When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis started his attacks against the Walt Disney Company final month — over its opposition to his so-called “Don’t Say Homosexual” laws — the Disney household did what it has executed for many years: Principally stayed silent.
“Normally, the entire household may be very conservative and so they hold to themselves,” writer and Disney household historian Jim Korkis informed The Publish. “They’ve all the time been extraordinarily personal.”
However just lately, a few of the extra progressive members of the clan — which isn’t close-knit — are rocking the boat.
“The household isn’t unified by any means,” stated Korkis.
Essentially the most outspoken is Abigail Disney, 62. She is among the granddaughters of the corporate’s co-founder Roy O. Disney. She has publicly railed towards Florida’s Parental Rights in Training invoice — which was signed into regulation March 28 and prohibits lecturers from discussing sexual orientation with college students between kindergarten and third grade.
Up to now, the documentary filmmaker has slammed her family’s company for poor therapy of its amusement park staff and even labeled her great-uncle Walt Disney a misogynist, a racist and an anti-Semite.

“She is a fiery advocate, and the wildcard of the household,” stated Korkis. He added that the Disney household now not has any management over the publicly traded firm — value greater than $67 billion and using greater than 220,000 folks, in line with its 2021 annual report — and that it’s unclear how a lot they personal in shares.
In any case, three generations of Disney fortunes — from household trusts, foundations and inventory holdings — are nonetheless tied to the model, headquartered in Burbank, Calif.
“A number of the relations have labored common jobs on the firm, however due to their inventory portfolios they do what they need,” Korkis stated.
Most relations have tried to maintain a low profile through the years: quietly engaged on philanthropic pursuits such because the the Disney Household Museum in San Francisco and Abigail Disney’s Daphne Basis, which has doled out greater than $600,000 to minority empowerment and anti-violence teams in New York Metropolis, in line with its newest federal tax submitting.

Walt Disney by no means wished his household concerned within the enterprise, which was all about promoting escapism and fantasy, Korkis stated: “The happiest place on earth.”
When Walt took Billy Graham on a tour of Disneyland, the evangelist commented that the theme park provided “an incredible fantasy,” stated Korkis. Walt replied: “That is the fact. Everybody of all ages, races, religions getting alongside collectively and being glad.”
However the latest actions by the Florida governor — who pushed Florida legislators final week to end the conglomerate’s special self-governing status, which might value the corporate tens of millions of {dollars} a yr in charges and taxes — towards the Disney model have turned an unwelcome highlight on the descendants of Roy and Walt Disney.
Now, Abigail’s older brother, Roy P. Disney, 65, has additionally lined up behind his sister to blast the Florida governor.

Earlier this month, Roy P., a California-based investor and eager sailor, publicly revealed that his stepchild, Charlee Corra, is trans. He added that he and his spouse Sheri are “heartbroken” over the DeSantis laws.
“Equality issues deeply to us, particularly as a result of our youngster, Charlee, is transgender and a proud member of the LGBTQ+ group,” Roy P. wrote in an announcement. He pledged $500,000 to the Human Rights Marketing campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group that he stated he has supported for greater than 20 years. He additionally gave $5,600 in donations to the Republican Nationwide Committee in 2020, in line with public data.
“Immediately I’m busting with satisfaction at what my brother and his spouse have executed,” tweeted Abigail on April 8. “So proud so proud so proud!!!”

Regardless of the effusive reward, Abigail, Roy P. and their brother Timothy and sister Susan Lord will not be very shut — to one another or to different members of the Disney clan, Korkis stated.
The 4 youngsters of firm government Roy E. Disney grew up crusing to Catalina Island on weekends with their dad and mom and spending quite a lot of their free time with their father whereas he labored at Disney’s Burbank studios.
Disney relations, together with Walt’s 10 grandchildren from his daughters Diane and Sharon, would assemble for particular occasions on the Disneyland amusement park in Anaheim, Calif., however the two branches of the household didn’t have a lot to do with one another rising up, stated Korkis.
“I’ve two sisters and a brother,” Roy P. told an interviewer in 2010. “We’re every a yr aside and I’m the oldest. We did every part collectively. We shared rooms early on. All of us went to the identical faculty. We had a reasonably large yard and each afternoon after faculty we performed for hours in it … My brothers and sisters aren’t so shut anymore as all of us have our personal households now and just about lead our personal lives.”

Nevertheless it wasn’t all the time that manner.
In 1923, the Walt Disney Firm was based as Disney Brothers Cartoon Studios in Los Angeles by Walt Disney and his older brother Roy O. Disney. The 2 had been shut from delivery, at the same time as their household was torn aside by a legendary feud in 1907.
The rift occurred after their father, Elias, a draconian farmer, requested his older sons, Ray and Herbert, what they might do with a surplus of money that the household had earned from a grain harvest at their Missouri farm. When certainly one of them stated he would purchase a pocket watch, “Elias erupted on the indulgence,” writes Neal Gabler in his 2007 ebook, “Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination.” After Elias insisted upon utilizing the money to pay again his debt on the farm, Herbert and Ray took their share of the money and hopped a prepare to Chicago.
“The wound of their departure was so deep that almost 100 years later, relations had been nonetheless reluctant to debate the incident,” Gabler writes.

As the corporate grew and the 2 youthful brothers turned rich, they backed a bunch of Republican politicians — though Walt remained coy about throwing the corporate’s political weight round.
“A very long time in the past I came upon that I knew nothing by any means concerning the recreation of politics and since then I’ve most well-liked to maintain silent about the whole matter reasonably than see my identify connected to any assertion that was not my very own,” Walt is quoted in Gabler’s ebook as saying.
Nonetheless, he and Roy O., eight years his senior, quietly supported Republican senator and former Hollywood actor George Murphy and US Sen. Barry Goldwater, in addition to former US President Ronald Reagan in his profitable bid for California governor in 1966, amongst different Republicans. Walt died in 1966 and Roy in 1971.
“The brothers had been very conservative, but additionally liberal in lots of features,” stated Korkis, including that Walt was very curious about environmental points and commonly promoted girls. Within the late Fifties, Walt employed Floyd Norman, the primary African American animator at Disney’s studios, who labored on “Sleeping Magnificence” and “Jungle E-book.”

Though the brothers had been deeply conservative, they had been all the time cautious to publicly help each Democrats and Republicans — a method that continued as the corporate grew to an enormous world concern that right now owns ESPN, ABC, twenty first Century Fox and Marvel Studios, amongst different streaming, music and theater divisions. The technique helped be sure that Disney obtained particular self-governing standing in Florida, permitting them to construct roads, levy taxes and management utilities on land the place they constructed their 25,000 acre Walt Disney World amusement park exterior Orlando.
“Mickey Mouse isn’t a Republican or a Democrat,” stated Joe Shapiro, who headed up Disney’s political lobbying, in an interview with CNN in 1998. “In case you take a robust place both manner, you’re looking at offending roughly half of the folks.”
Within the final election cycle, the Walt Disney Firm doled out greater than $20 million to politicians, with the majority of its largesse — $10,500,000 — going to America First Motion, an excellent PAC tied to former President Donald Trump, in line with Open Secrets and techniques, a non-profit that traces cash in politics. The corporate gave $1,245,868 to Joe Biden in the identical yr, data present.
“It’s fairly a slap within the face that the Republicans have declared conflict on Disney,” stated Korkis.
This week, a Texas choose invited Disney’s CEO Bob Chapek to relocate the Disney World park to the Lone Star State.

Roy E. Disney, the son of Roy O. and father of Abigail and her siblings, was the final Disney member of the family to occupy an government function on the firm, Korkis stated. In 2006, three years earlier than his loss of life, he had a web value of greater than $1.2 billion, in line with Forbes.
Sharon Lund, Walt’s adopted daughter, had additionally occupied a seat on the corporate’s board earlier than her loss of life from breast most cancers in 1993. The trusts she left to her three youngsters, Bradford, Michelle and Victoria Lund, had been value greater than $400 million — and sparked one of the bitter public rows within the household’s historical past.
Underneath the phrases of her will, the youngsters had been to obtain common distributions, on the ages of 35, 40 and 45, from the mixed trusts, in line with the Hollywood Reporter. Every cost was estimated at between $20 million and $30 million.
However there was a caveat that trustees might withhold distributions within the occasion that the youngsters didn’t display “maturity and monetary capacity to handle and make the most of such funds in a prudent and accountable method,” in line with court docket papers
That caveat has resulted in a protracted battles in Los Angeles County Superior Courtroom, with Bradford Lund, now 51 and dwelling in Arizona, claiming that he has but to obtain his a part of what now quantities to a $200 million inheritance, as a result of the trustees have claimed he’s mentally incompetent, court docket papers say.

“Do I wish to give $200 million, successfully, to somebody who might undergo, on some degree, from Down syndrome? The reply is not any,” stated Decide David Cowan, in line with court docket papers. Lund has denied having the situation and claimed {that a} DNA take a look at produced in a earlier court docket listening to proves it. He additionally stated he’s able to managing his funds.
“For over a decade, Bradford Lund — the grandson of Walt Disney — has languished in maybe the Unhappiest Place on Earth: probate court docket. Embroiled in a long-running dispute with relations and trustees, Lund has but to say a fortune estimated to be value $200 million,” in line with court docket papers.
Final yr, Lund misplaced an attraction in his battle with Cowan. Lund claimed that Cowan had violated his due course of rights when he rejected a settlement that Lund’s household and trustees had reached, and that Cowan appointed a guardian and not using a listening to even after a choose in Arizona had discovered that Lund was “not incapacitated.” Lund later amended his grievance to incorporate a declare underneath the People with Disabilities Act over Cowan’s feedback in a 2019 settlement listening to.
Lund can also be combating to carry on to the 110-acre household ranch in Wyoming and has provided to purchase out his sister’s share of the property. When requested final yr by a neighborhood information reporter what he would do with the property, Lund replied that he would like to go fishing, snowmobiling and horseback riding.
“Just about simply hold the legacy occurring throughout the household,” he stated.