Paulina Porizkova has opened up about the moment she learned she was cut from her late husband Ric Ocasek’s will shortly after his death.
The supermodel, 57, who was married to the Cars frontman from 1989 until his death in 2019, despite separating in 2018, spoke candidly about the realisation while appearing on Red Table Talk with Jada Pinkett Smith, Willow Smith and Adrienne Banfield-Norris.
In a preview clip released ahead of Wednesday’s episode, Porizkova recalled how she’d been choosing an outfit for her late husband to be buried in when she found an envelope that said “this is the will and testament”.
According to Porizkova, it stated that Ocasek did not plan to provide for his wife “because she abandoned me”.
“Three days after my husband died, I’m, you know, choosing out the clothing for the coffin, which was really rough … So, while doing that, I open an envelope that says: ‘This is the will and the testament’ and his writing that says: ‘I will not provide for my wife because she abandoned me,’” Porizkova recalled.
The model then revealed that she was in “no state to process” the will, and that her initial reaction was that it was a “lie”.
“That’s a lie … Somebody made a mistake,” she said she recalled thinking.
Elsewhere during the upcoming Red Table Talk episode, Porizkova reflected on the moment she found Ocasek dead in his bedroom shortly after he had undergone surgery to treat stage zero lung cancer.
The musician died on 15 September 2019 at the age of 75, with the autopsy report released by the New York City medical examiner ruling the death was caused by cardiovascular disease.
In a preview clip shared by People, Porizkova said that her ex had been “recovering really well” from the surgery.
“Two weeks [later], he was walking around, he was starting to feel much better, he was sleeping better. And this night, he said, you know what, I’m feeling kinda tired,” she recalled, adding that the next morning, Ocasek was sleeping late but she thought nothing of it because it was common for him to sleep in due to his “rockstar hours”.
However, Porizkova said she ultimately decided to wake the singer-songwriter around 11am, at which point she brought a cup of coffee up to his bedroom.
“I brought him a cup of coffee and he just looked like he was sleeping,” she said of the moment she realised he had passed away. “I set the coffee down next to him and that’s when I saw his face. I saw his eyes. And they didn’t look like eyes anymore.”
Although Porizkova and Ocasek, who share sons Jonathan Raven, 29, and Oliver Orion, 24, separated in 2018 after 28 years of marriage, they were not legally divorced and were still living together at the time of his death.
In 2021, Porizkova revealed during an appearance on Los Angeles Magazine’s podcast The Originals that she had settled with the musician’s estate after being left out of Ocasek’s will.
The model, who did not reveal how much she had settled for, said she knew “exactly how much I’m owed under New York law...and I am getting it”.
Porizkova also said at the time that she was “gonna be fine” following the settlement.
The upcoming episode of Red Table Talk will air on Wednesday 16 November at 12pm ET on Facebook Watch.
