Gary Coleman’s Exes Locked In Legal Battle Over His Estate

Although Gary Coleman has been deceased for nearly two years, his ex-wife and former girlfriend are duking it out in court, both anxious to get their hands on his alleged fortune, reports the Associated Press.

Coleman, who died of a brain hemorrhage in 2010, married Shannon Price (pictured left) but divorced her in 2008. She claims that she and Coleman were inseparable and presented themselves as married after their divorce.


Coleman’s ex-girlfriend and former manager Anna Gray (pictured left) claims that she deserves the performer’s assets because he named her as the beneficiary and executor of his estate back in 2005.
The trial for who can claim ownership of Coleman’s estate began on Monday.
Price said she met Coleman on a movie set in 2005 and married him in 2007. Their marriage didn’t last a year. The couple fought publicly and their battles were pretty nasty. They even appeared on the TV show “Divorce Court” in 2008 in an effort to save their mutually abusive marriage. The couple eventually divorced under a sealed court order.
Both Price and Gray have made attempts before to secure Coleman’s alleged fortune. The weekend after Coleman’s death, a scheduled funeral was postponed and later canceled due to a dispute regarding his estate.
The former child TV star’s fortune is fuzzy and there are no clear-cut estate estimates. Court papers do state that there is a $324,000 house and a pension, among other possible assets. Price’s lawyers allege that Coleman listed Price as his wife for Social Security benefits as late as 2010.
The only folks that are not trying to battle over Coleman’s estate are his parents, Willie and Edmonia Coleman. They have not made any claims on his estate. Coleman successfully sued his parents and business adviser in 1989 over misappropriation of his assets, only to declare bankruptcy a decade later.