Billionaire's teenage daughter found dead at home
The 18-year-old daughter of billionaire businessman David Siegel has been found dead at the family home.
Victoria Siegel was found unresponsive in Windermere, Florida on Saturday and was rushed to the Health Central Hospital, where medics pronounced her dead.
A cause of death has yet to be revealed although it is suspected she died from an apparent drug overdose.
Heath Central Hospital, her family is heartbroken and grieving and in shock. Medical examiner will determine pic.twitter.com/wMpB3MMphU
— Gail Paschall-Brown (@gpbwesh) June 7, 2015
Her mother, Jackie Siegel, confirmed the sad news in a post on Facebook, writing, "It is with great sadness that we ask you to respect our privacy during this tragic time and the loss of our beloved daughter, Victoria. Thank you all for your prayers and for your support.
"As more information comes out the family will share it, until that time there is no comment."
David Siegel, the founder of timeshare company Westgate Resorts, and his wife featured in 2012 documentary film Queen of Versailles, which followed the family's financial difficulties during the global economic crisis of 2008 as they struggled to construct their dream estate, dubbed Versailles House.
The couple, parents to eight children, recently appeared on US reality show Celebrity Wife Swap, switching spouses with former Party of Five actor Jeremy London and his wife, Juliet Reeves London.
The Siegel home: America's biggest renovation disaster
The outskirts of Orlando Florida, one of the wealthiest suburbs in the world, is home to America's biggest house.
The suburb of Windermere is very private and very exclusive, and the people who live there spend an awful lot of time and truckloads of money trying to out-build each other.
The mansion replica of the Palace of Versailles takes the cake. It has been under construction and renovation simultaneously for 11 long years and its owners have quite the renovation horror story to tell.
Jackie Siegel is a mother of eight, former model, and matriarch of this mammoth house designed by her billionaire property mogul husband David Siegel.
The couple have designed a 15 bedroom home with a mere 10 kitchens and 30 bathrooms, a 20 car garage and three swimming pools.
The idea for this huge house came to the 80-year-old David in 2003 while he was in Las Vegas for business and fell in love with the Paris Hotel, a replica of the Palace of Versailles.
He sketched his new home based on its design in 2004 but in 2008 the GFC hit and his business went downhill.
David refused to give up or retire and he worked even harder to revive the business.
"We’re having the best years of our history. And we’ve added about 5,000 new employees as last year. So everything is, everything’s great," David said.
The dream home still isn’t finished, 11 years on, but Jackie isn’t shy about adding to the plans now that the money is coming in again.
"You know my wife is still complaining about the size of her closet. She wants a bigger closet."
Morning news break – June 8
