LOS ANGELES -- Betsy Bloomingdale broke into tears when queried about her late husband's affair with Vicki Morgan and testified she knew nothing about a palimony deal he made with his mistress before she was murdered.
Bloomingdale testified Wednesday she visited her husband, the late millionaire Alfred Bloomingdale, 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, breaking a two-year silence about the well-publicized affair.
A close friend of First Lady Nancy Reagan, Bloomingdale's brief testimony came 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.
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.
Bloomigdale, founder of the Diners Club and a member of President Reagan's 'kitchen cabinet,' died of cancer in August 1982. He was 66.
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.
She accused the widow of burying her husband 'like a dog' because of publicity surrounding the palimony suit.
Bloomingdale broke into tears as she described her husband's battle against cancer and 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, causing him to become 'disoriented' at the hospital, where he allegedly signed a document providing for Morgan's financial welfare.
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.
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.
