Judy Duncan: My Brother Was Not Engaged to Omarosa

Actor Michael Clarke Duncan’s untimely death last September was a sad event for his family, his fiancee, reality star Omarosa Manigualt and the fans who loved his work in movies like “The Green Mile.” But since his death, his sister Judy and Omarosa have had some issues. Fans of “The Celebrity Apprentice” may remember harsh comments that Claudia Jordan made about Manigualt and on the March 17th episode of the last season, Manigault left a task to try and stop the tabloids from releasing the teary 911 call became ill. Judy Duncan called the Tom Joyner Morning Show to try and set the record straight.

The biggest revelation is that Manigualt may not have been Duncan’s fiancee after all.

“When I sat in the hospital in July, she brought me an 8 1/2 by 11 inch photo of a hand with a ring and said ‘Look at this picture we’re engaged,’ and then I did not see a ring. Then in diferent photos, there are different rings. Now I spoke to people within Michael’s camp, people who were familiar with Michael’s finances, things that he buys. If Michael was going to buy you a ring it was going to be expensive, first of all. And you would have had that ring on and you would have wanted people to see.”

Duncan says that contrary to a TMZ report that said the two were secretly planning Janurary 2013 nuptials, there was no wedding date set. Manigault and Duncan had been dating since 2010, reportedly meeting in a Whole Foods store.

“Michael was not engaged,” Duncan asserts. “Because the first person he would have told would have been my mom. And with her living with me, then I would have known.”

Duncan’s main issues with Manigualt is that Duncan died alone. After an initial heart attack in July that left the actor hospitalized until his death in September, Manigualt was at the Tom Joyner Family Reunion with her mother when Michael died unexpectedly.

“We were told by her, that her mom was there, holding his hand, reading Scriptures to him as he passed. And she was on the cruise,” Duncan says. (Tom corrected her; Manigualt and her mother were attending the Family Reunion in Orlando, when Duncan died.)

Duncan told the TJMS that she can’t speak directly to any issues with the will. Reportedly, though Omarosa is the main beneficiary of Duncan’s reported $18 million dollar estate,  Judy was left $100,000 from the will. Judy has hired a lawyer, claiming that her ill brother was not in mental or physical shape to sign any papers.

“I find discussing finances so distasteful in public,” Judy said. “Our legal team has told us due to legalities we really can’t talk about the will. We are included. My issues now are not so much money. There’s not enough money that can be given to me to make up for the loss of my brother and I’m the caretaker of my mom. My mom is 93 and she lives with me and I take care of her. But there are some other issues.”

Duncan says she is looking for the return of photos and other personal property and that despite emails to Omarosa that she has in her possession, the items have not been returned. At this point in time, Judy confirms that the two women are no longer in communication. On her end, Omarosa has denied any wrongdoing.

“I don’t control the estate or the finances and Judy knows it,” Omarosa said earlier this year. “If you saw all of her emails and texts to me you would see that she is just trying to get money from me, and threatened going to press if I did not give it to her and that is a crime!” said Manigault.

Despite the rift, Judy says she doesn’t expect to go to court. She also says she was not estranged from her brother at the time of his death as has been claimed. She and her family were at the funeral. If anything, Duncan seems hurt by the lack of regard she says Manigualt has had for her and her family during such a sad time.

“There are just things that we wanted that we didn’t get and we’ve been lied to about some things,” Duncan says.