Gail said she had trouble getting money from her ex-husband J.P. Getty Jr. The reason why that was is the following: The fortune of the Getty family originated with the father of J.P. Getty I, George Getty , who put all of his energies into oil exploration and made a tidy profit; George gave a bit of seed money for the first JP to do the same and he was able to multiply that wealth many times over; JP and his mother formed the Sarah C. Getty Trust combining their monies so that the family's ever-growing wealth could be channeled into a tax-free, secure income for future generations of the Getty family. The primary stipulation of the trust was JP Getty I was the sole beneficiary, and disbursement to any family member would be at his discretion. After JP's death in 1976, his son Gordon Getty was named sole trustee, which was contested over a decade in the courts and led to the trust being broken six ways, with the bulk of the assets assigned to JP's four sons and their descendants.
