By Michaela Gordoni
Kathy Ireland recently realized her money was not in good hands, but she is trusting God through it.
Last month, the former super model and entrepreneur filed a lawsuit against her managers, who mishandled her large fortune of $420 million, Fox News reported.
“The betrayal is what is most shocking and heartbreaking, really,” Ireland said. “When you have a relationship with people for 35 years, and you come to find that what you think is true is not. That’s really difficult on many levels and, to be honest, it’s been a difficult journey.”
She and her husband have often been unable to sleep well since they made the discovery.
But “Every day we’re moving through this, and I’m so grateful and God is good,” Ireland said. “He’s getting us through.”
She is sad about the situation, but she still cares about those who hurt her.
“I don’t hate them and I refuse to let bitterness set in,” she said. “Scripture tells us, be angry and don’t sin, don’t let the sun go down on your anger. And it also tells us vengeance is mine, says the Lord. So I pray for the very best for them, and I pray they’ll do the right thing.”
Her former team “failed to create wealth and make investments” as promised, which left her and her husband, Greg Olsen, in lots of debt and forced to sell their family home.
The lawsuit claims the “defendants have not merely mismanaged money. They had consolidated control over Kathy and [husband Greg Olsen] through a tightly interwoven network of personal and corporate relationships designed to obscure accountability.”
The defendants disputed the claims. They alleged a $25 million fraud claim against Ireland filed last year was the reason for their dispute.
They said her allegations are “false, defamatory, and unsupported by any documentation,” and everyone involved were “partners and equal shareholders from the outset, not business managers.” They claim all loans taken have Irelands signature.
One of the defendants, Brittany Duncan, called the allegations “knowingly false, baseless, deceptive, slanderous and disingenuous.”
Ireland said, “Throughout my life, [God has] carried me through many tough battles. I’m a private person and I don’t share a lot, but like everyone, life is hard, and we go through tough stuff, but it’s a question of how are we going to go through it? And are we going to allow the actions of others to defeat us, define us, destroy us?”
“No, we get back up, and we fight another day, and it’s comforting to know that we’re not alone in this,” she said.
Ireland and her husband only realized they lacked funds when they went to loan their son a down payment for a home.
Now, they have substantial retirement funds after three decades of running a global business, but they trust God.
“There is no wealth securing their retirement and their children’s futures, as they were led to believe,” the complaint reads. “Instead, in the wake of defendants’ misconduct, there was staggering debt, misused credit, secret loans and missing funds.”
Despite that, Ireland says, “I know that God did not lead me from the cover of Sports Illustrated to the cover for Forbes to have anyone but Him write this chapter or the next.”
Read Next: Kathy Ireland Talks Faith Journey: ‘I Love Jesus. I Want To Follow Him’
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