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Victoria Siegel struggled with an addiction to prescription drugs prior to her death, a family representative said on June 8.

Victoria Siegel, the 18-year-old daughter of Queen of Versailles documentary stars David Siegel and Jackie Siegel, was found unresponsive at about 2 p.m. on June 6 by a housekeeper at the family compound on Green Island Cove in Windermere, Florida.

She was transported to Health Central Hospital where she was pronounced dead, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office. According to the family rep, the Siegel family was attending a wedding in Park City, Utah, when the incident occurred.

David and Jackie Siegel and their seven kids are “devastated and heartbroken by the loss of their beloved Victoria”.

The family’s representative said: “They are hurt, deeply wounded and they are grieving. Victoria was a beautiful spirit with a wonderful smile who was greatly loved, and will be deeply missed.” She “had a history of seizures and was prescribed medication for this condition. Unfortunately she became dependent and struggled with this condition. She voluntarily underwent rehabilitation and was working hard to address this problem,” the rep added.Victoria Siegel death Queen of Versailles

David and Jackie Siegel had planned to return to Orlando on June 7, to begin a family cruise on June 8.

“David and Jacqueline were immediately notified and returned to Orlando the same day,” the family rep explained.

An autopsy had been performed and the cause of Victoria’s death is pending until other test results are received.

Autopsy reports could take about 10 to 12 weeks to complete.

The family rep also said: “It is likely that Victoria ingested one or more drugs prior to her death.”

“However, we cannot determine at this time whether or not the drugs she took were in fact prescribed medication, something else, or where and how these drugs may have been obtained.”

Jacqueline Siegel confirmed Victoria’s death via Facebook on June 7.

“The family is deeply appreciative of the outpouring of support that they have received and request that their privacy be respected while they mourn their loss,” the rep said.

The billionaire couple, David and Jackie Siegel, is best known for starring in Lauren Greenfield’s 2012 documentary, Queen of Versailles, which followed the couple as they built a second 90,000-square-foot mansion, called the Versailles House. The building could be finished by David Siegel’s 80th birthday in May 2016.

David and Jackie Siegel and their eight kids – including Victoria – most recently appeared on Celebrity Wife Swap on June 3.

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Victoria Siegel’s cause of death will be revealed in 8-10 weeks, the medical examiner’s office told RadarOnline.com.

Victoria Siegel, the 18-year-old daughter of Queen of Versailles stars David and Jackie Siegel, was found unresponsive by a housekeeper at her parents’ Seagull Island mansion on Green Island Cove on Saturday afternoon.

She was taken to a nearby hospital where she was later pronounced dead.

Victoria was the second eldest of David and Jackie Siegel’s eight children.

Despite rumors that Victoria Siegel overdosed on drugs before her shocking death, District Nine Medical Examiner’s Office spokesperson Sherry Blanton told RadarOnline: “All we have released is that it is a pending cause and manner of death,” adding that OD reports are just “speculation.”

Sherry Blanton said the cause of death will likely remain undetermined for the next two months while examiners complete testing, the Orlando, Florida, based office.

Photo Facebook

Photo Facebook

Jackie Siegel confirmed the sad news on her Facebook page on June 7.

According to reports, Victoria Siegel had returned home from rehab just weeks before her passing, leading many to believe her tragic death was drug-related.

Orange County Sheriff spokesman Jeff Williamson said: “The victim’s father has informed investigators that he will be making a statement in the coming days regarding the death of his daughter, and is requesting privacy at this time.”

David Siegel, 80, is the billionaire founder of the timeshare company Westgate Resorts.

Jackie and David Siegel gained fame and notoriety after the 2012 release of the documentary Queen Of Versailles which followed their attempts to build the self-proclaimed “largest home in America”.

The couple started the project in 2004 but it was stalled after David Siegel’s business was hit by recession.

David Siegel’s construction is back on and the sprawls 90,000ft and is expected to be complete by 2016. It has been valued from anywhere between $65 million to $75 million.

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Victoria Siegel, the 18-year-old daughter of billionaire time share mogul David Siegel and former beauty queen Jackie Siegel, has died after being found unresponsive at their home near Orlando.

Orange County Sheriff’s spokesman Jeff Williamson said Victoria Siegel was found by deputies at the family’s home in Windermere on June 6. She was declared dead at a nearby hospital.Queen of Versailles Victoria Siegel dead at 18

A medical examiner will determine the cause of death.

David and Jackie Siegel were featured in Lauren Greenfield’s 2012 documentary Queen of Versailles, which followed them as they built a second, 90,000-square-foot mansion during the height of the recession. David Siegel later sued Lauren Greenfield for “false and defamatory statements,” but lost the lawsuit in March 2014.

David Siegel is the founder of Orlando-based time-share company Westgate Resorts.

Jackie Siegel is a former Mrs. Florida America.

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Westgate Resorts founder David Siegel tied the knot for the first time in March 1961, with Geraldine Florence Sanstrom.

The union bore three children, but ended in 1968.

David Siegel met Jackie in 1998 and they have 8 children together

David Siegel met Jackie in 1998 and they have 8 children together (photo AP)

David Siegel married again in 1970, when he moved from Miami to Orlando with second wife Bettie.

Divorced for a second time in 1997, David Siegel met his current wife Jackie Siegel in 1998.

David Siegel, 79, and Jackie Siegel, 48, have 8 children together.

The entrepreneur’s businesses, family, and personal life were adversely affected by the 2008 financial crisis, as seen in the documentary The Queen of Versailles. The film shows Jackie Siegel, David Siegel and their family as they attempt to build the Versailles house, the largest and most expensive single-family house in the US, and the crisis they face as the US economy declines.

Jackie Siegel signed a development deal in March 2014 with NBCUniversal’s Wilshire Studios for a reality TV show.

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David and Jackie Siegel were just trying to live the American Dream: succeed at business, own a big house, enjoy the spoils of their labor.

But after achieving those dreams, they found themselves wanting more – much, much more.

David and Jackie Siegel’s 26,000-square-foot house was simply not enough. Happiness could be found, the couple thought, only by building the largest house in all of America: a sprawling, 90,000-square-foot mansion in Orlando, Florida, modeled after the French palace of Versailles, complete with a bowling alley and roller-skating rink, a wing for the children, 10 kitchens, and $5 million of marble.

But when the U.S. economic bubble burst, the Siegels, who were so wealthy they seemed untouchable, turned out to be no different from the tens of thousands of families who lost their far-humbler dream homes. And film director Lauren Greenfield  was there to capture their financial downfall, from Jackie Siegel’s $1-million clothing-budget zenith to the family’s stuck-in-coach-class nadir.

The drama of Lauren Greenfield’s recent documentary, The Queen of Versailles, first gripped audiences at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival in January. Screened on the opening night, the film won her an award for best director and has since become one of the most-watched documentaries of the year, prompting speculation that it could earn an Oscar nomination.

 “It was the same [old] story about the American dream, but really about the flaws as much as the virtues of that dream, as well as about the mistakes that were made because of the economic crisis,” Lauren Greenfield said.

“Jackie and David’s story, even though it was extreme, was kind of symbolic of the mistakes we all made on different levels.”

In one scene, a nanny asks Jackie Siegel – a former beauty queen from a small town, who’s 30 years David Siegel’s junior – if one large, cavernous room in Versailles is a future bedroom.

“No, that’s my closet!” Jackie Siegel exclaims, her eyes wide, grinning as if she almost can’t believe her good fortune. Later in the film, after the family arrives in an airport after having flown coach (a first for the children), Jackie Siegel walks up to a rental-car counter and asks the clerk earnestly: “What is my driver’s name?”

David and Jackie Siegel

David and Jackie Siegel

Lauren Greenfield became interested in the lives of the 1 percenters as an undergraduate, where she studied photography under Barbara Norfleet, Ph.D., then a lecturer and curator of still photography at the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, who had produced a book called All the Right People, about the WASPs of the Northeast. “Part of what drove her [Barbara Norfleet] to make that book was that in the archives there were very few photos of rich people,” Lauren Greenfield said.

“The photos that existed…were only commissioned portraits by the subjects themselves, or society pictures which didn’t have any context because they weren’t natural moments. For me, when I started the Queen of Versailles, it was a little bit similar. We see so much of the life of the affluent as these packaged, manipulated reality-TV shows, or advertising. I wanted to do a real-life look at this family, particularly because Jackie and David had this other quality – a down-to-earth American quality. They came from humble origins and were a rags-to-riches story.”

Lauren Greenfield met Jackie Siegel by chance at a Hollywood party and immediately fell for the couple’s tale. (The filmmaker had asked if she could photograph Jackie Siegel’s ostentatious metallic purse; the image eventually became one of Time magazine’s “Photos of the Year,” illustrating the “high life” and “gilded age” of America). But that was in 2007, when David Siegel’s company – the largest privately owned time-share company in the world – had netted him a billion dollars.

When Lauren Greenfield began filming in 2009, she didn’t expect her little movie (she and her husband, Frank Evers, financed the film, calling it “a labor of love”) about the biggest McMansion ever built would even be seen in theaters. But as the Siegels’ fortunes plummeted unexpectedly before her camera’s lens, Lauren Greenfield knew her film would have a far wider appeal.

Lauren Greenfield – a photographer and filmmaker who has captured youth culture through projects like HBO’s THIN, a documentary about an eating disorder center in Coconut Creek, Florida, and has had her photographs published in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and National Geographic – got to know her subjects intimately, practically moving in with them as she filmed up to 12 hours a day. She and Jackie became friends. But Lauren Greenfield admits she was appalled by their inability to control their spending, even when everything pointed to impending disaster. The tipping point was David’s refusal to sell his other obsession, a $600-million, high-end time-share complex on the Las Vegas strip that he’d personally financed through loans. By 2010, the time-share market had dried up because so many buyers had overextended themselves on their unit mortgages.

“I wasn’t rooting for David to keep the tower, because I think it was a valuable lesson learned, in terms of the overreach,” she says.

“I think that’s the power [of the movie]. David speaks the morality tale at the end when he says, ‘We need to learn to live within our means, we need to get back to reality. I was using cheap money to buy big buildings and I thought it would go on forever, and when they took away the money I was like, <<Whoa>>.

“In that sense there is a happy ending, because you see what’s really important to them,” Lauren Greenfield continues.

“For us as viewers, it gives us a chance to think about what’s important, what our values are, and what is enough.”

Although David Siegel is now suing Lauren Greenfield for defamation (Greenfield insists the lawsuit is more about money than ill will: at a recent premiere of the film in Tampa, David and Jackie Siegel rented out two theaters and showed up in a party bus to watch the movie with all of their friends), she still says she wouldn’t have changed anything.

“I was extremely lucky because they opened their doors wide when things were great, but they kept those doors open equally wide when things got tough,” she explains. “Jackie would often say, <<Our story is like so many other people’s, but on a bigger level and with bigger proportions>>.”

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Work has recommenced on David Siegel’s Palace of Versailles, a building set to become America’s largest family home in 2015.

The sprawling 90,000-square-foot property in Windermere, Florida, owned by former beauty queen Jackie Siegel, 47, and her self-made billionaire husband was imagined six years ago.

But building work stopped on the property during the recession in 2009 after the couple ran out of funds.

David and Jackie Siegel, who were the subject of 2012 fly-on-the-wall documentary Queen of Versailles, now hope to finally move into the vast mansion with their eight children after scraping together the $30million needed to complete it.

Jackie Siegel, who won the Miss Florida title in the 1990s, told The New York Post that as a result of the delay they have had to make several minor adjustments to the floor plan – especially now that their children are older.

For example, instead of sandboxes and playrooms, they plan on creating “man caves” and yoga studios.

The couple modeled their extravagant 30-bedroom home after France’s 17th century Palace of Versailles and started laying foundations on a ten-acre plot of land in 2007.

Their lavish pad is nine times larger than other houses in the area and has a $20 million mortgage, which is 100 times the size of the average mortgage in Central Florida, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

However, in 2009 they were forced to put their project on hold as their finances suffered a blow during the recession.

Instead of pouring his profits into buying construction materials David Siegel, 78, concentrated his efforts on protecting his 30-year-old time-share and real estate company Westgate Resorts.

Last July he even decided to put the property, which was only two-thirds complete, on the market for $65 million so he could reinvest the money in his business.

But after it failed to sell, the Siegels decided to keep hold of the building and surrounding land. This year work restarted and Jackie Siegel told Today in February: “We’re finishing it to actually finish it. But we do want to live in there.”

Work has recommenced on David Siegel’s Palace of Versailles

Work has recommenced on David Siegel’s Palace of Versailles

And she revealed to The New York Post that the family are once again enjoying their extravagant lifestyle.

“I never see a bill. My husband gives me credit cards and I think they’re like magic, they just keep working,” Jackie Siegel explained.

It was previously estimated that it will take two years to finish the Siegels’ home.

As well as 30 bedrooms, the concrete home fronted with white marble from Italy, will have 23 bathrooms boasting spectacular views over Lake Butler, about 20 miles outside Orlando.

All 23 full bathrooms will have full-sized hot tubs, and 160 triple-pane windows and Brazilian mahogany French-style doors promise plenty of light.

The hand-built windows for the house cost more than $2million and bespoke materials have been sourced from all over the world.

On the entertainment front a roller rink, children’s theater, bowling alley, three swimming pools, a baseball field and two tennis courts will be installed.

And outside a large boat house, formal gardens, a one-story gatehouse and an underground garage with enough space for 20 cars will complete the palatial look.

There is also a His and Her office space with a 12ft two-sided aquarium.

David and Jackie Siegel currently live in a 26,000-square-foot home in the exclusive Isleworth gated community, best known as the scene of Tiger Woods’ 2009 car crash just before his divorce.

The entire family and their entourage of staff featured in Queen of Versailles, a film by Lauren Greenfield which grossed more than $2 million and won numerous awards including the U.S. Directing Award at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.

Jackie Seigel previously said that she enjoyed her time in the spotlight and would like to launch a career in reality TV. However, she admitted to The New York Post: “I don’t have time to watch a lot of TV but I probably need to start educating myself on the <<Housewives>> and what’s out there.”

While their yet-to-be-completed home is large, the original Versailles, outside Paris and completed by the Sun King, Louis XIV, in 1710, is much, much larger.

The 219,000-square-foot landmark boasts 2,300 rooms and 67 staircases. Building it also caused financial problems, nearly bankrupting France.

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David and Jackie Siegel, the owners of America’s largest family home, the gold-encrusted “Palace Of Versailles”, have announced that their mansion will finally be completed in 2015, after 11 years of construction.

Self-made billionaire David Siegel, told CNBC that he’s excited about moving into the property located in Windermere, Florida, although, if someone offered him enough money – $100 million to be exact – he might consider selling out.

However, his 47-year-old former beauty queen wife, Jackie Siegel, seemed distraught at the thought of letting her dream mansion go and jokingly interjected: “Or I could live there and you could sell your half right?”

David and Jackie Siegel, who have eight children, along with their entourage of nannies and housekeepers starred in the 2012 award-winning documentary by Lauren Greenfield, The Queen Of Versailles.

The documentary chronicled them as they built their 90,000-square-foot, 30-bedroom abode modeled after France’s 17th century Palace of Versailles. The project has been in the pipeline since 2004.

Work stopped on the 90,000-square-foot build in 2009 after creditors went after David Siegel’s timeshare company, Westgate Resorts, but recommenced this year after business bounced back.

Now the finish date is just two years away.

Unable to contain her excitement, Jackie Siegel recently told New York Magazine: “We’re going to inlay the floors with a lot of onyx and amethyst and semiprecious stones.”

Jackie Siegel recently explained that as a result of the delay they have had to make several minor adjustments to the floor plans – especially now the children are older.

For example, instead of sandboxes and playrooms, they plan on creating ‘man caves’ and yoga studios.

David and Jackie Siegel, the owners of America's Palace Of Versailles, have announced that their mansion will finally be completed in 2015

David and Jackie Siegel, the owners of America’s Palace Of Versailles, have announced that their mansion will finally be completed in 2015

The mansion is the largest single-family home in America, with a custom-made stained-glass oculus, 10,000-square-foot spa and a commercial kitchen with a Benihana-style grill.

It is nine times larger than other houses in the area and has a $20 million mortgage, which is 100 times the size of the average mortgage in Central Florida, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

Explaining their master suite, Jackie Siegel, who won the Miss Florida beauty title in the Nineties, said: “We’re gonna have a round platform with a round bed, and it’s going to have buttons so you can watch TV.”

The master bathroom will include a Jacuzzi, his-and-hers showers, and a third in the center – in case they “want to take a shower together”. Gesturing at the space between the his-and-hers showers, she said: “Because this, is too far to walk.”

The ten staff quarters located inside the mansion each includes a jacuzzi and a kitchen.

Jacie Siegel, who was branded as “tacky” and “ditzy” after the documentary The Queen Of Versailles premiered at the Sundance Festival last year, explained: “People said, <<Why do they need ten kitchens? That’s ridiculous!>>. But it’s because they’re in the staff apartments.

The mansion’s doors are made from one of world’s last batches of Brazilian mahogany. The former beauty queen casually remarked: “They had to stop exporting it because they were cutting down the rain forest, or whatever.”

As well as 30 bedrooms, the home will have 23 bathrooms with views over Lake Butler, about 20 miles outside Orlando.

Meanwhile, Jackie Siegel said that the mansion’s mezzanine will be used for “an orchestra for the people downstairs. Or speeches. Like if the president came”.

Jackie Siegel said that once her dream home is complete she would like to launch her own reality show. But David Siegel, 77, said he has no interest in getting back in front of the camera.

He is only intent on finishing work on the mansion which has been under construction for more than a decade, after the financial crisis and recession delayed progress – “but now we’re doing better than ever” David Siegel said of his company.

David Siegel actually filed suit against the filmmaker, Lauren Greenfield, before The Queen of Versailles even premiered, claiming its depiction of his company’s downfall was inaccurate and damaging to his business.

“I don’t know how it happened,” he said.

“Suddenly the focus wasn’t the house. It became the family, and then it became the business.”

He added: “The only thing that’s true about [the documentary] is that my wife is a big-busted shopaholic. Jackie, they could have called her an ax murderer, and she’d have been happy they spelled her name right.”

David and Jackie Siegel currently live in a 26,000-square-foot home in the exclusive Isleworth gated community, best known as the scene of Tiger Woods’ 2009 car crash just before his divorce.

While their yet-to-be-completed home is large, the original Versailles, outside Paris and completed by the Sun King, Louis XIV, in 1710, is much, much larger.

The 219,000-square-foot landmark boasts 2,300 rooms and 67 staircases. Building it also caused financial problems, nearly bankrupting France.

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Jackie Siegel is married to timeshare mogul David Siegel, but recently admitted that she went on a few dates with Donald Trump.

“We just went out a couple times,” the Queen of Versailles star told HuffPost Live.

“Like, he invited us to Mar-a-Lago and go to his parties and things like that. He’s a really great person. So much charisma.”

The 47-year-old mother-of-eight from Windermere, Florida, is the star of The Queen Of Versailles, an award-winning documentary chronicling Jackie Siegel and her billionaire husband as they build their 90,000-square-foot mansion modeled after France’s 17th century Palace of Versailles.

“I’m so glad we’re still friends,” Jackie Siegel said of Donald Trump, adding: “He in fact wrote me and my husband a note because we were in the New York Post last week and he said <<Congratulations on the construction of your home>>.”

Award-winning documentary The Queen Of Versailles chronicles Jackie Siegel and her billionaire husband David Siegel

Award-winning documentary The Queen Of Versailles chronicles Jackie Siegel and her billionaire husband David Siegel

Other than extreme wealth, Jackie Siegel and donald Trump appear to have a lot in common. The Siegels became the poster children for the excesses of the subprime real estate market – and collapse of the American dream – after director Lauren Greenfield followed them and their eight children, 19 staff members and four dogs in their efforts to complete construction on the mega-mansion.

Donald Trump made a fortune by building an American empire from New York to Las Vegas with glittering hotels and casinos, yet companies that bear his name have filed for bankruptcy four times.

The Siegels’ plans were derailed by the 2008 stock market crash. David Siegel’s timeshare business took a hit, and he was forced to sell a building in Las Vegas. The couple was also forced to halt construction on Versailles and the film, which recently aired on Bravo, showed Jackie Siegel filling up her shopping cart with Walmart instead of Gucci. Viewers saw trash and dog feces pile up in the mansion, and a pet lizard died from neglect.

After the documentary’s release Jackie Siegel filed a lawsuit against the director over the film, claiming that it hurt the reputation of his company – yet his wife continues to promote it.

By the end of the movie, construction on the dream home has ground to a halt, but Jackie Siegel claims construction has resumed. For now the Siegels are residing in their 26,000 square-foot home, but she tells New York magazine that Versailles will contain a theater inspired by the Paris Opera House, a bowling alley, roller-skating rink, and 30-car garage.

At one point, Jackie Siegel says the house was listed for $75 million unfinished and $100 million finished. She later claimed that it was not for sale, but has stated that if someone made a $100 million offer the family would “entertain” it.

David and Jackie Siegel’s partially finished dream home known as Versailles will include a theater inspired by the Paris Opera House, a bowling alley, roller-skating rink, and 30-car garage.

The 47-year-old mother-of-eight from Windermere, Florida, was the star of The Queen Of Versailles, an award-winning documentary chronicling Jackie Siegel and her billionaire husband, David Siegel, as they build their 90,000-square-foot mansion modeled after France’s 17th century Palace of Versailles.

Jackie Siegel, who resumed construction on the sprawling house after creditors went after her husband’s company, Westgate Resorts, and work on Versailles was halted, told New York Magazine: “We’re going to inlay the floors with a lot of onyx and amethyst and semiprecious stones.”

The mansion is the largest single-family home in America, with a custom-made stained-glass oculus, 10,000-square-foot spa and a commercial kitchen with a Benihana-style grill.

Explaining their master suite, Jackie Siegel, who won the Miss Florida beauty title in the Nineties, said: “We’re gonna have a round platform with a round bed, and it’s going to have buttons so you can watch TV.”

The master bathroom will include a Jacuzzi, his-and-hers showers, and a third in the center – in case they “want to take a shower together”. Gesturing at the space between the his-and-hers showers, Jackie Siegel said: “Because this, is too far to walk.”

David and Jackie Siegel's partially finished dream home known as Versailles will include a theater inspired by the Paris Opera House

David and Jackie Siegel’s partially finished dream home known as Versailles will include a theater inspired by the Paris Opera House

The ten staff quarters located inside the mansion each include a jacuzzi and a kitchen.

Jackie Siegel, who was branded as “tacky” and “ditzy” after the documentary premiered at the Sundance Festival last year, explained: “People said, <<Why do they need ten kitchens? That’s ridiculous!>>. But it’s because they’re in the staff apartments.

The mansion’s doors are made from one of world’s last batches of Brazilian mahogany. The former beauty queen casually remarked: “They had to stop exporting it because they were cutting down the rain forest, or whatever.”

As well as 30 bedrooms, the home will have 23 bathrooms with views over Lake Butler, about 20 miles outside Orlando.

Meanwhile, she said that the mansion’s mezzanine will be used for “an orchestra for the people downstairs. Or speeches. Like if the president came”.

Jacqueline Siegel said that once her dream home is complete she would like to launch her own reality show. But David Siegel, 77, said he has no interest in getting back in front of the camera.

David Siegel is only intent on finishing work on the mansion which has been under construction for more than five years, after the financial crisis and recession delayed progress – “but now we’re doing better than ever” he said of his company.

He actually filed suit against the filmmaker, Lauren Greenfield, before the documentary even premiered, claiming its depiction of his company’s downfall was inaccurate and damaging to his business.

David Siegel, the founder of Westgate Resorts, a real estate and timeshare business which employs thousands of people across the U.S. – many of whom lost their jobs during the recession – said he was happy for Lauren Greenfield to film the house, but “then the economy changed”, he said.

“I don’t know how it happened, suddenly the focus wasn’t the house. It became the family, and then it became the business.”

David Siegel added: “The only thing that’s true about [the documentary] is that my wife is a big-busted shopaholic. Jackie, they could have called her an ax murderer, and she’d have been happy they spelled her name right.”

The Queen of Versailles, filmed by Lauren Greenfield, premiered on Bravo in April.

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David Siegel is the founder and CEO of Westgate Resorts, a huge national timeshare company and one of the largest resort developers in the world.

In 2007 David Siegel was a billionaire, although he may be only a hundred-millionaire now.

David Siegel, 78 and his 47-year-old wife Jackie were the subjects of the recent documentary The Queen of Versailles, about their ongoing quest to build the largest house in America, a 90,000 square foot monument to excess.

Last year David Siegel sent an email to all of his thousands of employees, in which he—in a veiled way—insinuated that they would be fired of Barack Obama is reelected.

In fact it was a popular chain letter that was circulated just before the 2008 elections. Even David Siegel confirmed he used a chain letter which was adapted to fir his company. “I did use the letter that had circulated before as a guideline, but I changed it [to fit my circumstances],” he said.

“It speaks the truth and it gives [employees] something to think about when they go to the polls.”

David Siegel also said that its threats of possible layoffs are real, based on his assessment of the political and economic climate. He added that he “hasn’t had any negative feedback” on the letter.

The Florida-based Westgate Resorts is not a public company. It is the domain of David Siegel, a staunch Republican. In fact, David Siegel has publicly claimed credit for George W. Bush defeating Al Gore, saying: “I had my managers do a survey on every employee [8,000 total]. If they liked Bush, we made them register to vote. But not if they liked Gore.”

The Queen of Versailles documentary depicts the dashing of David Siegel’s mansion dreams after the recession hit. But just months before, he restarted construction on his personal Palace of Versailles (with the intention of selling it for $100 million) and told Reuters: “We’re the most profitable we’ve ever been.”

David Siegel and his wife Jackie were the subjects of the recent documentary The Queen of Versailles, about their ongoing quest to build the largest house in America

David Siegel and his wife Jackie were the subjects of the recent documentary The Queen of Versailles, about their ongoing quest to build the largest house in America

David Siegel’s amazing email sent to all Westgate employees:

Subject: Message from David Siegel
Date:Mon, 08 Oct 2012 13:58:05 -0400 (EDT)
From: [David Siegel]
To: [All employees]

To All My Valued Employees,

As most of you know our company, Westgate Resorts, has continued to succeed in spite of a very dismal economy. There is no question that the economy has changed for the worse and we have not seen any improvement over the past four years. In spite of all of the challenges we have faced, the good news is this: The economy doesn’t currently pose a threat to your job. What does threaten your job however, is another 4 years of the same Presidential administration. Of course, as your employer, I can’t tell you whom to vote for, and I certainly wouldn’t interfere with your right to vote for whomever you choose. In fact, I encourage you to vote for whomever you think will serve your interests the best.

However, let me share a few facts that might help you decide what is in your best interest. The current administration and members of the press have perpetuated an environment that casts employers against employees. They want you to believe that we live in a class system where the rich get richer, the poor get poorer. They label us the “1%” and imply that we are somehow immune to the challenges that face our country. This could not be further from the truth. Sure, you may have heard about the big home that I’m building. I’m sure many people think that I live a privileged life. However, what you don’t see or hear is the true story behind any success that I have achieved.

I started this company over 42 years ago. At that time, I lived in a very modest home. I converted my garage into an office so I could put forth 100% effort into building a company, which by the way, would eventually employ you. We didn’t eat in fancy restaurants or take expensive vacations because every dollar I made went back into this company. I drove an old used car, and often times, I stayed home on weekends, while my friends went out drinking and partying. In fact, I was married to my business — hard work, discipline, and sacrifice. Meanwhile, many of my friends got regular jobs. They worked 40 hours a week and made a nice income, and they spent every dime they earned. They drove flashy cars and lived in expensive homes and wore fancy designer clothes. My friends refinanced their mortgages and lived a life of luxury. I, however, did not. I put my time, my money, and my life into this business —-with a vision that eventually, some day, I too, will be able to afford to buy whatever I wanted. Even to this day, every dime I earn goes back into this company. Over the past four years I have had to stop building my dream house, cut back on all of my expenses, and take my kids out of private schools simply to keep this company strong and to keep you employed.

Just think about this – most of you arrive at work in the morning and leave that afternoon and the rest of your time is yours to do as you please. But not me- there is no “off” button for me. When you leave the office, you are done and you have a weekend all to yourself. I unfortunately do not have that freedom. I eat, live, and breathe this company every minute of the day, every day of the week. There is no rest. There is no weekend. There is no happy hour. I know many of you work hard and do a great job, but I’m the one who has to sign every check, pay every expense, and make sure that this company continues to succeed. Unfortunately, what most people see is the nice house and the lavish lifestyle. What the press certainly does not want you to see, is the true story of the hard work and sacrifices I’ve made.

Now, the economy is falling apart and people like me who made all the right decisions and invested in themselves are being forced to bail out all the people who didn’t. The people that overspent their paychecks suddenly feel entitled to the same luxuries that I earned and sacrificed 42 years of my life for. Yes, business ownership has its benefits, but the price I’ve paid is steep and not without wounds. Unfortunately, the costs of running a business have gotten out of control, and let me tell you why: We are being taxed to death and the government thinks we don’t pay enough. We pay state taxes, federal taxes, property taxes, sales and use taxes, payroll taxes, workers compensation taxes and unemployment taxes. I even have to hire an entire department to manage all these taxes. The question I have is this: Who is really stimulating the economy? Is it the Government that wants to take money from those who have earned it and give it to those who have not, or is it people like me who built a company out of his garage and directly employs over 7000 people and hosts over 3 million people per year with a great vacation?

Obviously, our present government believes that taking my money is the right economic stimulus for this country. The fact is, if I deducted 50% of your paycheck you’d quit and you wouldn’t work here. I mean, why should you? Who wants to get rewarded only 50% of their hard work? Well, that’s what happens to me.

Here is what most people don’t understand and the press and our Government has chosen to ignore – to stimulate the economy you need to stimulate what runs the economy. Instead of raising my taxes and depositing that money into the Washington black-hole, let me spend it on growing the company, hire more employees, and generate substantial economic growth. My employees will enjoy the wealth of that tax cut in the form of promotions and better salaries. But that is not what our current Government wants you to believe. They want you to believe that it somehow makes sense to take more from those who create wealth and give it to those who do not, and somehow our economy will improve. They don’t want you to know that the “1%”, as they like to label us, pay more than 31% of all the taxes in this country. Thomas Jefferson, the author of our great Constitution, once said, “democracy” will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.”

Business is at the heart of America and always has been. To restart it, you must stimulate business, not kill it. However, the power brokers in Washington believe redistributing wealth is the essential driver of the American economic engine. Nothing could be further from the truth and this is the type of change they want.

So where am I going with all this? It’s quite simple. If any new taxes are levied on me, or my company, as our current President plans, I will have no choice but to reduce the size of this company. Rather than grow this company I will be forced to cut back. This means fewer jobs, less benefits and certainly less opportunity for everyone.

So, when you make your decision to vote, ask yourself, which candidate understands the economics of business ownership and who doesn’t? Whose policies will endanger your job? Answer those questions and you should know who might be the one capable of protecting and saving your job. While the media wants to tell you to believe the “1 percenters” are bad, I’m telling you they are not. They create most of the jobs. If you lose your job, it won’t be at the hands of the “1%”; it will be at the hands of a political hurricane that swept through this country.

You see, I can no longer support a system that penalizes the productive and gives to the unproductive. My motivation to work and to provide jobs will be destroyed, and with it, so will your opportunities. If that happens, you can find me in the Caribbean sitting on the beach, under a palm tree, retired, and with no employees to worry about.

Signed, your boss,

David Siegel

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Jackie Siegel, David Siegel’s wife who is better known as the much maligned subject of the riveting The Queen of Versailles documentary, has only one regret about her screen debut: she didn’t wear enough makeup.

Former Miss Florida Jackie Siegel, now 47, was captured on camera with her billionaire timeshare mogul husband trying to create the home of their dreams – a gaudy, over-the-top sprawling 90,000-square-foot mansion (the largest single family dwelling ever built in the U.S.) modeled on France’s 17th century Palace of Versailles.

And Jackie told TODAY show correspondent Janet Shamlian that she would have no hesitation in doing it all over again!

“What I would do different if I had known so many millions of people would be seeing it… is I would have worn more makeup,” Jackie Siegel explained.

Not surprisingly, the mother-of-eight from Windermere, Florida said she is hoping to land her own reality TV show once work on her humungous home is finally finished.

However, despite his larger-than-life wife’s penchant for starring in front of the camera, David Siegel, founder of Westgate Resorts, said he does not want to appear on TV.

Instead, David Siegel, 78, wants to finish construction on the mega-mansion that’s taken more than 5 years to build – following a financial crisis and recession that caused the project to be stalled and almost forced him into losing his business and title to the property – all of which ended up becoming the main focus of the documentary.

The property, 20 miles outside Orlando, will have a whopping 30 bedrooms and 23 bathrooms when completed and offer stunning views over Lake Butler.

David and Jackie Siegel were unhappy with the way they were portrayed in The Queen of Versailles documentary

David and Jackie Siegel were unhappy with the way they were portrayed in The Queen of Versailles documentary

All 23 bathrooms will have full-sized hot tubs, while the hand built windows cost more than $2 million. Bespoke materials have also been sourced from all over the world for the outrageous and overblown interior decor.

For the kids – a roller rink, children’s theater, bowling alley and three swimming pools are being created, while for the fitness-concerned two tennis courts will be installed.

Outside, there will be a large boat house, formal gardens, a one-story gatehouse, as well as an underground car park with space for 20 cars.

“We never sought out to build the biggest house in America. it’s just what kind of happened,” Jackie Siegel explained.

Now that the Siegels have taken the half-finished property off the market (they listed it for $65 million back in July last year) they are looking forward to completing the work.

“We’re finishing it to actually finish it. but we do want to live in there,” Jacqueline Siegel added.

As previously reported, David and Jacqueline Siegel were far from pleased with the way they were portrayed in the documentary, and accused the filmmakers of likening them to trashy reality TV stars.

In an official letter, obtained by RadarOnline.com to director Lauren Greenfield’s attorney, David Siegel claimed Jackie “didn’t hesitate to orchestrate unrealistic over-the-top scenes for entertainment purposes even when they vastly distorted day-to-day life. That’s why what you call a documentary, I call a Real Housewives Of Orlando pilot.”

The Queen of Versailles, grossed more than $2 million, and won several prestigious awards including the U.S. Directing Award at Sundance Film Festival.

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