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Case file s541 · Hollywood and TV · 2022
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2022
Anne Heche: Anne Heche July 14, 2014 (3x4 cropped)
Anne Heche. Mingle Media TV. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
11 August 2022
Place
Los Angeles, California, USA
Field
film · Film and television on the timeline
Legal tradition
US common law (California probate) · Common law
Historical event
the car crash that killed the actress
Hollywood and TVNowNorth AmericaUnited States

Anne Heche's ex said a 2011 email was her will, and the court gave her estate to her 20-year-old son

Anne Heche crashed her car into a Los Angeles house in August 2022 and died days later. She left no formal will. Her older son, Homer Laffoon, 20, petitioned to run the estate. James Tupper, father of her younger son, Atlas, 13, opposed him and produced a 2011 email from Heche that he said was a will leaving him in charge for the boys†. The court held the email did not meet California's rules for a will. Tupper argued Homer was mismanaging assets and could not protect his brother's interests, and asked to be named Atlas's guardian ad litem. Judge Lee Bogdanoff refused, saying, "In California, you can be illiterate and be an administrator." Court filings showed about $400,000 in assets at her death. In late November 2022 Bogdanoff named Homer permanent special administrator, and later general administrator. The dispute was then settled; terms have not been made public.

What the law took from it

An email is not a will in California; only a document that meets the formal rules counts.

Sources
  1. etonline.comPress
  2. foxla.comPress
  3. necn.comPress
  4. wealthmanagement.comPress

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Anne Heche's ex said a 2011 email was her will, and the court gave her estate to her 20-year-old son,” story s541, https://www.celebrity.estate/anne-heche-2022, updated 30 October 2026.

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Where this case sits

Hollywood and TVNowNorth AmericaCommon lawUnited States