Serena Williams’ father King Richard has filed for divorce again
Serena and Venus Williams’ father has filed for divorce for the second time, just a year after reconciling with their ex-stripper stepmother, who ‘stole’ his luxury Florida home and blew more than half a million.
The frail ‘King Richard’, now 83, ended their seven-year legal battle in June last year, despite much younger wife Lakeisha, 46, changing the title deeds of his four-bed Palm Beach mansion to her name without his knowledge.
She borrowed $279,000 and used the house as collateral from hard money lender David Simon to blow up the place for a disastrous trucking company and “fast food and frivolities,” according to court documents.
This rose to almost $620,000 at one point, including legal fees and interest – after which Simon filed a lawsuit in 2017 to recover his money.
In July last year, the property was eventually sold to a Lakeisha employee for $1.2 million to pay off the debt.
Despite the betrayal, Richard took Lakeisha back and they lived together in another four-bed property in the area, which was bought by Serena in 2015 for $815,000.
Now we can reveal that Richard has taken the big step of splitting again and filed his divorce petition in Palm Beach Family Court.
It was always an unlikely romance after they met in a Miami nightclub while she was working as a dancer called Angel and now has a son Dylan, 13.
Forging title deeds wasn’t Lakeisha’s first crime, but she took advantage of the legendary tennis coach’s weak state to forge his signature to sell his cars and cash his Social Security checks, according to his son Chavoita Lesane.
Richard has had three strokes, early dementia, memory loss and problems with his speech, while Chavoita now has power of attorney.
In October 2019, a statement from Richard was canceled after the court was provided with 168 pages of medical records relating to a hospital admission in July 2016 for two strokes.
Previously, another statement was stopped midway because Richard’s answers were so incoherent that even his own lawyer said, “I’m not sure how we’re going to proceed, I think we’re going to cut the statement short.”
His GP, Dr Monica Walker, wrote a letter to the court explaining how the strokes had affected his ‘brain function’.
Further adding, “The complications after the stroke include the inability to remember things that happened recently and incidents that happened years ago.
“You will remember that your muscles weakened immediately after the stroke and that you slowly regained your strength. You also have problems speaking and finding the right word to use.
“You have recovered from problems forming your words. However, you have not yet recovered from what is called dementia. Your ability to perform household business transactions, such as writing checks, paying bills, and keeping records, has been lost. You still sometimes find it difficult to use the right words. This is all part of brain disease and stroke.”
Before the reconciliation, an irate Chavoita had threatened a lawsuit for elder abuse, saying, “I can’t remember how long it took for my father to start having financial headaches like, ‘What’s going on with my Social Security checks?’
“Lakeisha took the Mercedes, she took the bus, she took money, what else was it? The motorcycle. There are so many things she stole for him or forged documents. That’s considered elder abuse. We put it all together, it’s a lot. This whole situation has been frustrating.”
