Alan Thicke’s sons Robin and Brennan are gearing up to battle his widow, Tanya Callau, over his estate.
Co-trustees Brennan and Robin claim in court documents filed on Tuesday and obtained by The Hollywood Reporter that Alan, who died of a heart attack at 69 in December 2016, left them and youngest son Carter equal shares of the Carpinteria, Calif., ranch where he and Callau resided, as well as 75 percent of his personal effects and 60 percent of his remaining estate.
The “Growing Pains” star also left Callau 25 percent of his personal effects (which can include privately owned items like clothing, used, carried, or worn by person), a $500,000 life insurance policy, the entirety of his death benefits from various union memberships and pensions, 40 percent of his remaining estate and furnishings and the option to keep living in the ranch if she maintained the property.
Alan and Callau signed a prenuptial agreement before tying the knot in 2005, but Callau reportedly now claims that the prenup is invalid, despite allegedly having no complaints about the contract previously.
“Now that Alan is dead, Tanya claims there are numerous problems with the Trust and the Prenuptial Agreement,” the sons’ attorney, Alex Weingarten, wrote in a filing obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. “Tanya asserts that there is no chance the ‘Prenup’ could withstand legal challenge and that she has very significant community rights in the Trust’s assets and rights of reimbursement with respect to improvements to the Ranch. Tanya also claims ‘Marvin rights’ asserting that she had to forgo opportunities to pursue and advance her own career in order to support Alan and be his companion and partner, including raising Carter.”
The petition also states that Callau “threatened to make her claims fodder for ‘tabloid publicity’ unless the Co-Trustees agreed to participate in a mediation and succumb to her demands.”
However, Callau’s attorney, Adam Streisand, refutes the sons’ claims.
“Tanya Thicke has never threatened to take private family matters public and she never has,” Streisand told Page Six Wednesday. “It is clear that Alan’s sons have chosen this distasteful public smear tactic to bully Tanya, by stirring up the tabloid media, filing a bogus lawsuit, and refusing family mediation. Tanya is still grieving the death of her beloved husband and out of respect for Alan’s memory intends to handle his son’s false statements privately.”
Weingarten told Page Six, “The co-trustees did everything they could to settle this out of court. I cannot speak for Ms. Callau and what she wanted, all I can say is that we did everything we could to settle this out of court but that it takes two to tango.”
