According to his will, David Bowie, whose real name is David Robert Jones, has left a vast portion of his wealth to his wife, Iman and their two children.
The former supermodel will receive Bowie’s estate, which is estimated to be worth as much as $100 million. He left also left $2 million to his long time personal assistant, Corinne Coco Schwab, and another $1 million to friend, Marion Skene of Switzerland, who was his older child’s nanny. The will was filed Friday in Manhattan Surrogate Court.
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Bowie’s much loved estate on Little Tonshi Mountain near Woodstock in the Catskills was left to Alexandria, the 15 year old daughter he had with Iman whom he married in 1992. Duncan Jones, a successful director who is Bowie’s son from his first marriage, gets the same 25% share as his half sister in the rest of the musician’s residual estate. Iman gets the other 50% of his estate plus all of his other real estate, including their apartment in SoHo on Lafayette Street and homes around the world. In 2007, he signed a codicil in which he gave all of his shares in a company called Possum Inc. to Schwab. Bowie named two friends as his executors, attorneys William Zysblat and Paddy Grafton Green. h/t nydailynews
Bowie left a grand total of “zip” to his former wife, Angie Bowie, who many credit with helping make him a success.
Although Bowie sold lots of records, he made most of his fortune later on in his career from a financial gimmick called “Bowie Bonds.”
In 1997, he sold the ‘bonds’ to investors who were to receive all royalties from his first 25 albums for 10 years. After the 10 year period, the rights reverted back to Bowie. The bonds put $55 million in his pocket, but little in the pockets of investors, due to the ill-timing of the computer free download revolution.
Bowie, who died Jan. 10 of cancer at age 69, asked that he be cremated and his ashes spread in a Buddhist ritual in Bali.