Charlene Marshall once threw a decidedly ungracious hissy fit over mother-in-law Brooke Astor’s longevity — because it could have cost her a multimillion-dollar inheritance, prosecutors revealed yesterday.
“She’s f—ing killing him!” Charlene railed during the 2001 outburst — “She” being Astor, and “him” being her husband, Anthony.
“If he dies before she does, I get nothing!”
Jurors were barred from hearing any details of the explosive bit of dialogue — but not before prosecutors claimed it showed that Charlene is clearly “the elephant in the room.” Her husband, Anthony Marshall, is trying to defend himself on charges he swindled his philanthropist mom out of $50 million.
“It’s all for Charlene,” prosecutor Joel Seidemann said of Anthony’s alleged swindling during the trial in Manhattan Supreme Court.
“She’s in the mix. It’s unavoidable. They can say there is no elephant in the room. But there is an elephant in the room.”
But Justice Kirke Bartley ruled that Charlene’s 2001 tantrum was irrelevant, agreeing with the defense as he presided over the third week of testimony.
Charlene’s profane putdown was heatedly argued about outside the jury’s hearing, with prosecutors saying it demonstrates the motive for Marshall’s crime: his wife’s grabbiness.
All the while, Charlene sat red-faced in the second row, once mouthing the words “That’s not true!” and occasionally swatting her hands around angrily.
Astor’s former social secretary, Birgit Darby, repeated the tirade verbatim after stepping down from the witness stand.
Charlene, at the time, had telephoned Darby regarding Astor’s annual winter hiatus in Palm Beach, Fla.
Astor, age 99 and foggy from Alzheimer’s, was set on going again in February 2002 on a private plane, with her staff and dachshunds Boysie and Girlsie in tow. The Marshalls were dead set against it — too expensive.
“Mrs. Astor wanted to go. And Mr. and Mrs. Marshall didn’t want her to spend the money,” Darby remembered, speaking to reporters in the hallway. “So I picked up the phone — ‘Mrs. Astor’s residence!’ — and she’s screaming into it,” Darby said.
“Her words were, ‘She’s f- – -ing killing him! She’s f- – -ing killing him! If he dies before she does, I get nothing! He’s got a weak heart! He’s going to have a heart attack! You have to put an end to that Florida nonsense!’ ”
Prosecutors say that within two years of that tirade, Marshall strong-armed his frail mother into bequeathing Charlene $30 million, after taxes.