Tori Spelling‘s ex-husband is spilling the tea amid her widely whispered money problems!
In a candid new interview with DailyMail.com on Friday, Charlie Shahnaian, who was in a relationship with Tori from 2002 to 2005, opened up about how devastated she was to discover she wouldn’t be inheriting her father’s fortune AND his thoughts on her current living situation!
For starters, Charlie claimed Tori learned about Aaron Spelling‘s will years before he died in 2006 from stroke complications. The TV legend left the majority of his money (around $600 million) to his wife Candy Spelling — meanwhile, Tori only received about $800,000. That is a massive difference — and it was hard for the 50-year-old to process, her ex recalled to the outlet:
“When she found out about the will, and the terms of the will, she was so upset.”
Who wouldn’t be?! $800 grand is a lot… but not as a percent of $600 mil!
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Especially innerestingly considering her current predicament, he claims it wasn’t the amount of money that made her so sad tho. He says it was knowing her mother would now have “control” over her life:
“She was crying and feeling upset, not about the money, but about what it meant that was structured in such a way.”
He tried to calm down the reality star at the time by reminding her of the simple life they dreamed about, recalling:
“I said, ‘Remember, you once said you would live with me in a log cabin in Montana.’ She’s crying and she says, ‘I know, but I thought I’d do it with my money.’ She had a great sense of humor about it, yet there’s a real pain in there about that.”
LOLz!
We really do forget too often how funny she is. She should get cast in more comedies!
While he admittedly never saw the will himself, Charlie speculates it was structured in a way that might help Tori and Candy stay close (though it seems to have done the opposite). He went on:
“From what I understand, it was his hope was that it would bring Tori closer to her mom because it would require a connection between them.”
Unfortunately, things grew tense between the pair after Aaron’s death, and the money only complicated the matter. Despite this, Candy has claimed she set up a trust fund for her daughter’s children, and the actor thinks she’s done the same for Tori and her brother Randy, saying the siblings “will still get what’s remaining in the trust” at some point. Better than nothing!
That said, even if she was given millions after her dad’s death, she might not still have it today. Based on her upbringing, Tori didn’t have a great sense of how to control her funds, he contends:
“When we were together, she didn’t really have a team of people handling things for her. On her own, she isn’t good with money. I’m sure she’s grown in that regard but it was something that she was not trained to do.”
Despite this, she knows how to hustle. Charlie told DM:
“What people don’t appreciate about Tori is that since she was 15 years old, she supported herself. Sure, she had help getting the job but now we look around and everybody has help in Hollywood getting jobs. She only lived in The Manor as a teenager for two years, if that. She supported herself since. She was out on her own working. She worked on 90210 for 28 episodes a season and she made at least one TV movie every year. She worked hard, she worked her little butt off. She didn’t save any of the money, because she wasn’t brought up to understand that.”
He continued:
“She knew that she had terrible spending sprees. We had racks of clothes everywhere. Some of them would be clothes that designers sent, but they don’t send it to you for free. You have to send it back if you don’t want it. But she never sends it back and then we would get charged for them.”
In 2020, her money was seized from her bank account after she was ordered to pay more than $88k in unpaid credit card debts. So, this is something she’s still working on!
Charlie also opened up about how Tori’s perception as a rich heiress totally got in the way of their relationship — and not just cause she wasn’t ready to move to the woods and live off the land! Nope, she once “collapsed crying” when a doorman called her out for being in a “beat-up old car,” he reflected:
“I was driving a beat-up old Nissan Sentra and we were out on a date. We were coming back to the house in my car and the doorman opened the door and said something like, ‘Miss Tori, what are you doing in this car? You should be in a limousine.’ I kind of took it for the joke it was meant to be but it really angered her and hurt her. She just completely collapsed crying. It was so much bigger than this [one moment]. It was like this cathartic cry of just, ‘This is my life. This is going to ruin our relationship. This is what everyone thinks of me. That I’m this person and I’m not.’ It really, really hurt her.”
Oof!
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Sounds like she was really insecure about not appearing rich! And now she’s living in an RV! How far she’s come! As we’ve been following, the Scary Movie alum and her five children have been living in a home on wheels for the last few weeks after they were displaced due to mold issues in their rental home. This also comes amid marriage troubles between Tori and Dean McDermott. On this, the Color My World with Love writer expressed:
“Tori’s got an incredible resilience. If things get down, she works that phone, she works those emails. I think she knows that about herself, that she thrives in those circumstances. […] I don’t think she’s got this fear that ‘I won’t survive, that I will end up at rock bottom.’ I think she says, ‘I’ll do what it takes and I can do it.’ She’s not afraid to make a deal. She’ll take that challenge and almost immediately finds the way to work it. […] She knows how to make lemonade out of lemons.”
As for rumors she’s living in an RV as a publicity stunt to help her get back on reality TV, Charlie wouldn’t totally put it past her, but didn’t think that was fully happening, he explained:
“I wouldn’t call it a stunt. I would think that she’s been incredibly smart. I think she has inherited her dad’s ability to tap into what makes good television. He did it in nighttime soap opera, dramatic form and she’s been really successful doing it through reality programming. If that is what she wants, I think she’s smart for doing it. I don’t know if that’s what she’s doing but she’s been very comfortable about opening up her life to others. If this is what’s really happening in her life… I don’t think she would manufacture this, take her kids out of the home and put them in an RV, unless it was what was the best thing for them at that time. […] Going into an RV might be just a fun vacation. It might be a fun way to make the best of a bad situation.”
In regards to her trouble with Dean — whom she divorced Charlie to be with after admitting to an affair — he said he was “surprised” by the news:
“My reaction to it is that, unless things are so horrible for both of them, I really hope they can work it out because there are five kids and some of them are quite young. I hope that they wouldn’t enter this lightly. […] In regards to how it started out, I know the question that people have is, ‘do you think this is karma?’ I don’t believe in karma, I believe in grace. I believe that grace is undeserved. Although I do believe that if you live a certain way, certain things are bound to happen. But I don’t believe it’s a spiritual karma on her.”
The 58-year-old concluded the interview by sharing his support for the True Tori alum, saying:
“I’m rooting for Tori. I want her to know that I’m rooting for her. Just because things don’t end well in a relationship with time and with healing, and in my case, with faith, you can come to a place where that love is all that remains. […] I’m rooting for her success. I know she’s got it in her to rise up to another level, and to use her circumstances to create something wonderful.”
She’s certainly having a tough go of it! If only she’d learned how to manage her money better, maybe she wouldn’t be in this predicament, but the fact she’s willing to live in an RV after her privileged lifestyle shows she’s willing to do whatever is needed for her kiddos! Let’s just hope they can get settled in a real home soon! Thoughts?! Sound OFF (below)!
[Image via Nikki Nelson/WENN/MEGA]