Last week Gloria Haft, 66, struck back at her 72-year-old husband. She filed for legal separation after 45 years of marriage, charging Herbert with physical abuse, infidelity and a “blitzkrieg” of illegal financial activity. Robert went to court as well, suing Dart for the more than $10 million he says the company owes him under his contract. The family feud is front-page news in the Hafts’ hometown, Washington, D.C., and, in a statement denying all charges, Herbert Haft said that that’s exactly what his wife wants: a “coordinated media campaign of lies made up to destroy me.”
The Hafts’ midsummer nightmare pits parents against children and brother against brother. Gloria says her husband will stop at nothing to maintain his control of the family’s $1.3 billion business empire, which includes a major share of Crown and Trak Auto, a discount auto-parts chain. Gloria’s allies are Robert, 40, the founder of Crown Books, and her daughter, Linda, 43. The youngest son, Ronald, 34, is in his father’s comer; Herbert now says Ronald is his crown prince–the post Robert once seemed to have locked up.
Gloria claims in court papers that Herbert gave Ronald a $4.5 million bonus last year to enlist his aid in an “illicit scheme to seize control” of the family’s private realestate company by issuing new stock options and long-term employment contracts. Ronald and Herbert deny the charges. Herbert has named Ronald the president and CEO of Dart Group and has issued Ronald options to buy 180,000 new shares of Dart voting stock. The move could prevent Gloria from ever gaining control of the empire.
The separation suit describes a marriage on the rocks for years. Gloria says her husband assaulted her, humiliated her and threatened her with bankruptcy. Their woes began in 1991, when Herbert developed a heart ailment. After that, she charges, he became “increasingly distant, impatient, and hostile” toward her. They stopped having sex, and he started traveling and going to parties without her. She claims that her husband “flaunted his affairs with other women throughout the marriage.” A decade ago, a former Haft employee, Vana Martin, sued Herbert after she ended an alleged sexual affair that she said ran from 1965 to 1980. He denied the allegations, but the case was settled out of court.
Gloria says the physical violence escalated this spring and included shoving matches in their Washington mansion. In May, Gloria claims, Herbert gripped her by the shoulders and threw her against the adboard of their bed. According to the complaint, she “retreated to the guestroom” and slept there, “behind locked doors.”
Will Herbert outmaneuver his wife? Will Ronald ascend the throne? Who will play Gloria in the mini-series? Stay tuned.
