Brooke Astor: How New York’s Greatest Lady Lost Her Empire

To New York, she was untouchable: Brooke Astor, the grande dame who gave away nearly $200 million to save its libraries, museums, parks, and zoos. She was photographed with presidents, toasted by Rockefellers, and crowned the “Queen of New York.” But behind the doors of her Park Avenue apartment, the legend was being slowly erased. As she slipped into dementia past the age of 100, the woman who had funded the New York Public Library and the Metropolitan Museum of Art was allegedly left to sleep on a urine-stained couch, fed cheap pureed food, and stripped of comfort and dignity by the one person meant to protect her: her only son, Anthony Marshall.This video unpacks the full arc of Brooke Astor’s life: from a Marine officer’s daughter and abused young wife, to strategic society bride, to one of the most powerful philanthropists in American history, and finally to the elder-abuse scandal that put her son on trial and forced the world to confront how the rich can be robbed in plain sight. It is the story of how she built an empire of generosity… and how greed inside her own family tried, and failed, to rewrite her legacy #BrookeAstor #AstorFamily #AnthonyMarshall #ElderAbuse #TrueCrimeDocumentary #NewYorkHistory #RichAndRuthless #Philanthropy #ParkAvenue #RealLifeScandal