In a powerful media family torn apart by jealousy and rivalry, the aging patriarch publicly deteriorates as his granddaughter rushes to his side. Lies, betrayal, lawsuits.
These aren’t the machinations of the fictional Roy family in “Succession,” but dramas involving the very real Redstone family, whose dysfunction is well-documented and partially inspired the critically acclaimed HBO show.
But the deep rift, most notably between Paramount Global chief Shari Redstone and her niece, Kelyn Redstone, may soon begin to heal thanks to an impending windfall from taking control of the media and entertainment giant.
The Redstone family is poised to receive $1.75 billion for the 77% stake in National Amusements, the family-owned company that controls Paramount, through an on-again, off-again deal with Skydance Media.
Kellyn Redstone, 42, will receive about $140 million as a final gift from the grave as her share of a trust set up by media mogul Sumner Redstone for his five grandchildren, sources told The Washington Post.
Affectionately known as “Grumpy,” the mercurial tycoon turned his father’s 14 drive-in theaters into hundreds of cinemas and became a media powerhouse.
He then used the profits to buy smaller stakes in media companies and resold those shares for huge profits in the 1980s.
His next move was to buy media companies like CBS and Viacom through fierce bidding wars and fierce determination, but when his health began to decline in the mid-2010s, Kellyn Redstone stepped in to take over.
“I had a difficult but genuine relationship with my grandfather,” Kellyn Redstone told The Washington Post in an exclusive interview. “He had a great sense of humor.”
He can also be ruthless: Sumner is pitting his two sons, Shari and Brent Redstone, against each other in a succession battle as Paramount Global, the company he launched from CBS and Viacom, nears its end.
The older of Brent’s two daughters, Kellyn Redstone, has faced hardship despite a seemingly ideal upbringing in one of the wealthiest families in the country.
She grew up near the family’s estate in Massachusetts, but when she was 11, her father moved the girls to a 625-acre ranch in rural Evergreen, Colorado.
Kaelin said she and her sister Lauren, now 38, attended a prep school in Colorado, traveling five hours round trip each day.
After graduating, she moved to New York and earned a degree in film and television from New York University in less than two years, then went on to earn a law degree from the University of Denver.
While she was in law school, her father sued National Amusements, landing the first blow in the family’s succession battle.
Brent refused to give up his voting stock in Paramount to his father, who was going through a divorce and wanted to maintain control of the business, and Shari went along with her father’s plan against her mother’s wishes.
According to media reports, Brent settled with National Amusements in 2007 and was paid about $240 million but waived his right to future money if the company was sold.
Sumner retained control of Paramount.
Despite the rift between father and son, Kellyn remained close to Grumpy.
She often traveled from her Colorado home to stay at a Los Angeles mansion overlooking Beverly Hills.
During that time, she became close to the tycoon’s much younger live-in girlfriend and caretaker, Manuela Herzer, according to James Stewart and Rachel Abrams’ book “Unscripted: The Epic Battle for a Media Empire and the Redstone Family Legacy.”
As his father’s health began to decline, Herzer played a key role in further dividing the Redstone family with a bitter legal battle between his girlfriend and Shari.
In 2016, Kerin sided with Herzer, arguing that her aunt had sought a “do not resuscitate” order while her father was hospitalized, according to court records.
“Shari and her family took advantage of my grandfather’s frail mental state and poor health to completely isolate him and then successfully kidnapped, brainwashed and exploited him,” she said in a June 2016 statement.
“Shari and her three adult children have succeeded in subverting the estate plan that my grandfather carefully crafted over decades and are vying to seize control of Viacom and CBS.”
Kaelin added in her statement that she had moved to the Los Angeles mansion at the request of Herzer and her grandfather the previous year after Sumner’s health began to deteriorate rapidly.
“My grandfather and I had a very close and loving relationship ever since I was a little girl,” Kaelin said at the time.
According to Unscripted, in exchange for letting Kellyn live in the house, Grumpy set up a $1 million trust for her to use as capital gain.
The legal battle has brought to light a host of dark details about the Redstone family, including allegations by Sumner’s granddaughter that Shari had made death threats against Kaelin during Sumner’s 91st birthday party in 2014.
Kerin was sitting next to Sumner and asked him to stay nearby to help her eat because Sumner had injured his hand, court documents said.
According to court documents, Shari wanted to sit next to Kerryn, but when she refused to move, her aunt threatened to kill her.
“We are saddened and disappointed that Kellyn has chosen to join forces with Mr. Hazer against my father,” a spokesman for Shari said at the time.
During that time, Sumner Redstone communicated using an iPad preloaded with audio clips of himself saying things like “yes,” “no” and “fuck you,” according to The Wall Street Journal.
Shari locked Kaylin and Manuela out of Sumner’s home and won a legal battle in 2019. Herzer agreed to repay $3.25 million to the Redstones, just a fraction of the sums the billionaire lavished on her in his later years.
In a recent interview with The Post, Kaelin accepted responsibility for going against her family.
“I take responsibility for my actions but they go out of their way to make my life difficult,” she lamented.
Sumner died in 2020 at the age of 97.
Kellyn Redstone told The Washington Post that after her husband’s death she had led a nomadic life, living in rented apartments in Colorado, Northern California, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
She’s also dabbling in the film industry, having been named one of the executive producers of the 2021 horror film The Last Thing Mary Saw, alongside the late Bruce Wasserstein’s daughter, Scoop.
The film is set in 1843 and tells the story of a strict matriarch of a family who is murdered and her youngest daughter, who was having an affair with the maid, implicated in the murder.
Meanwhile, Shari Redstone acquired a controlling stake in Sumner’s business and completed the CBS-Viacom merger in 2019.
Under Shari’s watch, Paramount Global has shrunk from a market capitalization of $31 billion at the time of the December 2019 merger to a company worth $8 billion today.
Paramount’s 45-day “go-shop” period ends on August 21, after which it is expected to accept Skydance’s proposal.
Sumner’s five grandchildren will receive 40 percent of the proceeds, roughly $140 million each, a source with knowledge of the family patriarch’s will told The Washington Post.
Sheri Redstone, 70, has three children: Tyler Korff, 38, Brandon Korff, 40, and Kimberly Ostheimer, 42.
His ex-wife, Phyllis Redstone, 99, will also receive 40 percent of the proceeds, while Shari will get the remaining 20 percent, or about $350 million, the people added.
Phyllis was recently living in a bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel in California, a source told The Post. It’s unclear who will inherit her vast fortune. She also received $100 million in cash after her 52-year marriage to Sumner Redstone ended in divorce in 2002, according to the Los Angeles Times.
While Kerin has yet to repair her relationship with her famous aunt, she said she now has a good relationship with her cousin, Tyler Kolff, who is an ordained rabbi.
As for what his future holds if he receives a big buck from the Paramount sale, Kaelin declined to go into details.
Kerrin said she loves animals and wants to be around them.
“Give me 1,000 horses, cats and dogs and I’ll be fine,” she said.
