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Jerry Lewis Disinherited Five of His Sons—Here’s What the Reported Will Says

The reported will named six sons for exclusion, but five were alive when Jerry Lewis died. Its clause gives no reason for the decision.
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Jerry Lewis’s reported 2012 will named six sons from his first marriage and explicitly excluded them and their descendants from benefiting under the will. Five of those sons were alive when Lewis died in 2017; Joseph had died in 2009. The clause states the exclusion, but it does not give a reason for it.

Why the headline says five, but the will named six

News reports published after Lewis’s death reproduced a clause naming Gary, Ronald, Anthony Joseph, Christopher Joseph, Scott Anthony and Joseph Christopher Lewis. It said they and their descendants were intentionally excluded as beneficiaries of his estate. Joseph Christopher Lewis had died in 2009, leaving five surviving sons when Lewis died in August 2017.

Global News reproduced the clause as: “I have intentionally excluded Gary Lewis, Ronald Lewis, Anthony Joseph Lewis, Christopher Joseph Lewis, Scott Anthony Lewis, and Joseph Christopher Lewis and their descendants as beneficiaries of my estate, it being my intention that they shall receive no benefits hereunder.” That is the outlet’s reproduction of the will’s wording; the original filed document is not linked in the cited coverage.

What the reported will says—and does not say

The reported clause makes the intended exclusion explicit and extends it to the named sons’ descendants. It does not explain why Lewis chose to exclude them. Accordingly, the documented answer to “Why did Jerry Lewis disinherit his sons?” is limited: the reports describe what the will said, not the reason behind the decision.

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Coverage also reported that the will provided for Lewis’s wife, SanDee Pitnick, and daughter Danielle. That information does not establish how every asset was ultimately distributed. No authoritative estate inventory or accounting is established by the cited reports, so an exact estate value or complete account of the final distribution should not be inferred.

What is known about the family context

Lewis’s first marriage was to Patti Palmer, and the six named sons were from that marriage. Inside Edition reported that one of the sons described years of physical and emotional abuse and estrangement. That is the son’s account; it is not a reason stated in the will and does not establish Lewis’s motive for the clause.

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How the exclusion became public

Lewis died on August 20, 2017, at age 91. In September of that year, Forbes and Global News reported the exclusion language, with Global News reproducing the sentence attributed to the will. The cited accounts are secondary news reports rather than a linked court-filed will or complete probate record, so the wording here is attributed to those reports.

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Key dates

  • 1944–1980: Lewis’s marriage to Patti Palmer, according to the coverage.
  • 2009: Joseph Lewis died.
  • 2012: Lewis executed the will described in the reports.
  • August 20, 2017: Lewis died at age 91.
  • September 2017: News coverage reported the exclusion clause.

Sources

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