Where is liesel matthews now

As the case advanced, however, the truth about the Pritzker family's shady dealings after the death of patriarch Jay Pritzker Liesel's uncle and Robert's brother came to light. As Vanity Fair reported in , "In a confidential agreement made in , Jay Pritzker's children, his nieces and nephews, and his cousin Nicholas had decided on a year plan to break up the family's business empire and split the assets among themselves.

Liesel and her brother were the only cousins not included in the secret pact. Bling bling! It's going to be tricky, and it will take a long time. But I just need to know what happened. But being at the center of highly publicized, highly privileged drama isn't great when you're attempting to be a normal college student.

Liesel sought refuge from the spotlight, took a leave from Columbia, and moved to India where she volunteered with kids and taught yoga to recovering heroin addicts. But, she said, she realized there that "maybe I had something to offer—besides just my money.

After India came Tanzania, where she worked doing data entry in a poorly funded micro-finance office. Now 35, Liesel's story, like that of A Little Princess , has a mostly happy ending.

Her brother eventually joined the suit, and the very private Pritzker clan suddenly found themselves publicly exposed, salacious details and all. The case's settlement began the dissemination of the family fortune, which had been monolithically managed like a sort of limited partnership. She wound up in Dharamshala, in northern India. She volunteered, first with nursery school children and then as an instructor in a program that rehabilitated heroin addicts through--yoga.

It was also a turning point. On her first day as a yogi the drug addicts rolled their eyes. Pritzker responded by placing her knees on her elbows and lifting her feet into the air, balanced in a perfect crow position. They couldn't, of course. So she worked with them every day, focusing predominantly on breathing--a tool they could use outside class to calm themselves. It was the first time, she says, she realized, "Maybe I had something to offer--besides just my money.

From there she went to Tanzania, where she spent her days attempting to do data entry for a poorly equipped microfinance office, punching in numbers on a donated computer. Most of the time, though, she struggled even to turn the computer on due to the building's spotty electricity. It was a front-row view of the problems and promise of investing in the developing world. By the time Pritzker returned to New York three and a half months later, acting had lost its appeal.

She enrolled in cooking school and picked up her classes at Columbia. Eventually, though, she decided to create her own education. Here Pritzker Simmons has been content to experiment and learn. The heiress' first project: a pilot program designed to marry financial literacy and microloans at a group of low-cost private schools in Ghana.

The metamorphosis was complete: The lawsuit that had scarred her had effectively reinvented her, too. And the huge cash pile that lawsuit generated was about to be put to work. She co-founded the Blue Haven Initiative with her husband Ian Simmons in , which is one of the world's largest investment funds dedicated solely to impact investing. She also co-founded The ImPact in , a nonprofit organization that helps wealthy families make impact investments that align with their social and environmental values.

Simmons' move into investing isn't all that surprising seeing as she was born into the ninth wealthiest family in the U. But much like the story of A Little Princess , coming from a wealthy family didn't mean life was always easy for Simmons. Simmons and her brother, Matthew Pritzker , sued their famous family in , claiming that their father, Robert Pritzker , had denied them their inheritance after his divorce from their mother in the mid-'90s, The New York Times reported.

Vanessa Chester's first major movie role was that of Becky in A Little Princess , and Chester has been acting ever since. The actor has also appeared on some of the most beloved shows of the past couple of decades, from Once and Again to How I Met Your Mother. But she's also done more than acting over the last few decades. In a interview with Refinery29, she revealed that she had also gotten her economics degree. And for more entertainment news, sign up for our daily newsletter.

Ermengarde was a shy, insecure girl in A Little Princess , but actor Heather DeLoach Greiner has seemingly blossomed since taking on the role. Von Trapps for the win! Her stage surname, Matthews, was a nod to her brother Matthew, according to this profile of her.

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