Tycoon Steve Bing’s lonely life – cut off from his family and ‘never meeting his kids’

Steve Bing was a dedicated philantropist and passionate supporter of many good causes.

Regardless of dropping out of school to pursue his dream of changing into a film-maker, Steve went on to be an enormous Hollywood success story.

He based Shangri-La Leisure after inheriting round $600million from his grandfather, who made his fortune as an actual property developer.

Steve’s first large finances film was the Sylvester Stallone hit Get Carter, launched in 2000.

He wrote Kangaroo Jack in 2003, and in addition invested nearly $100million in 2004 film The Polar Specific.

The film maker additionally used his riches for good and donated big sums of cash to environmental causes.

However the 55-year-old was mentioned by pals to be gripped by a crippling loneliness and he’s believed to have taken his personal life on Monday.

The movie producer, who has son Damian with ex-girlfriend Liz Hurley, is claimed to have jumped from his Los Angeles residence at 1.10pm on Monday.

The Los Angeles Police Division has mentioned they’re investigating the loss of life of a person in his 50s within the Century Metropolis space of the town.

All through his life, Steve’s excessive profile profession and charity donations had been overshadowed by his controversial non-public life.

He had loved a whirlwind romance with mannequin Liz Hurley as he hit the massive time in Hollywood.

Then simply 35, Steve wooed Liz, then 36, with non-public jets, chunky gold Rolex watches, sapphire and diamond rings and all-expenses paid journeys to New York and Europe.

However past the outward flashiness each Liz and her pals mentioned she was ‘very a lot in love’ with the aspiring filmmaker and inheritor to a £400million property fortune.

“At any time when I noticed Steve and Elizabeth collectively, they all the time appeared extremely blissful and really a lot in love,” Liz’s shut buddy Henry Dent-Brocklehurst informed the Day by day Mail on the time.

Enchanted by her magnificence and mannequin standing, their relationship was rumoured to be on the adventurous aspect.

After a quick break up in March 2001, the couple had been mentioned to be extra critical than ever, spending all their time collectively at his luxurious suite on the Lodge Bel Air and holidaying to Elton John’s villa in Good that August – the place Liz is believed to have conceived.

However as an alternative of uniting them, the newborn information sparked one of many nastiest paternity feuds in Hollywood.

Liz was ‘deeply distraught’ when Steve issued a savage assertion suggesting that the kid wasn’t his.

“Ms Hurley and I weren’t in an unique relationship when she turned pregnant. It’s her option to be a single mom,” he mentioned earlier than vowing to be “extraordinarily concerned and accountable” if he was discovered to be the daddy.

Some claimed he’d informed Liz to get an abortion, others mentioned he felt ‘duped’ as a result of she’d been on the tablet (antibiotics reportedly stopped it from working).

Bing’s sister Mary, a social employee from New York, even cruelly claimed to Self-importance Truthful that her brother had been “snookered into being a mother or father”.

Liz wasted no time hitting again, arguing that for her, a minimum of, the romance had been a monogamous one.

“I liked Stephen enormously throughout the 18 months we had been collectively. Opposite to faulty reviews, we had been nonetheless very a lot blissful collectively once I found I used to be pregnant,” she mentioned.

“I used to be fully loyal and trustworthy to Stephen all through this time as, certainly, he assured me he was to me.”

Damian Charles Hurley arrived on April 4, 2002 and a court-ordered DNA take a look at proved that Bing was certainly his father.

He introduced plans to pay £100,000 a yr right into a belief for his son that could possibly be accessed when he turned 18.

However decided to make it crystal clear that it was by no means in regards to the cash, Liz rejected his gesture and said the money was “not needed or welcome”.

“I’ve all the time made it completely clear to Stephen Bing, the daddy of my son Damian, that I do not need any monetary assist from him in any way,” she mentioned.

This is able to not be the one time Steve was concerned in a excessive profile and really public paternity battle.

In 2002, the identical yr Damian was born, Steve sued 84-year-old Kirk Kerkorian for invasion of privateness.

The billionaire had employed a personal detective to acquire a few of Steve’s DNA by rummaging by means of his garbage.

After discovering a bit of dental floss, this was used to find out Steve, not Kirk, was the daddy of Kira, who had had believed was his youngster with Lisa Bonder.

Lisa and Kirk had been married for simply 28 days and Kira inherited $8.5million from Kirk when he died in 2015.

Steve is claimed to have stored each his kids at arms size. It has been reported that he has by no means met Damian, the kid he shares with Liz, and solely met Kira when she turned an grownup.

Regardless of this, the film maker went towards his circle of relatives when his father, Dr Peter Bing, tried to chop Damian and Kira out of his will.

Final yr Dr Bing tried to forestall {the teenager} and his half-sister, Kira Kerkorian, from inheriting any of the household’s big fortune.

Kira was Steve’s daughter from his relationship with tennis participant, Lisa Bonder.

Peter claimed, in accordance with courtroom papers, that Damian wasn’t entitled to any of the £380million household wealth as a result of he had by no means met Steve.

Nonetheless, Steve went to battle for his son and daughter and his authorized crew branded Peter’s assertion “a sham”.

Peter had arrange a belief in 1980 so he may depart his “future grandchildren” the household fortune however in March final yr tried to redefine the that means of grandchildren within the paperwork.

The brand new paperwork claimed Peter’s grandchildren “raised by my kids as a part of their households” in the event that they had been to obtain any of the money.

He additionally tried to ban “any individual born out of wedlock except that individual had lived for a considerable time period as a daily member of the family”, which would come with Damian and Kira, from inheriting.

Steve challenged the brand new paperwork and in addition accused his personal father of “orchestrating an enormous money-grab” along with his sister Mary.

He mentioned it had been achieved so her kids would inherit extra money.

However in July final yr a choose again Steve and Damian will now be entitled to his share of the Bing riches.

Choose Daniel Juarez mentioned: “There isn’t any ambiguity within the Trusts’ use of the time period ‘grandchild’.

“The Trustee’s interpretation of the Trusts is unreasonable as a result of no ambiguity exists and the Trustee’s building of ‘grandchild’ is just unfounded.”

Each Damian and Liz have paid tribute to the person who has been largely absent from their lives for the final 18 years.

The actress mentioned: “I’m saddened past perception that my ex Steve is not with us.

“It’s a horrible finish. Our time collectively was very blissful and I’m posting these footage as a result of though we went by means of some powerful occasions, it’s the nice, great recollections of a candy, type man that matter. Up to now yr we had change into shut once more.

“We final spoke on our son’s 18th birthday. That is devastating information and I thank everybody for his or her beautiful messages.”

Damian added: “Thanks from the underside of my coronary heart to everybody that has reached out following the devastating information.

“It is a very unusual and complicated time and I’m immensely grateful to be surrounded by my phenomenal household and pals.”

Regardless of as soon as counting Hollywood star Warren Beatty and Rolling Stone Mick Jagger, amongst his closest pals, Steve appeared unable to settle.

He spent 9 years residing in an upmarket lodge earlier than transferring into the lavish Ten Thousand constructing in LA.

Steve additionally dated a number of the world’s most stunning ladies together with Naomi Campbell, Uma Thurman and Sharon Stone, however couldn’t discover lasting love.

A daily customer to strip golf equipment, the place he would bathe dancers with big suggestions, and the Playboy mansion, Steve was most snug in denims and a T-shirt.

He was additionally obsessed with politics and an enormous donor to the Democrats, counting former President, Invoice Clinton as a pal.

Nonetheless, it was his fame as a womaniser that thrust Steve into the limelight.

When he break up with Liz Hurley there have been rumours that he’d additionally been seeing Armanu mannequin and bit-part actress Brenda Swanson, who he was noticed with at her 39th birthday a month earlier than Good.

The outraged public dubbed him Bing Laden in a nod to his ‘unchivalrous’ conduct.

Brenda did nothing to calm the gossip when she informed the Day by day Mail she’d been with Steve throughout one significantly livid telephone name with Liz.

“Liz known as him and went mad. She was demanding to know who I used to be. She was crying and went nuts,” she sniped.

It appears his relationship along with his ex, Liz, had thawed by the point of his tragic loss of life.

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