Abigail Kawananakoa says she is “very fine” and capable of conducting her own business in a video released Thursday by her attorneys.
During the eight-minute, edited interview, the 92-year-old Campbell Estate heiress also says she has an obligation to the Hawaiian people but that her hands are tied.
Kawananakoa and her wife,
Veronica Gail Worth, are fighting in court to regain control of the heiress’s
$215 million estate after a Probate Court judge ruled she lacks mental capacity following her stroke in 2017.
In November Kawananakoa changed her trust to ensure her wife receives $40 million and all her personal property and real estate, but the amendment must still win the approval of Judge R. Mark Browning.
Kawananakoa’s communications representative, Kitty Yannone from CommPac, said Kawananakoa felt strongly about communicating to the people in her own words.
Yannone said the interview with television personality Tannya Joaquin was “unvarnished and unrehearsed.”
But former Kawananakoa attorney James Wright, who currently remains successor trustee of her trust and continues to battle in court, said he heard the interview was staged, scripted and coached. It was also heavily edited, he said.
“My heart aches to see Miss K in this hostage video,” he said. “Miss Worth’s ransom is all of the money — including the money (Kawananakoa earmarked) for the Hawaiian community.”
During the interview, Kawananakoa said she was grateful “to talk to the people and let them see how well I am and able to conduct my business, which is vast. I have very capable people that take care of certain aspects of it, and I control all of it and make sure that they report to me in an appropriate and timely manner.”
Asked what she wanted to talk about, the woman responded by quoting William Shakespeare.
“There are so many things I could discuss,” she said. “But, you know, the lady doth protest too much. I’d rather not.”
Still, she said, she believed the truth will come out.
Kawananakoa went on to lavish praise on her wife: “If it wasn’t for Gail, I would not be as normal as you would see now. She’s done everything for me. She still has to do things for me, like help me to the car and when I walk down, I need help with the wheelchair.”
Kawananakoa added that Worth knows to steer clear of her obligation to the
Hawaiian people.
“She doesn’t interfere with the Hawaiian bit. She knows better, because it’s not her kuleana and she knows that. That’s why I love her so much. Her kuleana is to take care of me,” she said.
At least $100 million in Kawananakoa’s trust is earmarked for the Abigail K.K. Kawananakoa Foundation, a charity to fund Native Hawaiian causes following her death. Wright and others say they are working to protect those funds from being scooped up by Worth.
But Kawananakoa said “the alii must do the right thing” and that “we’ll always help the Hawaiian people.”
Browning’s September ruling on Kawananakoa’s capacity followed the medical evaluation of a court-hired California psychiatrist who concluded the heiress doesn’t have the mental capacity to manage her own financial affairs as a result of the stroke.
Two experts hired by Worth’s attorney, Michael Rudy, evaluated Kawananakoa and declared her mentally fit.
As for the video, Wright said he was told by “insiders” that Kawananakoa was being rehearsed for the video, and “it showed in her rote responses.”
The rehearsing would be consistent with prior actions by Worth and her attorneys, he said. Probate court documents, including one filed by then-Senior Deputy Attorney General Hugh Jones, point to the alleged prepping of Kawananakoa for mental examinations on two separate occasions.
Wright said one of the insiders also told him the production was part of a media campaign to make Kawana-
nakoa appear mentally sound and to pressure the judge into changing his mind on the competence
issue.
“This is a 92-year-old human being whose dignity has been taken by her post-stroke spouse,” he said.
Wright called the production “exploitative, abusive and shallow.”
Attorneys for Worth and Kawananakoa have declined to comment about the case, citing the court’s order against talking to the press. In court they’ve been arguing that the heiress is in good mental health.