Paul Newman‘s daughter, Susan, is speaking out against Newman’s Own president and CEO Robert Forrester, who she complains has taken her family “hostage.”
“Some family members may be angry at me for speaking out, but I feel like the Newman family has been taken hostage by Bob Forrester,” she told Mark Seal in the August issue of Vanity Fair.
Forrester took charge of the company and foundation after Paul passed away in 2008, and Susan is apparently not happy with what was left to her in her father’s will. According to Susan, she and her four sisters were shortchanged.
“I was told each daughter would inherit a million dollars,” she said. “And my father would set up foundations for each of us… funded with up to $30 million or more per daughter.”
She also claims the sisters were supposed to serve on the board of Newman’s Own, but “had the rug pulled out from under us.”
Forrester countered, “Paul never thought of Newman’s Own as a family enterprise.”
“At one time, he was giving some thought to having one daughter on each board serving a time-limited term, but ultimately decided against doing so,” Forrester said. “Everything we are doing today is in line with Paul’s way of doing things.”
Newman was an actor, film director, entrepreneur, race car driver as well as an outspoken social activist and philanthropist. His famous films include “Cool Hand Luke,” “Hustler,” “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” and the 1986 film “The Color of Money,” for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
He co-founded Newman’s Own with A.E. Hotchner in 1982, a food company from which Newman donated all after-tax properties and royalties to charity, which exceeded $400 million in 2014. The brand began with a homemade salad dressing, which Newman and Hotchner prepared themselves.
Newman was married to actress Joanne Woodward from 1958 until his death — she has not commented on her daughter’s statements. He died of lung cancer on September 27 at the age of 83.