Katy Perry has been branded ‘entitled’ and ‘unforgivable’ after she launched a lawsuit against the dying 85-year-old veteran that she evicted from her $15million mansion.
Carl Westcott, 85, agreed to sell his 1930s estate in the celebrity enclave of Montecito, California to Perry in 2020 for $11.25million, but days later tried to nix the deal claiming he was under the influence of painkillers when he signed.
Perry, 40, and her husband Orlando Bloom, 48, won a court battle to keep the 9,000 sq. ft. home, which sits on a 2.5-acre lot, in December 2023, making the singer the legal owner of the property. She received the keys to the residence last year.
She is now pursuing the ailing businessman, who suffers from a neurological disorder, for $6million in back rent and alleged damages.
The Westcott family is outraged by her ‘greed’ and have slammed the ‘Hollywood elite system’ that they say allows celebrities like Perry to ‘treat ordinary people like dirt’.
‘It’s entitled celebrity behavior,’ Carl’s son Chart Westcott, 39, told The Sun. ‘She has no sense of fair play, no empathy, zero empathy, quite the opposite.’
Chart said his father, who thanks to a ‘miracle’ has ‘survived longer than we ever expected’, is currently ‘bedridden’ and on hospice, with the decline in his health being ‘constant’.
‘The worse the condition my father is in, the harsher they’ve been in trial,’ Chart said of Perry and her team.
The family of dying Carl Westcott, 85, has slammed singer Katy Perry as ‘entitled’ and ‘unforgivable’ after she launched a $6million lawsuit against the bedridden veteran
Westcott agreed to sell his 1930s estate in the celebrity enclave of Montecito, California to Perry in 2020 for $11.25million, but days later tried to nix the deal claiming he was under the influence of painkillers when he signed
Perry and her husband Orlando Bloom (pictured together last September) won a court battle to keep the 9,000 sq. ft. home, which sits on a 2.5-acre lot, in December 2023, making the singer the legal owner of the property. She received the keys to the residence last year
Perry was declared the legal owner of the gated 1930s estate which boasts a tennis court, two guesthouses and a pool, in December 2023 after a nearly four-year legal battle with Westcott.
But she still wants to knock around $6million off the sale price, claiming that the bedridden octogenarian – currently receiving hospice care for Huntington’s disease – owes her vast sums for repairs and lost rental income.
But the family has disputed her claim, alleging that the damages she seeks are ‘absolutely egregious’.
‘There’s no real explanation other than greed,’ Chart told The Sun. ‘This is such a small deal to be worried about – I think its a matter of privilege – her lawyers and her business manager are dealing with it.’
He claimed that Perry and Bloom are ‘unforgivable how they have conducted their affairs’, and said that the Westcott family are ‘very reasonable people’ and ‘interested in a reasonable outcome for all involved’.
‘It’s unfortunate that Katy and Orlando have been unreasonable from the start,’ he added.
Chart, who claims his father has ‘not talked about this damages case’, said that at the last hearing the family attended, a judge ruled that Perry ‘must testify’ in court.
Westcott’s entire immediate family, including his sons Chart and Court Westcott – who is married to Real Housewives of Dallas alum Kameron Westcott – all plan to attend LA Superior Court.
Chart added that his father remains in ‘horrible condition’ and has been ‘bedridden for well over 18 months’. He told the newspaper: ‘His activity level is very low, he’s not awake very often, he’s very foggy – and still recognizes us, but the decline is just consistent, and very painful for our family to watch.’
DailyMail.com has approached representatives and attorneys for Perry, Bloom and the Westcott Family for comment.
The Westcott family, who who claim Carl has ‘not talked about this damages case’, are outraged by Perry’s ‘greed’ and have slammed the ‘Hollywood elite system’ that they say allows celebrities to ‘treat ordinary people like dirt’
Carl Westcott, with his sons Court (center) and Chart in 2016, is currently receiving hospice care for Huntington’s disease
Perry will have to make her case in person after a California judge ruled that she must give evidence at an upcoming damages trial where she’ll come face to face with Westcott’s family, who say the ‘exhausting’ battle has marred their beloved patriarch’s final days.
The sprawling 9,285-square foot compound in the Santa Ynez foothills has been registered under the owner DDoveB, a nod to Perry’s three-year-old daughter, Daisy Dove Bloom, since May.
Perry has placed $9million in escrow to pay Westcott, a celebrated veteran of the US Army 101st Airborne who was born into a ‘dirt poor’ family in Mississippi.
He grew up in a shotgun house without plumbing but moved to LA where he went on to build several successful companies including 1-800-Flowers.
His father had only a second-grade education and couldn’t read or write and Westcott was send to a home for juvenile delinquents for selling school lunch vouchers.
But he pulled his life together when he moved to LA as a teen and started selling cars, eventually opening his own dealerships.
‘When you are poor in Mississippi, that is the poorest of the poor,’ Westcott once said. ‘We didn’t have a car, and I always thought people with cars were wealthy. In fact, I thought people with lawns were pretty remarkable.’
Exactly how much of the remaining $6million balance Perry owes him will be determined by the second phase of their protracted, four-year court saga.
Carl Westcott grew up ‘the poorest of the poor’ in Mississippi in a shotgun house without plumbing
Perry and Bloom penned a personal letter to Westcott following the sale of the property in 2020
The damages trial was originally scheduled to take place in November 2024, lasting several days. But Westcott’s lawyers pleaded for more time after Perry – worth an estimated $350million – hired 25 experts to scour the house for faults.
They will argue that the two-acre property needs repairs for water damage, an oak tree that fell on a building, and various other maintenance issues that arose while she waited years to move because Westcott disputed the sale.
She also wants around $3.5million in lost rent that she could have supposedly earned on the posh retreat despite stating at the time of the sale that she planned to raise her daughter there.
Perry’s lawyers argued at a hearing last June that she and Bloom – who is also likely to be subpoenaed and asked to give evidence – were essentially ‘lay people’ and would rely instead on statements from professional construction experts.
But Judge Joseph Lipner insisted: ‘As I sit right here this minute I definitely expect Ms Perry to be a witness.’
DailyMail.com previously revealed how Perry had become ensnared in the extraordinary dispute with Westcott after he claimed his judgment was clouded by powerful medication and ill health when he inked the deal on July 15, 2020.
He had only purchased the home in May of that year and moved in two months prior to his dealings with Perry’s representative, Bernie Gudvi, who agreed to pay him $3,750,000 more than he had just bought it for.
Katy Perry performs during the opening ceremony of the 2025 Invictus Games at BC Place on February 08, 2025 in Whistler, British Columbia
The then-80-year-old had been discharged from the hospital only four days prior to signing, having undergone a six-hour back operation.
He was on a potent cocktail of opiates to numb the pain, his lawyers said.
When the medication wore off, Westcott said he realized he’d made a mistake and informed Berkshire Hathaway by email on July 22 that he no longer intended to sell up.
‘The combination of his age, frailty from his back condition and recent surgery, and the opiates he was taking several times a day rendered Mr. Westcott of unsound mind,’ his complaint argued.
Perry and Bloom’s agents disregarded Westcott’s plea, writing to him days later to warn they would sue if he did not relinquish the property.
Westcott’s family took up the fight on his behalf after he became bedridden and mentally incapacitated because of Huntington’s disease, which attacks the brain and can cause progressive dementia.
She emerged victorious in the first phase of their trial after Judge Lipner ruled there was ‘no persuasive evidence’ that Westcott lacked the capacity to sign the contract.
‘There are no grounds for rescission. The contract must be respected,’ he concluded, leaving only the issue of damages – essentially how big a discount to award to Perry, who didn’t give evidence in person – to be determined.
In 2015, Perry was in a battle with elderly Roman Catholic nuns over the sale of a convent. Sister Rita Callanan (right) and Sister Catherine Rose Holzman lived on the eight-acre property that includes a 30,000-square-foot Spanish-Gothic home until 2011
That wasn’t the first time Perry had had legal problems when it came to purchasing a home.
Perry was involved in a dispute over the sale of a convent she purchased in 2015, paying $14.5million in cash to Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez.
Sister Rita Callanan and Sister Catherine Rose Holzman, who had lived in the convent since the 70s, claimed Gomez had no right to offload the property, and said they had already sold it weeks prior for $15.5million.
But the Archdiocese sued to block their deal, arguing that it was the nuns who had exceeded their authority.
A judge ruled against the nuns in 2016 and awarded Perry and the Archdiocese damages totaling more than $15million.
During the 2018 legal battle, Sister Holzman, 89, collapsed and died during a court appearance.
That prompted Sister Callanan, the only surviving nun who lived at the Order of the Most Holy and Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, to declare that Perry had ‘blood on her hands’.