Anne Heche had only $400,000, eldest son reveals in court documents

A bitter family battle to seize control of Anne Heche‘s estate is set to hit a Los Angeles courtroom Tuesday amid revelations that the late actress’ wealth amounted to a fraction of the millions she was believed to be worth.

Heche’s older son Homer Heche Laffoon, 20, who is now locked in a feud with her ex James Tupper over the estate, said he estimated the value of his all his mother’s personal property to be approximately $400,000 total, new court documents obtained by DailyMail.com state.

He said he expects another $400,000 annually from royalties and residuals. 

Homer also revealed Heche lived in an apartment and did not own a house.

Meanwhile, Tupper, 57, the father of Heche’s other son Atlas Heche Tupper, 13, maintains that she appointed him executor of her estate in a ‘will’ she emailed to him in 2011.

But Homer insists that the email is not valid because it’s not signed and that his mother had no will when she died two months ago at age 53. 

He also blasted a petition last week to be named legal guardian of Atlas as a ‘conflict of interest’ and an attempt to manipulate him and his half brother to seize control of their mother’s belongings.

The fight for control of Heche’s estate is scheduled for its first hearing today at Los Angeles Superior Court.

In the new legal documents filed by Homer, whom the court appointed last month as temporary administrator of the estate, he provides a fairly vague list of what his mother owned at the time of her death: 

• A few modest banks accounts; 
• Royalty payments and other income; 
• A corporation in which (Heche) was the sole shareholder (used for projects in development and business functions related to her career in film, including a modest bank account and royalty payments); 
• An LLC membership interest related to her podcast; 
• Tangible personal property of unknown value; 
• Heche’s interest in the future profits from her forthcoming book (Call Me Anne, due to be published early next year); 
• Heche’s claims for damages against Mr. Tupper stemming from Mr. Tupper’s breach of contractual obligations related to their co-owned real properties that have since been sold.’

Homer said his ‘best estimate on the value of all (his mother’s) personal property is $400,000. The probable value of the annual income from all the estate’s property is approximately $400,000.’

He added that Heche ‘did not have any interest in real property at the time of her death.’

The movie star, best known for roles in Donnie Brasco, Volcano, and Wag the Dog and her three-year-relationship with Ellen DeGeneres, died days after slamming her Mini Cooper into a house in Los Angeles, causing an explosion, on August 5.

Blood tests showed that she had cocaine and fentanyl in her system when the high-speed crash occurred, but officials confirmed that she had not been drinking alcohol – despite being pictured earlier with a vodka bottle in her cupholder. 

She was left badly burned and in a coma. Heche’s life support machine was turned off on August 14, and she was cremated on August 18.

A coroner ruled on August 17 that she died from inhalation injury and burns, and the death was ruled an accident.

The mother-of-two also had a fractured sternum caused by ‘blunt trauma,’ according to information on the website of the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner.

Homer, the product of Heche’s eight-year marriage to cameraman Coleman Laffoon,  is suspicious of Tupper’s motives for applying to be appointed ‘guardian ad litem’ over his 13-year-old son as it would make him responsible for protecting Atlas’s interests in court.

And he slammed Tupper for claiming he wanted to ‘preserve family harmony and a healthy, brotherly relationship’ between Heche’s two sons.

‘Mr. Tupper gives no support or context for these claims,’ Homer’s lawyers wrote. ‘Mr. Laffoon can confirm for the court that there is no disharmony’ between them.

Tupper is objecting to Homer petition to continue as administrator of Heche’s estate, and instead wants an independent administrator.

He claims that Homer ‘is not suitable’ to run the estate because he is too young, unemployed, and was estranged from his mother at the time of her death.

Tupper said that the two half-brothers have not had any contact since the day Heche died.

And he also accused Homer of changing the locks on the apartment Heche shared with Atlas, allegedly preventing the younger brother from retrieving his belongings.

But Homer hit back in his new filing saying that he had arranged for Atlas’s laptop and clothes to be retrieved from the apartment but Tupper hadn’t picked them up.

Home called Tupper’s claims ‘unfounded personal attacks’ and ‘frivolous legal claims.’ 

He went on to say Tupper is manipulating him and his half brother to grab control of their mother’s estate. 

Homer also claimed Tupper is keeping him away from Atlas by controlling the teenager’s phone.

Last month, DailyMail.com revealed a 2011 email Heche sent to Tupper in whic she named him executor of her estate. The email was included in Tupper’s legal filing as he battles Homer for control. 

But Homer fought back in a filing last week, claiming that the email is not a legally recognized will because Heche did not sign the document.

‘Mr. Tupper repeatedly refers to the email as a ”will” however – as a matter of law – the email does not qualify as either a holographic will or formal witnessed will,’ Laffoon’s filing states.

‘The email was not signed by [Heche] and does not have two witnesses who signed the document during [her] lifetime.’

Homer says his mother failed to leave behind a will when she tragically died.

‘Without a will, there can be no nomination of an executor,’ Laffoon stated, adding that he is ‘legally entitled to appointment as administrator.’

However, Tupper claims that Heche’s email from January 25, 2011 makes it clear that she wanted all assets to be controlled by him.

The email from Heche has the subject line ‘WILL’ and is addressed to Tupper and copied to attorneys Kevin Yorn and Melodie Moore.

‘My wishes are that all of my assets go to the control of Mr. James Tupper to be used to raise my children and then given to the children,’ the email reads.

It says that her assets will be divided equally among her two sons and that their portions should be given to them when they turn 25 years old. 

In the event that her two sons and Tupper all pass, Heche turned her assets over to her nephew Eliot Bergman, to be divided equally among her nieces and nephews.

‘May this go into my records as my word until further papers are drawn up,’ Heche ends the email.

It appears no further paperwork was ever filed.

Published accounts have estimated Heche’s wealth at around $4million.

In 2021, it was reported that she was selling her cottage in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles for around $2million with co-star and ex-partner Thomas Jane.

It was also previously reported that she owned another home in the Hancock Park-Wilshire area of Los Angeles – a mansion priced at around $4million.