Nanette Kinkade/Amy Pinto Settlement

Widow Nanette Kinkade and her late husband's adulteress, Amy Pinto-Walsh, have reached a secret multimillion dollar cash settlement in return for the signature of the mistress on a confidentiality agreement along with her silence.

At stake is $100 million per year in sales from the Thomas Kinkade commercial empire of franchised art galleries, reproduced artwork and merchandising contracts.

Nanette Kinkade wishes to preserve her husband's artistic legacy along with income stemming from the Thomas Kinkade brand, especially for the sake of her children's future.

Details of the legal settlement between the two women in the late artist's life cannot, and will not, be spelled out on this blog as confidentiality on all sides is a distinct provision of the peace-making pact.

Nanette Kinkade wants this unseemly matter settled, and silenced, once and for all.  She wants to continue parenting the children she had with Thomas Kinkade in privacy and peace.

Californiality will write nothing further on the matter, and we encourage other news outlets to follow suit out of respect and decorum.

Nanette Kinkade vs. Amy Pinto-Walsh Background

The war of blonde wife vs. brunette adulteress had the deceased artist's two women battling in court for control of $70 million following the Death of Thomas Kinkade.

The wife demanded that the mistress either get out of the Kinkade mansion or start paying $12,500 a month in rent.  The mistress said she was not moving out because the mansion was now hers.

A judge later ordered the "other woman" to start paying $11,000 per month in rent.  She was not to remove a stick of furniture nor a painting from the Kinkade house, by legal order.

24-hour security personnel had guarded the gates to make sure nothing was stolen, and the court wanted a full inventory of the contents inside the Kinkade mansion.

A December 3, 2012 probate court hearing between the Thomas Kinkade estate and Amy Pinto-Walsh had been continued until December 24th.  That is now permanently cancelled.

Amy Pinto-Walsh, the live-in girlfriend of Thomas Kinkade, had initially appeared in a California courtroom months ago but was stifled from speaking to defend herself against gold-digger allegations by Nanette Kinkade's legal team.

Amy Pinto-Walsh, wanting to "redeem her reputation," had attended court hearings with an attorney in an attempt to prove that she was not just after her dead lover's mansion and millions in cash.

The adulteress' lawyer argued that the original confidentiality agreement Pinto-Walsh willingly signed should be voided, and that disputes with Thomas Kinkade's family and estate should be resolved in open court, not merely through arbitration.

Thomas Kinkade's wife of 30 years, Nanette Kinkade, did not want dirty laundry and family secrets dragged out in open court to be later circulated in public through world media outlets.

The couple had four children together, and Mrs. Kinkade wanted to limit her daughters' exposure to sensitive and potentially-damaging information.

"She wants to keep things as private as she can for herself, her family, her girls, and that's what Thom wanted," Dan Casas, an attorney for Nanette Kinkade, had stated.

In July 2012, Judge Thomas Cain ruled that hearings in the dispute between Thomas Kinkade's widow and girlfriend over the late artist's $66 million estate would not be conducted behind closed doors but rather in public.

Later that month, attorneys for the Thomas Kinkade estate appealed the ruling that allowed probate matters regarding the painter's fortune be heard in open court.

Amy Pinto-Walsh, the mistress, and Nanette Kinkade, the widow, had battled over two hand-scrawled notes that the adulteress claimed were two versions of a "last will and testament" written by Thomas Kinkade himself.

The illegible handwritten "wills," which Amy Pinto-Walsh claimed Kinkade wrote to her in November and December of 2011, allegedly left Kinkade's live-in lover the Monte Sereno, California mansion they trysted in, as well as $10 million to establish a museum of Kinkade's original art.

Many wondered if Thomas Kinkade actually wrote the notes and, if so, was he drunk?  Was Kinkade coerced into writing something under duress?  Did he even remember writing the notes afterward?

In California, legal documents composed or signed while drunk or under duress are void and non-enforceable.

Here is what the hand-scribbled November 2011 first "will" had stated, word-for-word:

"I, Thomas Kinkade, being of sound mind and body do hereby bequeath to Amy Pinto Walsh $10,000,000 in cash from my corporate policy and I give her the house at 16324 and 16342 Ridgecrest Avenue for her security.  - Thomas Kinkade Nov. 18, 2011"

Here is what the hand-scribbled December 2011 revised "will" had stated, word-for-word:

"I, Thomas Kinkade, hereby bequeath my house at 16342 Ridgecrest Avenue, Monte Sereno, CA to Amy Pinto in the event of my death.  I also give the sum of $10,000,000 to Amy Pinto to be used for the establishment of the Thomas Kinkade Museum at 16324 Ridgecrest Ave., Monte Sereno, CA for the public in perpetuity of original art.  This Statement is null and void if my relationship with Ms. Pinto ends as is defined by me in a future letter.  - Thomas Kinkade 12-11-11" 

In the court hearing, Kinkade estate lawyer Dana Levitt argued that, because Pinto-Walsh signed the original confidentiality agreement of her own free will, any claims had to be settled in private binding arbitration.

Amy Pinto-Walsh's legal counsel argued that she believed she was signing a "standard employment agreement" that became void when Nanette Kinkade successfully stopped husband Thomas Kinkade from adding his mistress to his payroll.

Amy Pinto-Walsh wanted a payoff of millions from the Thomas Kinkade estate for violating the power-of-attorney Thomas Kinkade had allegedly granted her to make his medical decisions and dispose of his bodily remains upon his death.

Pinto-Walsh continued to live in the $7 million Monte Sereno mansion and had refused to move out, though she had later been ordered by the court to start paying $11,000/month rent to the Kinkade estate.

Lawyers for widow Nanette Kinkade said the artist's adultery partner was a squatter who was "holding hostage this residence," and Kinkade's grieving widow wanted to take family heirlooms out of the house and out of the reach of Amy Pinto-Walsh.

Pinto-Walsh was reportedly "a woman scorned" since widow Nanette Kinkade banned the mistress from attending Thomas Kinkade's funeral and filed for a restraining order against the adulteress who watched Kinkade overdose on drugs and booze, then called 911 after he had stopped breathing completely.

The December 2012 multimillion dollar cash settlement and silence agreement between the widow and the adulteress formally ends the legal battle and the public drama regarding artist Thomas Kinkade's unfinished business.

Nanette Kinkade v. Amy Pinto-Walsh

CASE CLOSED.