Glen Campbell’s son Travis is breaking his silence over claims that he was an absentee son who did not visit his father for 20 years.
Speaking to Inside Edition on Wednesday (March 28), Travis refuted claims recently made by Campbell’s widow, Kim, that he was completely absent from his father’s life by choice as the elder Campbell battled Alzheimer’s.
“We were able to see him twice a month for four hours at a time,” Travis Campbell says. “So, basically, I saw him every month. The biggest lapse would be two months.”
Glen Campbell died in August of 2017 after battling Alzheimer’s disease since at least 2011, and his oldest three children — daughter Kelli, and sons William Travis and Wesley Kane — were specifically excluded from his will. Campbell was married four times and had eight children; the three children excluded from his estate were born of his marriage to his second wife, Billie Jean Nunley, which ended in 1976.
Campbell’s oldest children, Debby and Travis, won a legal victory in 2016 after claiming that his fourth wife, Kim, had denied them the right to visit their father during his illness. Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam signed a bill into law called the Campbell / Falk Act, that allowed family members and close friends of anyone with Alzheimer’s disease, dementia or other disabilities to visit a loved one in person or maintain contact with them by phone, email or mail despite the wishes of a legally appointed conservator.
In an interview with Inside Edition in March of 2018, Kim Campbell refuted their account, saying, “I never ever denied them a visit, ever. They never ever called me to ask how he was doing or if they could help. It’s a nightmare to have people on the internet threatening to kill you because they think you’re this horrible person who wouldn’t let people visit, which is totally false.”
Documents filed in Nashville name Kim Campbell as the executor of Campbell’s estimated $50 million estate. She says the decision to leave Kelli, William and Wesley out of the will was Glen Campbell’s.
“That was done in 2002 and that was a choice that was made by Glen, not me,” she says, adding, “Travis hadn’t visited his dad in 20 years.”
Campbell’s oldest children are legally disputing his will.
