Donald Bren didn’t promise lifelong relationship with ex-girlfriend, lawyer says
He lavished her with flowers and gifts and sealed them with words of love and kisses. He paid her children’s school fees and supported their comfortable lifestyle in Beverly Hills.
So, according to lawyers for billionaire developer Donald L. Bren, he has no more financial obligations to the two children he conceived with former girlfriend Jennifer McKay Gold, who claims he promised a lifelong relationship.
“There was no oral promise in the first place,” said Bren’s lead lawyer, John Quinn, during final arguments Wednesday. “It was thought up after the fact. Ms. Gold can see a time when child support would end. That’s the time a light bulb went off.”
The trial has provided a rare glimpse into the very private life of the 78-year-old Irvine Co. chairman, whom Forbes magazine ranks 16th on a list of the 400 richest Americans.
During Quinn’s remarks, Gold — the mother of Christie, 22, and David Bren 18, who are seeking $400,000 a month each in back child support from their father — walked out of the courtroom in disgust.
“It’s pretty sad, for a guy as successful monetarily as Donald, he is not wealthy in his soul,” Gold said outside court. “I think of him as a very poor man with a lot of money.”
Bren’s lawyer said his client had provided more than enough for his children, paying about $10,000 a month each over the years that covered such things as housekeepers, nannies, private tutors and ski trips.
But Gold’s lawyer, Hillel Chodos, argued that had she gone to family court to seek formal child support years ago, the children would have been entitled to a lot more. Bren has an estimated net worth of $12 billion.
“We are not here because they didn’t have enough to live on,” Chodos told the jury during his closing arguments. “We are here today because they were deprived by Donald Bren’s fraudulent promise of their birthright. These kids have a right to share Donald Bren’s standard of living.”
Taking the stand again Wednesday, the 78-year-old Bren said he never loved Gold and never intended to have a steady relationship with her.
“I was attracted to Jennifer; she and I had a dating relationship. I never told her I loved her,” Bren said after lawyers showed him cards and notes he had signed with messages such as “lots and lots of love and big kisses.”
When asked what he meant by the notes, Bren said: “There’s a big difference to me in sending a happy birthday card with the printing ‘with love’ on it as opposed to telling someone, ‘I am so in love with you I want to be engaged with you and marry you and have your children.’ I never said that to Jennifer.”
Asked by one of his lawyers if he regretted not spending more time with Christie and David, Bren said, “I do … even though we had a very unconventional relationship, a contractual relationship, a relationship that was not family.”
Gold testified later that “it was pretty shocking” to hear Bren speak that way about her and their children.
“It’s cruel to say these things in front of his children,” Gold said outside the courtroom. “They’re upset and angry. My son, he keeps it in. My daughter is very sensitive. It affects her a lot.”
Bren has said he provided well for the children over the years and looks forward to paying for their college educations.
“Education is the most important gift a person can make to a child,” he said in court. “It would allow those two children to grow up and be successful in their own right and not rely on anyone else but themselves to become productive and happy human beings.”
Gold said Christie had already graduated from college and plans to study film editing. David will start classes at Boston University next week. Gold has been a homemaker and dabbled in sculpting, including studying in Italy to learn how to work with marble.
“It’s not that we are poor; that’s not the point,” said the former model. “I just want [my children] to have what is theirs. It is their birthright.”
The jury will begin deliberations Thursday.
chingching.ni@latimes.com
