It has been almost seven years since Jackie Siegel — the “Queen of Versailles” — misplaced her daughter Victoria, and she or he nonetheless can’t convey herself to pack up the lady’s bed room.
Jackie gained’t even let the cleaners in to the touch Victoria’s issues on the household’s notorious residence in Windermere, Fla. To maintain recollections shut, she maintains an altar in the home the place she lights incense day-after-day and prays for her daughter.
Victoria was 18 when she died from a drug overdose in June 2015. It’s actually in her reminiscence that Jackie, 56, is again on digital camera as she lastly goals to complete her over-the-top mansion on a brand new Discovery+ present, “Queen of Versailles Reigns Once more.”
“When Victoria died, it felt like my world fell aside, and all the cash on the planet couldn't convey her again,” Jackie informed The Submit.
After a butterfly landed on Victoria’s coffin, Jackie informed The Submit, she determined to have a butterfly design — product of marble, lapis, amethyst and turquoise sourced out of twenty-two totally different nations, then minimize and dry set in Indonesia — embossed within the ballroom ground at her 85,000-square-foot residence. The depth of Jackie’s grief may be seen in an upcoming episode the place she takes the cameras into Victoria’s bed room.
“I don’t even let the cleaners go in her bed room, it’s been untouched since a few of her pals got here in to choose a few of her issues” she stated. “I feel I had an emotional breakdown, I left her room alone, hoping she is going to come residence. However the second simply hit me.”
“We agreed to do the present as a result of [it would] observe the home — and in addition our private story, with our legacy of the lack of our daughter.”
Jackie and her billionaire husband David, the CEO and founding father of Westgate timeshare resort, broke floor on the home they named “Versailles” again in 2004, with plans to make it the largest single household residence within the US.
The couple then discovered worldwide fame within the 2012 documentary “The Queen of Versailles,” which adopted their travails as David’s firm was badly hit by the 2008 recession.
Building on Versailles was halted and the cameras adopted the couple and their 8 kids as they struggled to deal with their diminished revenue. Though director Lauren Greenfield’s movie gained awards and plaudits, the Siegels had been lower than completely happy and David sued the filmmakers, accusing them of defamation, a bid which he misplaced.
The Siegels had been pressured to place Versailles up on the market, however it by no means discovered a purchaser. And now TV cameras discover Jackie — nonetheless sporting her diamond-encrusted “Queen of Versailles” necklace — coping with a cracking marble facade and quite a few leaks, in addition to debating whether or not it’s really sensible to have a Benihana-style hibachi grill put in into one in all their six kitchens. (Spoiler: No, it’s too smelly and noisy.)
There are some wow moments within the new present, together with the revealing of a British pub — full with a classic bar and a London telephone field imported from the UK — and the arrival of some very costly child toucans, a part of Jackie’s dream of putting in an aviary. Subsequent on her want checklist: flamingos.
There’s additionally a 35-car storage and a 150-person eating room. Jackie estimates that, as soon as it’s all performed, the house might be value $200 million.
Speaking concerning the authentic doc, Jackie — who first piqued director Greenfield’s curiosity after they met at a Versace boutique opening in Beverly Hills — admitted: “My husband needs we didn’t do it.
“He was going by means of a tough time financially and it made it appear like our marriage was not doing so properly. We had bankers who made us put Versailles up on the market, and he was mad when the cameras had been round —each time he regarded round, there was a microphone or a increase over his head, They tried to observe us all over the place, even into our bed room after we had been in our underwear. It was like having Large Brother round.”
Nonetheless, she added: “In all honesty, I don’t have any regrets. The one factor is, if I had identified so many individuals would watch, I'd have worn extra make-up!”
The Siegels had simply completed filming “Movie star Spouse Swap” when Victoria, Jackie’s daughter from a earlier relationship and whom David had adopted, died. She overdosed on methadone when her mother and father had been away, and was discovered at residence.
Victoria, who was an enormous a part of the documentary, had gone to rehab to cope with a Xanax dependancy. It was there she met her 26-year-old boyfriend.
“The day she received out, she tried her first heroin … a month later she was lifeless,” Jackie stated. The boyfriend later died of a drug overdose as properly.
After Victoria’s passing, “We didn’t exit for a lot of, many months,” Jackie admitted: “I went by means of an remoted interval of my life.”
The household arrange the “Victoria’s Voice” basis, warning different mother and father concerning the risks of dependancy.
“We received Narcan [overdose medication] out there throughout the nation, and simply in Florida alone they’ve used it over 1,000 instances to save lots of lives,” Jackie stated. “It helps my coronary heart to know that Victoria didn’t die with no objective.”
The TV present has allowed Jackie to point out how she balances being a mom — to daughters Jonquil, 28, Debbie, 20 and twins ; and twins Jacqueline and Jordan, 15; and sons David Jr., 22, Daniel, 21, and Drew, 18 — in addition to residence and work. She runs the sweetness pageants Mrs. Florida, Mrs. American and Mrs, World, and is launching an initiative referred to as “Magnificence for Good,” the place “a military of lovely ladies with a crown” will discuss to highschool mother and father concerning the warning indicators about medicine.
The home has been underneath development for therefore lengthy that plans have modified as the children have aged. They not want a nanny’s room, and plans for an ice skating rink have been modified to a dance membership and a exercise room.
“Thank god I had an enormous household,” stated Jackie: “The opposite children gave me the desire and energy to dwell, and the love and help to be a mother for them too. As a result of of seeing their sister first hand, they’ll by no means contact a drug — I don’t have to fret about that. I need them to have a cheerful life and construct an enormous residence for them.”
The household began filming the Discovery + present in January 2021, however David Sr., 86, was not a part of the primary 4 episodes as a result of he spent six months within the hospital after hurting his again whereas four-wheeling together with his sons.
He then developed pneumonia and confronted different well being setbacks. He’s now residence and recovering properly, Jackie stated.
The youngsters have helped Jackie make tens of millions of dollars value of selections about Versailles after David informed her “it was all in my fingers. There have been about $50 million value of selections to get this home performed. I’ve had rather a lot on my plate! I used to be there with the children with sledgehammers, it was an ideal launch.”
The cameras additionally observe Jackie across the nation as she visits her huge storage items stuffed with costly antiques, has her personal beer made for her pub, and picks out furnishings to be embossed together with her household’s crest.
Though a Season 2 has not but been introduced, cameras additionally joined her on a visit to Indonesia to examine flooring — and had been there when she spent the night time at the true Palace of Versailles in France.
“I met the folks restoring it. I've somebody from France coming this week to assist me with Versailles right here,” Jackie stated. “Once I went to Indonesia, the manufacturing facility president stated I used to be the one shopper placing gem stones in flooring, like amethyst, rose and quartz!”
It’s a far cry from her upbringing in Endwell, NY, the place she grew up in a $20,000 home and began babysitting in second grade.
She married David in 2000 after he had gone by means of a $200 million divorce from his first spouse.
“I’m not even pals with the ladies in my neighborhood, who're married, who go to the membership, play tennis and lunch,” Jackie stated. “They undergo the motions of life. You marry and attain 50, the husband will get bored, he divorces you and finds a 20- or 30-year-old. I didn’t need that to be me. It doesn't matter what, it's a must to have your individual life — your individual objective.
“I like to remain busy, I've my very own investments. Once I got here into the wedding I used to be richer than my husband! He had simply gone by means of one of many largest divorces in American historical past at the moment. We had been dwelling in a three-bedroom home — properly, 4, however I used one as a closet! David was driving a automotive from Thrifty rental. Then he remade his fortune and grew it to a billion-dollar-a-year trade.”
Her objective is to have completed Versailles sufficient to host a New Yr’s Eve get together and transfer in on Could 3, 2023, David’s 88th birthday.
For now, she’s nonetheless searching for her flamingos: “As soon as I get my thoughts set I don’t take no for a solution.”
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