Brian Wilson suffers from 'neurocognitive disorder,' conservatorship petition says
The family of Brian Wilson, the co-founder of the Beach Boys, filed for a legal conservatorship this week.
Brian Wilson, the co-founder of era-defining rock group the Beach Boys, suffers from a “major neurocognitive disorder (such as dementia)” and should be placed under a conservatorship, the 81-year-old artist’s attorneys said in a court filing this week.
Wilson is “unable to properly provide for his own personal needs for physical health, food, clothing or shelter,” according to the filing. In a post on Instagram, Wilson’s family said it made the decision after the death on Jan. 30 of his wife nearly 30 years, Melinda Ledbetter Wilson, and following “careful consideration and consultation” with his seven children, doctors and housekeeper.
The petition, filed in Los Angeles on Wednesday, proposes two conservators: Jean Sievers, Wilson’s “longtime publicist and manager,” and LeeAnn Hard, his “longtime business manager.” The family said it asked the court to appoint Sievers and Hard because they “have had a close relationship with Mr. and Mrs. Wilson for many years, and Mr. Wilson trusts them.”
Wilson was first placed in a conservatorship in the 1990s after years of personal turmoil caused by mental illness, substance abuse and life under the yoke of the controversial celebrity psychologist Dr. Eugene Landy, who attempted to control nearly every aspect of the singer’s life. (Landy was eventually barred from any contact with Wilson and died in 2006.)
Wilson’s entanglement with Landy and romantic relationship with Ledbetter were dramatized in the film “Love & Mercy.”
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