Sunny von Bulow dies with her secret

The death in New York at the weekend of Martha ‘Sunny’ von Bulow, the American heiress and socialite who was in a coma for nearly 28 years, has inevitably refocused the media spotlight on her husband, Claus von Bulow (pictured), the London-based Danish aristocrat who twice stood trial for allegedly attempting to murder his wife.

Yesterday von Bulow, 82, who lives in South Kensington, spoke briefly of his and his daughter’s sadness, but refrained from further comment, claiming he was unable to speak about the matter for legal reasons. However, one of his close friends was more forthcoming. In today's Times, the unnamed friend said that von Bulow, who was accused of trying to kill his heiress wife with insulin overdoses in order to get a share of her $14m fortune, had been hopeful that his wife would recover from the coma, a view reinforced by his own recent battle with cancer. “He always felt there are breakthroughs in medicine," said the friend.

Von Bulow was firmly against allowing his wife to die in hospital through "benign neglect", even though doctors said there was no chance of recovery. The friend told the Times: "He told me: 'No one could say for sure there was no chance of recovery. But I knew for sure that she was not suffering. Therefore the issue of allowing her life to fade away did not arise'.”

Von Bulow last saw his wife 24 years ago at a medical centre. He was later banned from seeing her and agreed to a divorce as part of a legal settlement with the two children from her first marriage, who had been instrumental in bringing him to trial for attempted murder.

In the first trial von Bulow was found guilty, but he then hired one of America's most famous lawyers, Alan Dershowitz, who managed to get the verdict quashed. Dershowitz went on to write a best-selling book about the trial, Reversal of Fortune, which was later made into a film starring Glenn Close and Jeremy Irons, who won an Oscar for his portrayal of von Bulow. Said Dershowitz: "In Great Britain, Claus is regarded as a victim of false accusation. In the US, opinion was certainly more divided."