What Is David A. Siegel's Net Worth?
David. A. Siegel is an American entrepreneur who has a net worth of $500 million. David A. Siegel earned his fortune as the founder of Westgate Resorts, a Florida-based timeshare resort firm. He serves as president and chief executive officer of the firm. Siegel, his wife Jackie, and their Florida-based "Versailles" mansion were also the subjects of the award-winning documentary "The Queen of Versailles," which detailed his temporary financial stresses in the wake of the 2008 real estate bubble collapse at a time when he and Jackie were attempting to build one of the largest and most expensive homes in US history. More details on this house and documentary can be found later in the article.
Early Life
David A. Siegel was born on May 3, 1935, in Chicago, Illinois. He is the son of Sadelle and Sid Siegel, a grocer who moved the family and their grocery business to Miami when David was ten years old. Siegel graduated from Miami Senior High School in 1935 and studied management and marketing at the University of Miami. He did not end up graduating.
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Career
Siegel was one of the founders of Mystery Fun House, an Orlando attraction that opened on March 29, 1976, and operated until 2001. He also produced the movie "Night Terror" in 2002.
He founded the successful timeshare company Westgate Resorts, Ltd., and currently serves as the company's President and Chief Executive Officer.
In addition to his work with Westgate, he is also the CEO of Central Florida Investments, Inc. and Central Florida Investments Resorts Management, Inc. His investment company has interests in travel services, transportation, retail, telecommunications, and construction.
At his absolute peak in the period of 2004-2007, David Siegel's paper net worth was roughly $1 billion. The 2008 financial crisis severely impacted his various business ventures. In 2012, he made headlines when he sent an email to all of his employees in which he threatened to fire them if President Obama was re-elected. He did not follow through on that threat. In 2015, he appeared on the ABC reality series "Celebrity Wife Swap," on which he traded lives with actor Jeremy London.
"The Queen of Versailles"
Siegel and his wife Jackie are the subjects of Lauren Greenfield's award-winning documentary, "The Queen of Versailles." The film showed the family as they attempted to build the Versailles house, one of the largest and most expensive single-family homes in the United States. The documentary also chronicles the crises they faced as the U.S. economy tanked and the family's struggles to sell various expensive personal assets to save their lives and company from a mountain of debt. The movie shows Siegel trying and failing to retain ownership of Westgate's Las Vegas high-rise resort, the PH Towers Westgate. The Siegels filed two lawsuits against the filmmakers of the documentary but subsequently lost both.
Versailles Mansion
As chronicled in the documentary, David and Jackie are perhaps best known, and somewhat infamous, for spending the last two decades building an over-the-top, opulent mansion in Windermere, Florida, modeled after the Palace of Versailles. It is one of the most notorious examples of American excess in residential architecture. Planning for the home began in 2004, at which point David's timeshare business empire was booming, and his paper net worth was close to billionaire status. David's dream was to build the largest single-family home in America. The end result was a 90,000-square-foot estate. Primary construction began in 2006.
With 14 bedrooms, 32 bathrooms, 11 kitchens, a roller rink, an ice skating rink, a bowling alley, a 30-car garage, three levels, three indoor pools, two outdoor pools, two tennis courts, a baseball diamond, a fitness center with 10,000 square foot spa, two-story movie theater and much more, the project captured imaginations and ignited controversy. Just as the dream seemed to reach its gilded peak, the 2008 financial crisis brought a harsh reality check. David's net worth teetered on insolvency as his timeshare customers fled in droves. Construction froze, leaving the unfinished Versailles a skeletal testament to dashed aspirations. This period of uncertainty for the Siegel family and their unfinished dream home was captured in the 2012 documentary "The Queen of Versailles." After several frozen years, the Siegels' finances improved, and construction started again, with Jackie leading the project. The Versailles house has been under construction for over 20 years.
NYC Penthouse
In 2023, Jackie and David paid $8.7 million for a duplex in NYC's Tribeca neighborhood. In January 2024, they listed this unit for sale for $19.5 million.
(Photo by Gerardo Mora/Getty Images)
Personal Life
Siegel has nine biological children and two adopted children. He married Geraldine Florence Sanstrom in 1961, and they were married until 1969. David was married to Bettie Tucker from 1970 to 1997. He remained the custodial parent of all the children. He met his third wife, Jackie Siegel, in 1998, and they married in a Jewish ceremony in 2000. In June 2015, the Siegels' 18-year-old daughter, Victoria Siegel, was found unresponsive at their home in Windermere. After she was taken to a hospital, she was pronounced dead. Her cause of death was ruled a drug overdose, thus motivating David to advocate strongly against drug abuse.
In 2008, David Siegel was found liable in a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by Dawn Myers, a former Westgate employee. After a trial in Florida, the jury awarded her $5.4 million, but a judge reduced the award to just $610,000. In the trial award, Myers was given $103,622 in compensatory damages and $506,847 in punitive damages arising from her battery claim under state law.
