Fortensky: Liz Taylor left him $825,000

Screen icon Elizabeth Taylor left her ex-husband Larry Fortensky roughly $825,000 in her will, the former construction worker told a British newspaper Sunday.

In his only interview following Taylor's death March 23 at age 79, Fortensky -- her seventh and last husband in a series of marriages that included two to film star Richard Burton -- says her bequest "honored" the friendship that followed their five-year marriage, which ended in 1996.

Fortensky told the paper he had received a letter from Taylor's lawyers last week informing him.

Most of her estate, which Bloomberg Businessweek estimates at a minimum of $600 million, will go to her four children, the Daily Mail said, with the proceeds of her ongoing perfume line earmarked for AIDS charities.

Taylor's spokeswoman, Sally Morrison, did not immediately reply to requests for confirmation.

Fortensky, 59, who is in ill health and lives with his sister Donna, 57, in remote Menifee, Calif., south of Los Angeles, said he broke his silence for no monetary gain but to state "the real story. I am sick and tired of the lies. I have wonderful memories of my time with Elizabeth, and I will treasure her memory forever."

At the time of their divorce, Fortensky was widely reported to have received $1 million from a prenuptial agreement.

SEE PHOTOSRecent notable deaths

Reverting afterward to the alcoholism for which he was treated at the Betty Ford Center, where he had met the pill-addicted Taylor, Fortensky said a drunken fall in 1999 left him with short-term memory loss and unable to work. Bad investments and medical bills, he said, depleted his savings.