The husband-business manager of actress Carol Channing denied her claims that he abused her and mismanaged her money during their 41-year marriage.
Channing, 77, has filed for divorce from Charles Lowe, 86, and said Wednesday she recently discovered that the value of their combined estate is less than $2 million, even though her recent tour of "Hello, Dolly" netted her $5 million.Lowe blamed the accusations on the jealousy of Channing's son, Channing Lowe, whom he adopted.
"I was just going over the finances with her accountant, and she has a billion dollars," Lowe said.
Channing, who also starred in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," said Lowe spent her money "like a drunken sailor" on Wallace Seawell, a Hollywood photographer.
"That's impossible!" Lowe said in a phone interview. "Wally Seawell, he's out every night with a different woman. I can't believe that she would say that."
Channing said Lowe "manipulated me psychologically, mentally and financially. . . . I have been humiliated regularly by my husband in public and I am regularly physically assaulted by him."
Channing said she remained loyal to him and "never during the course of our 41-year marriage had any affairs or been intimate with anyone else."
She said her husband told her years ago he was impotent, a claim she now says was untrue.