Abigail Kawananakoa releases video interview to share her side of estate fight
SCREEN GRAB FROM COURTESY VIDEO
Campbell Estate heiress Abigail Kawananakoa speaks during a Jan. 15 interview at Kawananakoas home in Honolulu.
SCREEN GRAB FROM COURTESY VIDEO
Campbell Estate heiress Abigail Kawananakoa speaks with TV personality Tannya Joaquin during a Jan. 15 interview at Kawananakoas home in Honolulu.
Abigail Kawananakoa says she is “very fine” and capable of conducting her own business in a video released today by her attorneys.
During an 8-minute, edited interview, the 92-year-old Campbell Estate heiress also says she has an obligation to the Hawaiian people but that her hands are tied.
Kawananakoa and her wife, Veronica Gail Worth, are fighting in court to regain control of the heiress’ $215 million estate after a Probate Court judge ruled that Kawananakoa lacks mental capacity.
In November, Kawananakoa changed her trust to ensure that her wife receives $40 million and all her personal property, but the amendment must still win the approval of Judge Robert Browning.
Kawananakoa’s communications representative, Kitty Yanone of CommPac, said the heiress felt strongly about communicating to the people in her own words.
Yanone said the interview with television personality Tannya Joaquin was “unvarnished and unrehearsed.”
But Kawananakoa’s former attorney James Wright, who currently controls the trust as successor trustee, said he was told that the heiress was coached for the interview. He called the production “exploitive and shallow.”
