Widespread rumors that famed television producer Aaron Spelling’s massive 56,000-sq-foot home was on the market for $150 million, forced his widow Candy to issue yet another statement to the media this week (the fourth since the death of her husband on June 23rd).
“I am deeply saddened and disappointed by the rumors and stories that have emerged claiming that I have my home up for sale,” Candy Spelling said in a statement Thursday night. “I am forced to respond during this sensitive time that these stories are not true, nor do I have any current plans to sell the house that my husband Aaron and I built,” the statement continued. “I find it disheartening to wake up and find camera crews on the street filming my front gate for the morning news, particularly since the story is not true.”
PEOPLE magazine reports that Spelling’s widow felt pressured to set the record straight after listening to local reporters attack her for allegedly putting the house up for sale just days after her husband’s death. Turns out the reports were erroneous, but reports say the mere fact that the rumor about the house had circulated was enough to enrage Spelling. House? Let me rephrase that. Mansion. No, make that estate. The Spelling’s six-acre estate was built in 1983 at a cost of $45 million. It includes three kitchens, a theater, a gym, an Olympic-size swimming pool, a doll museum, a separate servants’ wing, a 6,000-sq.-ft. guesthouse, eight double-car garages, tennis courts, a gazebo, a greenhouse, 12 fountains, six formal gardens and a room just for gift-wrapping.
However, the rumor about the sale of the mansion is not the only one that Candy Spelling has had to contend with in the days following the TV mogul’s death. Last week, Spelling issued another statement criticizing daughter Tori’s remarks made to the press soon after her father Aaron’s death.
That statement read: “We are deeply saddened that, during our time of loss and grief, we are forced to respond to the media frenzy caused by the mean-spirited and surprising comments made by Tori to the press, just two days after the passing of Aaron.” It continues, “As we try to honor his memory with love and respect, the sudden media frenzy she has created at this sensitive time is hurtful and very disturbing.” It ended by saying that Tori had in essence tainted her father’s legacy.
Candy Spelling was referring to the PEOPLE magazine report that quoted Tori saying that she learned of her father’s death from a friend who had heard it on the evening news. “I was devastated,” Tori, tells the magazine. “I was saddened that the news had not come from my mother.” Contrary to some reports Tori revealed that she had visited her father and introduced him to her new husband, Dean McDermott. The magazine says the reunion “marked the end of a nine-month rift between father and daughter, during which neither one spoke to or saw the other.”
Other media sources say the real rift is between Tori and her mother. A source close to the family says Candy was upset with the way she was portrayed in Tori’s VH1 sitcom “So NoTORIous,” which is based on life in the Spelling household.