Sex News Headlines : UK Sex News | Porn baron gives 37m to each granddaughter

Porn baron gives 37m to each granddaughter

Posted in: UK Sex News | Nov 11, 2008 - 8:08:33 PM

The pornography tycoon and property magnate Paul Raymond has bequeathed almost his entire fortune to his two favourite granddaughters – but his son Howard will receive nothing.

Paul Raymond’s will reveals how boy he fell out with was denied share of fortune.

Paul Raymond, who died, aged 82, in March, has left nearly £75 million in his will to Fawn James, 22, and her half-sister, India Rose, 17. They are the children of Raymond’s daughter Debbie, who died of an accidental drugs overdose in 1992.

The only other person named as a beneficiary in the will was his loyal secretary Marie Todman of West London, who was left £10,000.

Howard, 47, fell out with his father years ago. But while Raymond lay dying in a London hospital, he was a frequent visitor, fuelling speculation that he was back in line to inherit at least some of his father’s millions.

Probate records disclosed yesterday, however, reveal that neither Howard nor his daughters – make-up artist Cheyenne, 24, and student Boston, 22  – were left anything.

Raymond left an estate in the UK worth £74,535,206, reduced after liabilities to £74,286,106. It is far less than the £650 million that he was thought to be worth when he died of respiratory failure.

But it is believed that a large part of his wealth may have been held in trusts or companies that did not feature in his personal estate.

Fawn, who is studying at St Andrews University in Fife, will get an immediate payment of £150,000, which the will stated she should receive at the age of 21.

Sixth-former India will get the same amount when she reaches 21.

The rest of the estate is being held in trust for the girls until they are 25, when they will become two of Britain’s richest women.

Fawn James who, with her half-sister India Rose, will inherit almost all their grandfather's enormous wealth

The fortune includes all their grandfather’s shares in his companies Paul Raymond Publications Holdings and Soho Estates Holdings.

Raymond, the son of a Liverpool haulage contractor, was born Geoffrey Anthony Quinn, but changed his name at the age of 22. He was a mind-reader on the pier at Clacton, Essex, before setting up a touring show featuring topless women.

Money he made from the show was used to set up the UK’s first strip club – the members-only Raymond Revuebar in Soho in 1958.

He later diversified into pornographic magazines, publishing titles such as Razzle, Men Only and Mayfair and put on West End stage shows including Yes, We Have No Pyjamas.

Raymond took advantage of a slump in Soho property prices caused by a crackdown on semi-legal establishments in the mid-Seventies and bought a large number of freeholds.

Howard and Debbie were born during his marriage to wife Jean, which broke up in 1974 over his affair with the former swimmer and porn actress Fiona Richmond.

Howard, who works as a leisure events organiser, was reportedly cast out of Raymond’s business empire in the Eighties after he became addicted to cocaine.

He insisted after his father’s death that they had not been estranged and that he had visited him every ten days for the last 12 years of his life.

He claimed that his father had discussed the contents of his will with him and reportedly described his fortune as ‘irrelevant’.

Howard Raymond was left with nothing in his father's will

Debbie was being groomed to take over the running of Raymond’s business empire when she died. He became a virtual recluse after her death and hardly ever left his London penthouse overlooking Green Park. His business interests were overseen by his nephew Mark Quinn.

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