Herzer’s attorney, Pierce O’Donnell, said he was confident a jury in the new suit “will share our feeling that what happened to Sumner Redstone was not a product of free will but the product of an orchestrated, devious campaign.”

‘Unique And Enduring’

In that suit, Herzer said her “unique and enduring”’ relationship with Redstone was a contrast to his “decades-long fractious relationship with his daughter.” Herzer dated Redstone from 1999 to 2001 and they remained friends as he dated and married other women, according to the suit. “While he had many girlfriends (at least five of whom he gave millions of dollars each), there was only one Herzer -- a best friend for life,” according to the suit.

Herzer lived with Redstone from April 2013 until October, for much of that time along with his then-girlfriend Sydney Holland, she said, and his mental health declined rapidly after he broke off with Holland in August. Herzer accused Shari Redstone of spying on her, bribing her father’s staff to get information and deceiving her father to turn him again Herzer. “And she succeeded grandly,” she said in her new suit. “Sumner -- in his horribly weakened and demented condition -- believed the lies told to him by the collaborators and eventually decided that Herzer had betrayed him.”

Redstone cut Herzer out of his will when he evicted her and replaced her as his health-care agent. She had been in line to receive $50 million and his mansion, valued at $20 million.

Tempestuous, Difficult

Shari Redstone said in court filings that her father’s health has improved since Herzer left. Keryn Redstone, the daughter of Redstone’s estranged son Brent, joined in the competency case to support Herzer, saying the “tempestuous and difficult” relationship between her grandfather and aunt necessitated that he be under court protection.

There’s a long family history of lawsuits, with Sumner Redstone having been sued by both his son Brent and his nephew Michael. And he and his daughter were well known in Hollywood to often be at odds; in 2007 he made public a letter claiming she had made “little or no contribution” to the family business.

As recently as 2014, Redstone was mulling buying out Shari’s 20 percent interest in their family holding company, National Amusements Inc., according to Herzer’s court filings. Shari Redstone, in a February filing, said that she and her family were prevented from having meaningful access to her father until Herzer was kicked out of the mansion.

‘Total Fiction’