Venus and Serena Williams’ stepmom has filed for bankruptcy in a last-ditch bid to keep the now crumbling home where estranged husband ‘King’ Richard turned his daughters into tennis legends, DailyMail.com can reveal.
The move by Lakeisha Williams, 43, is another twist in the often bitter saga of her marriage to the 80-year-old former coach – including new divorce court papers revealed by DailyMail.com in which she claims they have reunited and enjoy regular steamy sex.
It’s also one more bizarre turn in events surrounding ailing dad-of-nine Richard Williams, the focus of hit movie King Richard whose star Will Smith sensationally slapped Chris Rock before picking up a now controversial Oscar for best actor.
Williams, who has suffered several strokes and is battling dementia, moved third-wife Lakeisha into his then palatial home in an ultra-rural part of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, after they wed in 2009.
But the couple – who have son a Dylan, nine – split in 2017. Williams then filed for divorce accusing his wife of forging his signature to have his name removed from the property records, leaving just her name on the paperwork.
Now Lakeisha has asked a judge in Palm Beach to halt the divorce petition, insisting they are back together, the marriage is not irretrievably broken – and they have weekly sex sessions.
The former grocery store owner, who runs a small trucking company from Richard’s former home in an exclusive community, did not disclose where this was allegedly taking place.
However a neighbor revealed to DailyMail.com that they saw Williams two weeks ago at the $1.3million four-bedroom house on 10-acres that he shared with Lakeisha.
It is the spread he bought in 1995 for $355,000 with Venus and Serena’s mom, ex-wife Oracene Price, as a training camp for the eventual stars.
He had two tennis courts built and relentlessly drilled his then-teenage daughters to sports stardom with his one-man coaching mission. Williams and Oracene divorced in 2002.
Lakeisha stayed in the house after her own split with Williams. But the home fell into foreclosure in 2021 after court action initiated by Miami mortgage lender David Simon and was due to be auctioned off on February 18 this year.
However on February 17 Lakeisha filed Chapter 13 bankruptcy, DailyMail.com can reveal.
Chapter 13 is often used to help people save their homes from foreclosure and so the petition dramatically halted the sell-off at the last minute, leaving the lender furious.
Simon’s legal team has blasted the bankruptcy move, saying in a response to the court: ‘This motion is replete with half-truths and inaccuracies.’
Lakeisha is begging to be allowed to repay total ‘consumer’ debts of $491,562 in installments over five years, DailyMail.com can reveal.
And her application to the United States Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of Florida, reveals intimate details of her income and possessions.
The biggest debt is listed as $472,796.98 to Simon as the result of a loan on the home in 2017. And she cites Richard Williams as a co-debtor on her application, despite his name no longer appearing on the deeds.
Among other debts, Lakeisha says she owes the Palm Beach County Tax Collector $2,697.55 for 2021 property taxes and the IRS $7,600.
Meanwhile Bank of America is owed $727, Capital One National Association $985.11, Embassy Loans Inc $2,436, Synchrony Bank $712.74 and Tide Water Finance Company $2,056.55 among others.
Lakeisha also lists total assets of $682,923.43 according to the papers exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com.
Of that, $588,197 is the house which she declares is the ‘current value of the entire property’, although real estate websites value it around $1.3million.
Another $94,726.43 is listed as personal property assets. These include a 2003 Toyota Camry with 180,000 miles on the clock, she claims is worth $1,200 and household items and furniture worth $7,565.
There is also a gun collection, with an ‘AK47’ rifle worth $1,300, a $500 Glock 45 handgun, a $600 .357 handgun and a shotgun worth $800.
Additionally, there’s a year 2000 Freightliner tractor unit worth $6,000, which is connected to her S&D Empire LLC trucking company which is also named in the paperwork. There is also a $75,000 insurance policy listed as an asset.
Despite all the debts and appeal for financial clemency, Lakeisha lists her monthly income as a whopping $15,972.93.
This consists of $9,671.73 reported under net income from rental property or a business, $5,500 from ‘family support payments’ and $801 from Social Security.
Her monthly expenses are listed as a far more modest $2,542, so leaving her with $13,430.73 according to the documents.
Her five-year payment plan to clear the debts – put before the court – is for $8,293.36 a month for 15 months, then $8,033.91 for 25 months and $8,083.42 a month for the remaining time.
Lakeisha’s reported income sits in stark contrast to her apparent financial woes and the dilapidated condition of Williams’ formerly magnificent home where she still lives.
DailyMail.com visited the sprawling pile to speak with her about her twist in the divorce case, which was initiated by Richard.
Set at the end of a tracked road in an exclusive community dominated by large and immaculate equestrian properties, it immediately looks out of place.
Instead of the pristine property boundaries maintained by neighbors, the entrance has a chipped metal gate and ramshackle dirty white fencing.
Two ponds are either side of the dirt driveway, a plastic chair dumped in one of them.
The once-imposing white double front door now has significant rust, while the building’s gable above them is falling apart.
We knocked on the door several times but there was no answer.
In the grounds, there is a blue Mini Cooper that clearly hasn’t moved for a while as there is grass growing through its wheels.
A tractor unit covered in grime sits towards the rear of the property and also looks like it hasn’t moved lately. Behind that is a rusting van that appears to be rotting in place.
Clearly seen from the front of the house, the tennis courts where Serena, 40, and Venus, 41, honed their astonishing talents, are a sad spectacle.
They are surrounded by overgrown grass and only one appears to be playable. Even that has rusting floodlights and a net that is drooping and torn.
A neighbor we spoke to pointed over to the house and said: ‘It would never be in that condition if Richard was still there. He adored that place.’
The neighbor added: ‘Richard is a wonderful man. I wouldn’t hear a word said against him. We were neighbors for many years. Serena and Venus were just kids to me, not superstars.’
A previous bid by Lakeisha to declare Chapter 13 bankruptcy, in 2021, failed because the home was deemed uninsurable due to the need for a new roof, DailyMail.com can reveal. Court documents show quotes of $27,000 to fix it.
And this bankruptcy attempt still faces obstacles. She has been ordered to produce more supporting documents by April 8 and faces questions from creditor Simon under oath on a date to be set.
Simon’s lawyers have filed papers saying: ‘This is a hotly contested case. Secured creditor has a judgment in foreclosure exceeding half a million dollars on a residential home that the debtor owns.
‘This is the debtor’s second bankruptcy case… if at first you don’t succeed try again. But do it fast, and don’t provide notice to your adversary!’
DailyMail.com finally spoke to Lakeisha on the phone. But she would only say: ‘I don’t want to talk about any of this right now.’
As DailyMail.com reported exclusively this week Lakeisha has asked a judge to halt her divorce proceedings.
Her divorce lawyer Sara Lawrence wrote: ‘The wife believes that the parties have reconciled and have engaged in an active marital life including having regular weekly sexual relations including but not limited to on January 9, 2022 the night before filing this motion.’
Despite an apparent healthy income revealed on her bankruptcy petition – and her alleged warming in relations – she is demanding Richard pays her legal fees in the divorce case.
Her attorney writes: ‘The wife has a need for the husband to pay these fees as he has a superior ability to pay from the regular and steady reimbursement of his expenses by his famous and very rich daughters Serena and Venus Williams.’
The papers say ‘the parties have been together and there has been no real active litigation since August 2019 after which no discovery, no mediation and no real activity has occurred.
‘The wife does NOT want the court to enter a Final Judgment.
‘The Respondent/Wife does NOT believe the marriage is irretrievably broken and does NOT want the court to enter a final judgement of dissolution of the marriage.’
They add that Williams and Lakeisha ‘have been raising their son’ whose needs ‘have changed drastically’ since the original petition was filed.
‘There are many issues involved in the complicated and fluid financial and emotional aspects and needs of the parties and their son,’ it adds.
‘The husband is the father of Venus and Serena Williams and the financial condition of the parties’ finances are quite complicated regarding income earned and/or receipt/payment of regular support income from Serena and/or Venus Williams for their father,’ attorney Lawrence wrote.
‘In December 2021 a movie was released titled King Richard which is the biographical rendition of…Richard Williams’s efforts to encourage and have his daughters become professional tennis superstars.
‘No financial information has been forthcoming.’
Lakeisha says the couple have been back together since August 2019 and since then there has been ‘no discovery, no mediation and no real activity’ in the divorce proceedings.
The divorce was due to be finalized on January 12, but Judge James Martz agreed it is not ready and has now set a decision date in June.
‘The parties have not complied with any of the requirements, including but not limited to not attending pretrial mediation or any mediation of any kind,’ he wrote.
‘The parties failed to comply with time requirements for designation of witnesses or exhibits.’
Lakeisha’s shock move and revelations come after bitter exchanges between the couple up to 2019.
She admitted imitating Williams’ writing when accused of forging his signature to transfer the Colonial-style Palm Beach Gardens property into her sole name.
But she said in the earlier court documents that Williams had asked her to do everything for him due to his declining health, which now includes at least two strokes as well as dementia that makes speech difficult.
She also admitting forging Williams’s signature so she could sell his 1999 Bluebird Wanderlodge Motor Coach worth $45,000 claiming it was to buy food for herself and their son.
‘Mainly, I was broke by my husband (who) did not help me. It was my son and I not getting any money, so I had to sell it so I can eat and my son can eat… we didn’t have anything,’ she said.
The statement was ridiculed at the time by Richard Williams’s legal team.
Source: Daily Mail
