By Wonderwall.com Editors
1:39am PDT, Mar 26, 2025
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Richards Simmons' family is suing his longtime housekeeper,
Teresa Muro, over property that allegedly went missing from the late fitness entrepreneur's home after he died in July 2024.
Keep reading to get the scoop on what went missing and what the late star's brother had to say about the apparent betrayal…MORE:
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Richard Simmons' family is suing his longtime housekeeper, Teresa Muro, over $1 million in jewelry as well as private notes and a computer that went missing after he died in the summer of 2024.
Before he died, the fitness entrepreneur appointed Muro and his brother, Leonard Simmons, to serve as co-administrators of his estate. But on March 18, Leonard filed legal paperwork demanding damages for property he claims Muro took without permission.
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Teresa Muro fessed up to taking a couple pairs of Richard Simmons' workout shorts as mementos. She insists that aside from that, she hasn't taken any property that wasn't gifted to her by her former boss.
She previously filed her own legal documents claiming the fitness entrepreneur's brother, Leonard Simmons, tricked her into signing paperwork surrendering her rights to serve as co-administrator of Richard's estate.
Leonard has maintained that the housekeeper knew what she was agreeing to when she signed away her rights.
They're still hashing out the issue in court, with a judge temporarily reinstating Muro as a co-administrator of Richard's estate.
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Richard Simmons' brother, Leonard Simmons, sheds light on the fitness entrepreneur's part-time living arrangement with Teresa Muro in his new legal filing, noting that while the housekeeper had her own condo near Richard's property, she also had a "single bedroom and bath next to the kitchen" in his home.
When Richard was alive, Leonardo and his wife "trusted that [Muro] would act in [Richard's] best interests," but "that trust has been grievously betrayed" in the wake of his death, Leonard says in the filing.
Leonardo goes on to claim that Muro refused to leave Richard's home after he died "so that it could be sold." Instead, he says, she stayed there "rent-free" for two and a half months.
"She only left after [Leonard] made it clear that he would evict her if she did not leave. Then, when she did leave, [Leonard] learned that a substantial amount of [Richard's] property – now property of the estate and [Richard's] trust – was missing. This includes over $1 million of [Richard's] jewelry, the lyrics that [he] had written for a musical he was working on, his computer, his signature workout clothes and collectible dolls and other fine art," Leonard's legal documents state.
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Teresa Muro claims Richard Simmons gifted her several pieces of jewelry, but his brother, Leonard Simmons, says that's a lie.
He wants Muro to fork over the expensive bling — along with all other missing property and court-awarded damages — including an 18k panther-style Cartier watch worth $33K, an oval Cartier watch worth $47K, a diamond ring worth $187K, an emerald-cut diamond ring worth $219K, a diamond ring worth $112K, a ring worth nearly $116K, a diamond band set with gold and diamonds worth almost $40K, another diamond ring worth more than $20K, diamond cufflinks worth more than $5K and another pair of diamond cufflinks worth more than $4K.
Leonard says Richard filled out paperwork logging his jewelry collection five months before he died in July 2024. Richard specified in the documents that the listed jewels were "his personal property" and "in his possession."
But according to Leonard, when he asked Muro to show him the collection after Richard died, several items were missing. He goes on to allege that the housekeeper took some jewelry with her when he kicked her out of Richard's home on September 26, 2024 — even though he told her to leave behind the bling.
Leonard admits that Muro eventually returned some items of lesser value, but he believes she still has some valuable pieces in her possession.
Richard's handwritten notes, computer and other personal items are still missing.
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Teresa Muro claims Richard Simmons gave her portions of his jewelry collection on Thanksgiving in 2014: "Richard came downstairs to the kitchen of [his home] with several pieces of jewelry and put them on the kitchen table. Richard placed a pink diamond ring on my finger and told me he was giving it to me. I was shocked but accepted this generous gift," she claims in legal paperwork.
"Later that day, at around dinnertime, Richard told me that he was giving me all the rest of the gifted jewelry on the kitchen table, saying that he would not wear it again and wanted me to have it. I thanked Richard for his generous gifts and took all the gifted jewelry that Richard gave me to my room where I kept it until I left [his home] on September 26, 2024," she continues.
She denies taking his song lyrics.
As for the fitness entrepreneur's old clothing, "I would like to keep the three pairs of striped shorts to remember Richard by but will turn them over to the Trust if requested. I do not have or know the whereabouts of any other 'exercise clothes' that Leonard claims are missing," Muro says.
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Richard Simmons' brother, Leonard Simmons, says in his new legal filing that although he talked to the fitness entrepreneur on the phone regularly, they had not seen each other in person for several years before Richard died.
According to their lawyer, Leonard and his wife were "shocked" to learn after Richard died that "since their last visit, [he] had issues with dizziness and other falls including one in which his tooth was knocked out" and that "he had not sought medical treatment of any kind for many years."
"[Richard] had a significant fall the day before his death for which he had never been treated," Leonard's lawyer claims. "The medical examiner's report concluded [Richard] had a number of prior blunt traumatic injuries, a fractured left femur and cardiovascular disease, among other conditions. Despite seeing [Richard] on an almost daily basis, [Teresa] never disclosed [Richard's] health condition to his brother nor took steps to ensure that he received proper medical treatment, even though [Teresa] knew Leonard held [Richard's] special power of attorney."
