husband at time of his death
IT was almost 10 years since their divorce, but headlines announcing David Gest’s death in a London hotel yesterday at age 62, still emphasised his identity as Liza Minnelli’s ex-husband.
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LESS a kiss to build a dream on, David Gest’s eight-second devouring of his first and only bride Liza Minnelli at their ostentatious $3.5 million nuptials in 2002 presaged marital disaster.
The 16-month union ended with Gest suing Minnelli for $10 million damages for spousal abuse.
The veteran entertainer countersued, claiming Gest stole at least $2 million she earned while performing in shows he produced, and complaining she did not know she had paid for their New York wedding.
Although almost 10 years since their divorce, headlines announcing Gest’s death in a London hotel yesterday at age 62 emphasised his identity as Minnelli’s ex-husband, a role shared with three others, including the late Australian entertainer Peter Allen.
A Los Angeles-born music producer, Gest won stardom and popularity in Britain after spending weeks in outback Australia for ITV1’s I’m A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here!, winning an audience of 10 million viewers in 2006, followed by a spot on Celebrity Big Brother. He was planning to tour Britain in July with his latest show, called David Gest Is Not Dead But Alive With Soul Tour!
In the accusations and counter-accusations that followed his divorce, in 2010 Minnelli told US talk show host Joy Behar she was until recently unaware she paid for her wedding to Gest, when Michael Jackson was best man and a black-draped Elizabeth Taylor was matron-of-honour. Their 300 guests at New York’s St Regis hotel included actresses Joan Collins, Mia Farrow and Janet Leigh and singers Petula Clark and Elton John and property developer Donald Trump, along with Jackson brothers Tito, Marlon and Randy.
The couple met when Gest was producing the highest-rated special in US music history, the 2001 Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Celebration. Minnelli was a longtime friend of Jackson’s, while Gest boasted of a childhood “hanging out” at the Jackson compound in Encino, LA, where the Jacksons settled in January 1971.
Born in Los Angeles on May 11, 1953, one of Gest’s few interviews about his childhood in Encino described how beatings by his father “made me a tough kid because they taught me to fear no pain. I still don’t”.
Gest said he worked to earn money “from the age of nine, when I turned the lawn into a putting green and charged admission. “That’s where my drive comes from, and the fact I’ve never been afraid to do anything.”
At 17 he lied about his age, putting it up to 21 to win a job as a music publicist, when he looked after stars such as Tom Jones and Burt Bacharach. He then moved into producing televised performances, working with Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, Bette Davis and Whitney Houston.
Two weeks after their wedding, Gest and Minnelli honeymooned in London where Gest had organised Minnelli’s sellout performances at the Royal Albert Hall in her comeback tour.
They also horrified Minnelli’s friends and family in early 2003 with an appearance on English TV’s The Ruby Wax Show, when Gest discussed the “firmness” of Minnelli’s breasts and his preference for her left breast over her right. In another excruciating encounter, she admitted embarrassment after Gest tried to replay their wedding kiss with another lingering, intimate kiss outside a florist shop.
Before their relationship deteriorated amid allegations of Minnelli’s drug and alcohol abuse and Gest’s controlling micromanagement, Minnelli had lost 45kg and earned at least $10 million from her concert tour, CD and endorsements.
With some friends refusing to give them a wedding present until they reached their first anniversary, Minnelli and Gest had sent invitations to the celebration, reading: “And they said it wouldn’t last.’’ But their first wedding anniversary party on March 16, 2003 was cancelled when Minnelli was admitted to a rehabilitation clinic, although she was well enough to share Gest’s 50th birthday celebrations in London.
Months after their separation Gest filed an 11-page civil lawsuit in the Manhattan Supreme Court, claiming she had thrown a lamp at him and when he tried to calm her down, she beat him in the face with her fists. His claim was dismissed in 2006, with their divorce finalised in 2007.
In a 2010 talkshow appearance, Minnelli spoke of a conversation with Jackson after her 2007 divorce from Gest. “I grabbed him (Jackson) when I got out of that and I said: ‘Why did you let me marry that idiot?’ And he said: ‘I thought you liked him, you looked happy, your dress was so ... I don’t know, let me go’.”
Originally published as Music producer and reality TV star David Gest was still known as Liza Minnelli’s ex-husband at time of his death
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