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The full details of the Bruce Wasserstein estate battle are lurid and somewhat difficult to follow. It is alleged that in 2007 Wasserstein encouraged his then mistress, Erin McCarthy, to undergo in vitro fertilization, which she did. She became pregnant with twins.
One of them was prematurely stillborn and McCarthy was ordered on bed rest at which time Wasserstein stopped seeing her. An autistic daughter, Sky, was born in 2008. McCarthy claims she confronted Wasserstein with the child and found him with another woman.
In 2009, Wasserstein passed away unexpectedly.
McCarthy claims she had in writing that Wasserstein wanted the daughter to have an equal share in his estate along with his other children. Sky's share would be approximately $350 million. However, McCarthy claims Wasserstein's other children conspired to write Sky out of the estate plan, a charge which they deny.
An independent trustee was brought in and agreed to distribute an equitable portion of the estate to Sky. McCarthy rejected that proposal and recently lost a court case appealing it.
The Daily Mail has more details on this case in "How Bruce Wasserstein 'encouraged his mistress to get pregnant through IVF, dumped her on bedrest and was in bed with another woman when she confronted him after the birth - and now their child has been cut from the $2.2billion fortune'."
At this point it is unclear how this bizarre estate will be resolved, if it ever truly is. The exact contents of Wasserstein's written estate plan are not public so no one can say whether he in fact did intentionally cut Sky out.