CBS Sunday Morning aired/will air an interview with Paulina Porizkova, the model and widow of Ric Ocasek. We covered the situation as it happened – Paulina and Ric separated in 2018, but they still lived together and she helped take care of him in his last years, when he was quite sick. And for that, Ocasek cut Paulina out of his will and stated (in the will) that it was because she “abandoned” him and didn’t love him and she was out dating other men. It was a particularly bitter “last word” and I wouldn’t blame Paulina one bit if she still felt hurt and damaged by his last act. And guess what? She does.
Paulina Porizkova felt betrayed when she found out her estranged husband Ric Ocasek, who died suddenly last September, left her out of his will.
“I would love to be able to be sad and miss him. And not also feel this incredibly hurt and betrayal,” she tells CBS Sunday Morning co-host Anthony Mason in an upcoming interview, which will air in full on March 1. “It made the grieving process really, really tricky.”
Although Porizkova, 54, and the Cars frontman announced their separation after 28 years of marriage in May 2018; at the time of his death, the pair were not legally divorced and still lived together. Speaking out about how difficult it was to be the one to find her husband after his death, the Czech-born supermodel called it “the worst moment of my life.”
Porizkova previously addressed being left out of Ocasek’s will in November, explaining that although the news was just being made public, she had known for months.
Yeah, I can understand that. It’s not like she was some rando trophy wife who only married him 10 months beforehand. Paulina and Ric had been together 28 YEARS. And she stayed with him when he was ill and tried to take care of him, but it wasn’t enough for Ric. Sounds like a miserable way to leave this earth. Paulina also reportedly has asked the court for an “elective share” of his estate, which basically means a certain percentage after certain portions are divided up between the Ocasek kids (who are all adults now, I believe).
Here are some clips from her interview:
Tomorrow on #SundayMorning
Czech supermodel Paulina Porizkova was a familiar cover girl in the 80s & '90s and became the face of Estée Lauder. Now she tells @AnthonyMasonCBS, the modeling shoots are much rarer https://t.co/mGBLSVUiiP pic.twitter.com/yP3U386WuU
— CBS Sunday Morning 🌞 (@CBSSunday) February 29, 2020
This #SundayMorning
Supermodel Paulina Porizkova tells #SundayMorning that posting makeup-free images of herself online has cost her work https://t.co/3TRmUTUdMl pic.twitter.com/wL1zloM7QP
— CBS Sunday Morning 🌞 (@CBSSunday) February 28, 2020
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I think that he may have had dementia and it altered his perceptions, judgement, etc. Perhaps that’s why she still lived with him; it was for his own safety. In any case, she deserves recognition and compensation for spending 28 years with him. It must be very hurtful for her. She hasnt said a bad word about him publically and is being respectful. Give her her money.
That was my first thought, too.
I agree.
……and on a strictly shallow note, she was always my favorite 80’s supermodel. Stunningly beautiful & has personality.
I thought about dementia too.
Does anyone know why they split up?
Hadn’t he recently had some heart surgery, and that was why she moved back in, to take care of him? He was pissed she was dating a younger man…?
If you’re the one who finds him dead, because you’re living w/him and bringing him tea, then you need to be able to expect you’re in the will.
She didn’t move out and ignore him cruelly, she found him dead! There for him, not some nurse!
He was a real d**k in that will.
Usually if you are not fully of sound mind, lawyers won’t change your will.
@Meloroast
Oh, you’d be surprised. I’m a lawyer and I do a lot of elder law, especially with people with dementia. Lawyers do new wills all the time for clients they know have a pending guardianship case, where they’re making major changes to estate plans they’ve had for decades. It’s maddening and I always wish I could do more, but it’s always up to the people ultimately cut out of the will to challenge it – I don’t have standing. 🙁
From what I heard, I dont think he had dementia. I think he was hurt and pissed off that she decided to leave him. He seemed like a complex person from what I read.
I thought about dementia too.
And that woman is a stunner!
@(TheOG) dating a younger man? Ed Solomon is older than her by 5 years. Maybe he’s pissed she dated another older man.
younger, as in younger than him?
They were going through a divorce, why did she expect to be in the will? That would be the first thing I changed as soon as the divorce is filed.
Because they were just separated and even with a divorce there is division of martial assets.
I think she could have expected a 50% of their assets divorce settlement, had they gotten that far in the procedure. He died before that happened, cut her out of his will and in doing so, has basically deprived her of what should have been the divorce settlement.
That’s a very ugly thing.
Exactly. If the assets from the marriage hadn’t been divided up, then she would lose control of assets that may have been in his name but actually belonged to both of them. Also when a marriage ends, the law says the gains (and losses) from the marriage are equalized between the partners and this is where a caregiver (traditionally a woman) gets financial recognition for her work in the home. Maybe she would have gotten something from this and maybe she wouldn’t have gotten something – maybe she would have owed him. But either way, that calculation was never done. I practiced family law for twenty years and she is correct to go after his estate to cover for what this payment would have been.
Janet and Still_Sarah- I can’t see how PP would lose control of joint assets unless the divorce settlement had been finalized and taken those assets. As the process wasn’t finished, I’d assume she still has ownership in any joint assets and his will would not affect that ownership.
Adding the lines in the will that she abandoned him, etc was the worst part. The money is just money, but the sentiments & last word is horrible.
She said in previous statements she knew she wasn’t going to be in the will.
What I don’t think she was prepared for was the vitriolic and bitter statement. The meanest last word after she was caring for him must have cut her off at the knees regardless of what $ she was expecting.
I think that’s actually a standard legal statement in the state and recommended by attorneys as a change to make while you’re going through a divorce to protect your assets should you die before the divorce & settlement are finalized
It seems pretty telling of his character that he was still living with her and letting her stop her own life to take care of him while knowing all along he had accused her of abandoning him and cut her out of his will. I’m glad she can get her share.
I am at a loss to understand how she could be so cut off. If they were still technically married, how he could he will everything away from her? After 28 yrs. she must share a lot of assets with him that he can’t will away from her. Is her name not on property deeds? Are the bank accounts not joint?
She has to be getting her share, despite being left out of the will. If not, it must be because Ric was a horrible husband who never shared any assets with her.
The court will award her the share that she was likely to get following a divorce. It just will take longer because it has to go through the courts. If the children raise an issue then it might get tricky.
It sounds like he wasn’t mentally competent and likely some of that led to paranoia and whatnot (sounds like Prince Henrik of Denmark in his last years). So he cut her out unfairly and here she is. Yes, they were separated but she spent 28 years by his side and would have at least gotten something if they’d gone through with the divorce before he died. I feel for her.
Shame she doesn’t live where I live. Even though they were going through a divorce, by our law they were still married, and it would have been taken into account that she was caring for him. Also, according to a few lawyers I know, it’s best to leave something nominal to those you don’t want to inherit the bulk of your estate, otherwise, if the will is contested, the “disinherited” ones can claim you simply forgot to include them in your will. And it has happened enough times that many lawyers advise leaving a small amount to those you suspect might contest the will. I think PP deserves a share.
Along with Christy Turlington, she was the only model I liked since the 60s era models. She had something special.
In her CBS Sunday Morning interview she said she put all of her modeling earnings into the marriage. They were also together since 1984 when they met on the video shoot. She was 19, he 40. It was a very good interview.
She’s been dating Ed Solomon of Bill & Ted and MIB fame. Hope he’s good to her.
Literally just finished watching this interview on CBS.She seems very genuine and she really seems broken over this,I think she’s handling this in a very gracious way,she’s not tearing him apart just expressing her sadness and shock at what he did.It was also said that he cut out two children from a previous marriage-I wonder if there was dementia involved and if so who was influencing his decisions.
Either way I would think she is entitled to very much (half,no?)She was his wife of many years.
I always found her to be the most beautiful of the 80’s and 90’s models.She still looks beautiful,but she looks very haggard to me -she looks like she’s been through a very very hard time.
Wish her the best.
Apparently the guy was a life -long jerk so there’s that.
That really does not surprise me…
They were married for 28 years. Excluding her from her rightful divorce settlement is cruel, especially when she obviously didn’t abandon him. She literally moved back in to care for him in his final months. I hope she gets what she’s requesting.
On a shallow note, she’s still a beautiful woman. I like her and I like her honesty about women and aging.
Always thought she was so beautiful. And she still is. The Cars jams aside, I always wondered why she chose him. There was the age difference, and I’m sorry, but he is just so unattractive. He should’ve been thanking his lucky stars that he even got to be with her. That man needed some perspective, at the time he married her she could’ve had her pick. Instead, she spent almost 30 years with him and gave him two kids. She was pulling in million dollar contracts so it’s not like she needed him. She had to love him. He sounds like a self-centered ungrateful ahole.
I feel so sad for her, she got screwed by him. And it’s going to cost her money to get a lawyer to get her fair share. Her husband was a real jerk. I would be PISSED
Seeing some of the comments kind of confirms my initial feeling that Paulina shouldn’t have gone so public with this. No one knows what mental state Ric was in, and no one really knows why he was feeling so abandoned. He can’t tell his side, because he’s dead… This should have been handled privately with the lawyers. I’m sure she’s hurt, but come on. She has plenty of money, and making him look so bad when he could have been suffering from many possible mental problems is not a good look imo.
Most wills are public record though, so his words are there anyone for who wants to look for them (and let’s face it teh press always does), so I don’t blame her at all for speaking about it.
If his family knows a different side of the story, maybe they should speak up, because he’s come off like a complete jerk in all of this.
She *is* his family. He wanted the divorce, not her, they said so in the interview yesterday.
What you say has merit. A lot of merit. It is definitely something to keep in mind. But here’s what I do remember.
I am about Paulina’s age and I remember being kind of shocked about their relationship and I do recall he abruptly dumped his second wife and their kids for her and their divorce was not a friendly one as I vaguely recall. So there is a precedent there for self absorbed behavior. I have no idea how things played out with the first wife.
I suppose it doesn’t speak well of her, either, to be a part in the end of his marriage, but she was still a freaking teenager while he was well into midlife. So I will cut her some slack.
Now all these years later and her youth spent on him and this is what she’s left with to remember the life they built together? I’d have a hard time keeping a lid on that myself, especially knowing everyone saw the public records and were gossiping about it all.
I mean of course she has their sons. But his last thoughts of her appeared to be bitter ones. How does he think his previous wife felt when he did the same to her? Wouldn’t she have felt abandoned, too? Apparently there was no reflection on that nor an epiphany. Nothing apparently came up to temper his reaction to Paulina moving on for whatever reasons she had, yet still looking after him.
Perhaps dementia or depression or something was involved but that doesn’t mean the ones left behind aren’t hurting deeply, whatever the cause, and unable to keep it in. 1
And to not leave even a token amount to his eldest children? I hope he at least had left them something personal to remember him by and that the whole situation out of the public eye isn’t as cold as it looks among that family.
Just did a quick search about his first wife Constance. Came across a blog that posted a summary of their divorce which listed the cause as gross neglect and cruelty. Jeez. This first marriage lasted 7 years. He married his stunning second wife the same year. Hmm, detecting a pattern here. His second marriage ended after 17 years together. Each marriage produced 2 sons, it seems.
I love what she’s saying in those clips. The interviewer looks a little shell-shocked lol.
Paulina has always spoken her truth…since her modeling days. I love her comments about being over 50 and wondering if she was wrong to age naturally…and Ric sounds like a spiteful ass. He was probably just pissed there weren’t any twenty year old girls signing up to take care of him.
I remember her in an interview and remember the first time after turning 40 she walked down the street and not one guy looked at her. She was shocked after turning heads for so many years. It must be like losing a super power. *I have never had that power*
I never did either. At least if you didn’t have it, you don’t miss it. But it can be even harder, that as you age further you just kind of disappear to people. It’s almost like they actually don’t see you. Even more so for women.
This is why they say a beautiful woman dies two deaths.
My ugly ass only has to die once!
She’s still so beautiful and it’s so refreshing for a famously beautiful woman not to mess with her face.
YES! She looks like a true, legit older version of herself. Beautiful.
She’s gorgeous.
God I love that she is natural. She was always my favorite of the super models… well her and Linda… I’m almost 50 and haven’t done botox or fillers either… (clearly I don’t look as good, but not half bad)… so I’m going hold her up as a fabulous example and try to stay the course.
The sad part is after her lawyers and the sons that were left out lawyers take their estate fees. There won’t be much left of the estate at the end.
It was a petty move by Ric pissed she had a boyfriend. Maybe if he had lived longer he would have changed it. But let the lawyer wars begin!
I think what happened especially since she was living & caring for him was awful. Just a legal note here, children are not, by definition, “entitled” to their parents estates. Children are often left out of wills. Now people can intentionally leave 1 child out while bequeathing to another but that is solely their preference. I know someone who has left v little to a few of his children due to the things he did for them in life (education, cars,1st house) So not leaving something to a child isn’t that awful. Maybe they were estranged. BUT in Paulina’s case she was living with him & caring for him & STILL married to him. She deserves what would have been 1/2 of his assets from the time of their marriage. What is left over would then be the proceeds of his will. Example. If I buy a house & it’s solely in my name BUT we have lived there as our marital home it is 1/2 owned by my spouse. I can go to court to fight it but in most states (And NY & CA are included) I would lose. I don’t want to blame dementia I just think he was a jerk because she was dating someone else. He was 40 & she 19 when they met. That age difference eventually comes in to play.
I understand why people speculate about his state of mind, dementia etc. But there is also the possibility that he was simply a vindictive dick. These people exist and every time someone elderly does something horribly dickish, it must be dementia these days. Well, not necessarily. Some people just suck.
I like her two interviews. She sounds like a smart woman!
I wish she’d go back to her brown hair but boy is she still stunning. And with wrinkles. It’s nice to see someone aging naturally or only having very minimal work especially in a field that so prioritizes looks. It’s ridiculous she’s been cost work.
I liked her as a judge on America’s Next Top Model. She was blunt but not nasty.
I’m lightening my beautiful dark hair because I’m getting very gray and coloring it dark is a pain in the ass.
I just love her so much, I have since she was on ANTM. I’m really sad for her, that news was the sh!ttiest I had heard in a while (excepting everything Drumpf-related, of course). I hope they court recognizes her contributions to his well-being. She deserves what she would’ve gotten if the divorce had gone through. I honestly do hope he was having some dementia because that would at least be an explanation. But she seems so stunned and hurt that I guess he wasn’t having dementia. 🙁 Sad for her.
I truly hope she is able to resolve her feelings some day, PP seems like a very smart person. I wish her all the best.
When my husband and I wrote wills, our lawyer told us that the when a spouse dies, the other spouse automatically owns everything. There is no inheritance because all assets were mutually owned. There’s no reading of a will until the last spouse dies. Kids don’t inherit anything until after the last spouse dies, assuming they are in that spouse’s will. Maybe it’s different if a divorce is in the works, but I didn’t think they had gotten that far.
Maybe the laws for wills are different in different states, too.
Are we listening to the same interview? She sounds fake to me, so does the interviewer
Hell hath no fury like a scorned man.
She was there with him till the end. I understand that she is hurted by his comments after 28 years together. However, she’s worth 80 millions and he is worth 5 millions. She might get 1-2 millions max. Why is she even bothering?
How on earth could her net worth (I assume that’s what you mean) possibly be $80mil? She hasn’t worked regularly since the early 90s and even back then she might have made some good money but certainly nothing even close to 80 million.
I think she’s more hurt about the fact that despite “peacefully” splitting up, she continued to look after him in his declining health but he turned on her. It’s clearly not a money issue because she’s got loads, it’s the cruel betrayal by someone you’ve spent your life with, had children with, and stood by in sickness and in health. He was either suffering some mental health issues or just turned out to be a bitter old a-hole.
She said yesterday in the interview that she’s put all her assets into the marriage, so that’s her money he’s kept from her.
It might have been dementia. Or he might just have been a jerk.
When my stepdad was on his death bed he wanted his youngest daughter (my older step sis) to be arrested by the police for poisoning him. Not possible cause her daughter was miles away and was worried sick about his health. She was the favorite daughter. He also wanted his long dead wife to be charged too for conspiring with said daughter. He was looking for the documents for trucks. He never owned one. He collected tons of vintage motorcycles though. All I’m saying is Ric might have not been well mentally. Delirium is common among elderly patients with pneumonia and Ric, underwent heart surgery in the past was susceptible to viral infections. I hoped PP explored that possibility and ruled out some reasons why she was left out.
I’m so used to seeing the JLos and Jennifer Anistons, even Laura Linneys and Julianne Moore types so maintained and Botoxed, so to see a woman in her 50s with wrinkles and grey hair is frankly a bit shocking. She looks like she’s aged a lot in the past year. She’s still beautiful, but very natural, and definitely her age, maybe even older. The way he worded his will was so spiteful, so hope it was resolved with some fairness.
There is definitely more to this story from what is being told. Unfortunately, he is no longer with us, so we don’t truly understand why he did what he did. We can all speculate, but again we’ll never know. I think that it was completely unnecessary to have this brought to light. I certainly wouldn’t want to air my dirty laundry out like Paulina did. Shame on her.
Everyone needs to watch that last clip. What a brilliant way to put into words what I’ve felt but not been able to say!