Gary Coleman's estranged mother 'shocked' over sale of death photographs
A mother's heartbreak: Sue Coleman was 'shocked' by the sale of her son's death pictures
Gary Coleman's mother is furious pictures of her late son on his deathbed were offered up for sale.
Sue Coleman, who was estranged from the Diff'rent Strokes star for 10 years leading up to his death, said she was 'shocked' by the photographs, branding them 'extremely disrespectful.'
The pictures are said to show Coleman attached to monitors and a ventilation machine in the hospital where he died. One of the four images was taken after life support was removed and he had passed away.
The photos have been purchased by a U.S. tabloid for a low five-figure sum and are expected to appear on new stands tomorrow.
His ex-wife, Shannon Price, has been accused of colluding in plans to sell the photographs.
They were said to be taken by the production company who filmed an interview with Shannon Price the day after his death.
One picture apparently shows Price, 25, posing at his bedside.
Coleman's manager at the time of his death, Robert Malcolm, told MailOnline he was aware of the photos.
'I don’t know anything about the sale but I do know that she [Shannon] had pictures of him dead,' he said.
But Price's agent Sheila Erickson denied she had tried to sell the photos.
Ex wife: Shannon Price has been accused of colluding in plans to sell the photographs, which are expected to appear in a US tabloid tomorrow
'Shannon Price Coleman did not let any production company take pictures of Gary on his death bed,' she said.
Meanwhile, Coleman's will was filed today in Utah, where the 42-year-old Coleman died May 28 after suffering a brain haemorrhage. Coleman appointed friend Dion Mial as his executor.
Coleman says in the 1999 will that he wanted to be remembered in a wake conducted by people who had no financial ties to the star of the sitcom Diff'rent Strokes.
He also wanted none of the media that followed Coleman's legal, financial, health and marriage troubles through his adult life to be allowed to attend.
'I direct my personal representative to permit no members of the press to be present at my wake or funeral,' Coleman stated in the will.
Not mentioned in the will is Price, whom Coleman was still years from meeting when he wrote the will in 1999.
But in an interview with Entertainment Tonight, which airs in the US this evening, Price says she has a legal document showing he 'wanted me to have everything.'
She also talked about his financial
woes, saying: 'His financial problems have always been bad with people
stealing from him.
'Gary hasn’t been able to take care of finances very well because no one taught him. [But] we survived through everything. I had some family help us. My family's been very supportive [us].'
Coleman met Price on a movie set in 2006. The couple married in 2007 and divorced in 2008.
A representative says Price believes she has a claim to the estate and planned to meet with her lawyer Tuesday.
Although the couple were divorced, they still lived together in Santaquin, south of Salt Lake City.
It was Price - who was named in an advanced health care directive - who ordered that Coleman be taken off of life support.
Price referred to Coleman as her husband when she called emergency services, saying Coleman had fallen and was bleeding severely from the back of his head.
Coleman was still conscious when he was taken to a hospital in Provo, but slipped into unconsciousness the next day and was placed on life support for a day.
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