Sanford and Son is classic black television at its finest and the show’s star, Redd Foxx, quickly rose to icon status with his wit and his grit playing the role of grumpy junk man Fred G. Sanford. But as we all know, when the cameras were off, Redd was by no means living the life of a junk dealer in L.A.’s Watts neighborhood. He’d amassed, and ultimately ran through, a very hefty fortune that once he passed away became fair game to not only his loved ones, but to the IRS as well.

Aside from making people laugh, Redd also loved the ladies, having been married four times. His fourth wife, a Korean woman named Ka Ho Foxx, had been married to Redd for a few months at the time of his death and entered into a financial showdown with Redd’s daughter, Debraca Denise, and the public administrator of Las Vegas (where Redd resided at the time of his death), John Cahill, for years after his death.

Foxx Family Fought Hard Over Redd’s Cash, Peep The Allegations

When Redd passed away at age 68 in 1991 he did so with no will in place to divide his funds to his family. He was also $3.6 million in debt. Debraca became responsible for Redd’s estate and his, of course, caused friction between her and her stepmother Ka Ho who felt like she should be the one in charge of Redd’s finances. However, their feud worsened when Ka Ho began accusing Debraca of being irresponsible with Redd’s money. According to Heirs and Successes;

When he died Redd lived in Las Vegas, as he died without a Will Foxx’s daughter, Debraca Foxx, was appointed as the administrator of his estate. Redd had been married four times and his fourth wife and widow, Ka Ho Foxx, accused Debraca of failing to provide accounts of revenue received in royalties, residuals and licensing deals since her father’s death. Ka Ho believed that Debraca had been taking money for herself that should have gone toward paying down the estates tax debt.

Due to this family infighting, in 2006 the Nevada probate court appointed the public administrator to administer the estate. The administrator stated that his goal was to “settle Redd’s estate pay all taxes owed and get money for his heirs”

What Happened When They Tried To Sell His Life Story

Once John Cahill took over he tried to generate funds for Redd’s estate, by attempting to sell his life story, which falls in line under Nevada’s law to market someone’s “right of publicity”, granting permission to market someone’s image and likeness for profit. Unfortunately, Ka Ho was having none of that as she wanted to be the one to make money off of Redd’s legacy.

However, while the estate owns the right to profit from Foxx’s name, image and likeness, it may not own the rights for a “life story”.  It has also been reported that Ka Ho objects to the marketing of Redd’s life story to anyone but her and plans to go to court to stop this from happening.

Hopefully this issue has resolved itself, but let this serve as a lesson that you should always have your affairs in order with legal documentation to avoid the kinds of headaches the Foxx family has encountered since Redd’s passing nearly thirty years ago.