LOS ANGELES -- Socialite Betsy Bloomingdale, breaking a two-year silence about her late husband's well-publicized affair with Vicki Morgan, tearfully testified Wednesday she knew nothing of a palimony deal he allegedly made with his mistress.
Bloomingdale, a close friend of First Lady Nancy Reagan, took the stand briefly in the last phase of an $11 million palimony suit filed in 1982 by Morgan, who was murdered a year later. Most of the suit was dismissed earlier.
Alfred Bloomingdale, founder of the Diners Club and a member of President Reagan's 'kitchen cabinet,' died of cancer in August 1982. He was 66.
Bloomingdale testified she visited her husband every day at St. John's Hospital when he was being treated for cancer. She said she was not aware of any visits Morgan may have made.
'If Miss Morgan was at the hospital, I never saw her,' she said.
In court documents detailing intimate details of their sexual relationship, Morgan said her long affair with Bloomingdale began when she was 17 and claimed she disguised herself as a nurse to visit the millionaire while he was dying.
Morgan -- who claimed her affair with the department store heir was first discovered by Mrs. Reagan, who told her friend -- accused the widow in an interview of burying her husband 'like a dog' because of the publicity surrounding the palimony suit.
Bloomingdale, who broke into tears as she described her husband's unsuccessful battle against cancer, insisted the couple had a happy 36-year marriage until his death.
She said her husband's mental condition weakened along with his physical condition between 1981 and early 1982.
At times, she said, Bloomingdale was 'disoriented' at the hospital, where he allegedly signed a document providing for Morgan's financial welfare after his death.
The bulk of Morgan's suit was dismissed two years ago by a Superior Court judge who said the agreement for lifetime support was an illegal contract because she basically delivered the services of a prostitute.
The jury in the case, expected to begin deliberations this week, must decide whether Morgan's son Todd, 15, can receive $240,000 and half of Bloomingdale's interest in Show-Biz Pizza.
Morgan was bludgeoned to death last year by her roommate, Marvin Pancoast, who was convicted of murder this year and sentenced to life in prison.
Defense attorneys claimed during Pancoast's trial that Morgan was killed to cover up the existence of tapes showing sexual encounters of high government officials, but those allegations were never proven.
