THE LATE ex-wife of Walt Disney’s nephew Roy Disney left €3.3 million in a will which was filed in the Dublin Probate Office earlier this week.
According to documents registered with the Land Registry, Patricia A Disney, owned as part of her assets Coolmain Castle in Co Cork, which she became the sole owner of in 2008 following her divorce a year earlier.
Ms Disney, who died of Alzheimer’s in Los Angeles in February at the age of 77, was married to Roy E Disney, a former vice-chairman of the Walt Disney Company. He was the only son of Walt Disney’s brother Roy Oliver, for 52 years.
She was a philanthropist and vice-chairwoman of Shamrock Holdings, which was set up by her former husband as an investment vehicle for the Disney family in 1978.
According to the Land Registry documents, Ms Disney owned Coolmain Castle and eight hectares of adjoining lands which are located on the coast about 15 kilometres south of Bandon.
The castle was built by the De Courcey family in the 15th century. Roy Disney purchased the property from the Hollywood photographer Bob Willoughby in the early 1990s.
The particulars of Ms Disney’s will, filed with the Probate Office on October 15th, show that she left the gross value of her estate in this jurisdiction, which stood at €3,302,650, to Stanley P Gold, the CEO of Shamrock Holdings, the investment company set up by Roy Disney.
Speaking to The Irish Times last night, a spokeswoman for Shamrock Holdings said Mr Gold was not in a position to comment personally as he was otherwise engaged but said he was “owner only as a trustee for the Patricia Disney Trust” and would be making no further comment on the matter.
According to documents filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission in 2010 the Roy Disney Trust and the Patricia Disney Trust each own 50 per cent of the common stock of Shamrock Holdings, Inc.
The company’s website says that Shamrock Holdings manages several real estate investment programmes through a subsidiary while, in a statement released after Roy Disney’s death, the company said it served some of the largest pension funds in the US.
Ms Disney is survived by her four children, Roy Patrick Disney, Susan Disney Lord, Abigail Disney and Timothy Disney, and her 17 grandchildren.
The Disney family donated $10 million to create the Roy and Patricia Disney Family Cancer Centre in Los Angeles, which opened in 2010.