Less than three months after Richard Simmons suddenly passed away, the late fitness guru’s longtime housekeeper asked a judge to make her a co-trustee of his estate.
Teresa Reveles Muro, who worked as the housekeeper of Richard Simmons for 40 years, filed the petition on Wednesday, Sept. 27, TMZ reported. She claimed that after Simmons died, Richard’s brother Leonard, and Leonard’s wife Cathy went to view his body.
At the time, Teresa stated Leonard and Cathy took her to the fitness star’s lawyers’ office to sign a document turning down a co-trustee role in his trust.
Reveles Muro claims in her petition that she did not understand what documents she was signing at the time. However, the housekeeper said she felt pressured when Leonard, Cathy, and the attorney stated any paperwork mistakes could jeopardize her inheritance rights under the trust.
She later received a letter stating she no longer had a major say in Richards’ estate handling.
The longtime housekeeper further claimed that no one she met with informed her exactly what it meant to turn down the co-trustee role nor did they advise her to speak to her own attorney about the documents. After speaking to her lawyer, she petitioned the court to reinstate her as a co-trustee to Simmons’ estate.
She stated she was in the best position to execute Richard Simmons’ final wishes. Her attorney shared they reached out to the law firm handling Simmons’ trust numerous times. However, they have not receive a specific explanation as to why the late fitness guru’s brother won’t agree to revote the housekeeper’s declination and let her serve as a co-trustee.
Richard Simmons passed away on July 13, one day after celebrating his 76th birthday. His housekeeper was said to have discovered him unresponsive.
Richard Simmons’ Housekeeper Previously Opened Up About Finding Him Unresponsive
Days after Simmons died, Reveles Muro recalled finding the late fitness guru unresponsive in his Los Angeles-area residence. He was pronounced dead not long after.
When I saw him, he looked peaceful,” she said. The housekeeper noticed his hands were balled into fists. “That’s why I know it was a heart attack. I had a heart attack a few years ago, and my hands did the same.”
The housekeeper further reflected on when she first started working for Richard Simmons in 1987. “I showed up in here and Richard says to me, ‘Where are your clothes? Where is your big suitcase?’” she recalled.
“I said, ‘I just bring the little suitcase because I only try this for two weeks. If you don’t like me or you don’t like my cooking, then I can’t work.’” Simmons told her: “Teresa, come in, you are never going to leave. We are going to be together until I die.”
She also referred to herself as Richard Simmons’ companion. “If I was in the kitchen and then I come into the living room, he would hide and jump out,” Teresa recalled. “Being so loud that he would scare me to death. I’d start screaming, ‘Richard, you almost killed me!’ He’d just laugh and say, ‘Teresa, almost doesn’t count.’”
The official cause of Simmons’ death was ruled “complications from recent falls and heart disease.”