National Enquirer Heirs in ... Enquirer-Like Money Battle

Founder's broke son wants slice of mom's $200M
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 9, 2013 2:39 AM CDT
National Enquirer Heirs in ... Enquirer -Like Money Battle
In happier times, philanthropist Lois Pope, left, celebrates the publication of her son's book, The Deeds of My Fathers, with actress Kathleen Turner.   (PRNewsFoto/The Deeds of My Fathers, Patrick McMullan)

The heirs to the fortune of National Enquirer founder Generoso Pope are engaged in a fight over cash that wouldn't be out of place in the very pages of the publication that made Pope rich, the Miami Herald reports. Pope's widow, Lois, a respected Palm Beach philanthropist, has been feuding with one of her five children. She testified yesterday that she gave Paul Pope $16 million in recent years after he blew his $20 million inheritance and he is frightening her with demands for even more money.

"He wants everything," she told a court yesterday, seeking an injunction against her 45-year-old son for protection against domestic violence. "He wants everything I have. I am so afraid." Paul Pope, meanwhile, has given media outlets a "scandal dossier" accusing his mother of sexual and financial wrongdoing and calling her a "moldy old fraud" who only gives money to charities to boost her reputation. He accuses his mother of plotting to have him kidnapped—because she had taken out kidnap insurance for him and his children. "It was like a headline in the old Enquirer," she testified. (More National Enquirer stories.)

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