SEX, LIES & SCANDAL: Inside Sumner Redstone's ex Manuela Herzer's toxic control of her staff
James Stewart’s book titled ‘Unscripted: The Epic Battle for a Media Empire' published on February 14, 2023, about billionaire Sumner Redstone captures new details that reveal how his former girlfriend Manuela Herzer forced his staff and nurses at his $28M mansion to take lie detector tests and installed surveillance cameras to keep track on every movement. According to the book, “Anyone who deemed disloyal to [Sydney] Holland or Herzer was fired.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Redstone, who died during the Covid-19 pandemic on August 11, 2020, at the age of 97, settled a three-year legal battle with Herzer in 2019, whom he accused of elder abuse, invasion of privacy, and also of stealing $75 million, as per Variety.
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Who is Manuela Herzer?
Herzer, who completed her education in France and speaks several languages, was the live-in girlfriend of Redstone, who was the Chairman Emeritus, and Chairman and CEO of National Amusements, the controlling shareholder of Viacom CBS. She met him at a dinner party hosted by producer Robert Evans and then, they had their first date at Dan Tana's, states DailyMail. There are not many details about the relationship but in the year 2015 she, along with Holland, went public about their relationship with Redstone, reports The Sun.
The book describes how Redstone’s two girlfriends, Herzer and Holland, reportedly moved into the mogul’s Beverly Park mansion and took over his life and healthcare decisions. "As the women consolidated their control over the mansion, its staff, and Sumner himself, the number of people with unrestricted access to him dwindled," the book details, per DailyMail. Not just that, the two women apparently restricted Redstone from seeing his daughter, Shari, and his grandchildren.
'Herzer and Holland had been mentally and financially abusive'
On January 29, 2015, Sumner’s nurses and staff filed a report with Los Angeles County Adult Protective Services, alleging that Herzer and Holland had been mentally and financially abusive, reports The Hollywood Reporter. The book also alleges that the two changed his will and blocked family access to him, “and threatened to abandon him, leaving him to die alone if he denied their requests,” states Page Six.
The women, who were nicknamed 'w****s' and 'S and M' by Redstone's daughter, faced a $150M lawsuit from Redstone in 2015. According to the lawsuit, Redstone's attorney Robert Klieger said, "They manipulated and emotionally abused Redstone to get what they wanted — jewelry, designer clothing, real estate in Beverly Hills, New York and Paris, and money, lots of it. They made an unlikely but winning team — Herzer, the brains of the operation, who Redstone had known for years and trusted and confided in; and Holland, the younger beauty who had Redstone wrapped around her finger," quotes DailyMail.
In 2019, Redstone and his family settled the legal dispute where Herzer was asked to pay back $3.25 million. In 2020, Redstone died, following which, his daughter said, “My father led an extraordinary life that not only shaped entertainment as we know it today, but created an incredible family legacy. Through it all, we shared a great love for one another and he was a wonderful father, grandfather and great-grandfather. I am so proud to be his daughter and I will miss him always,” states CNBC.