Jackie Siegel described her grief almost like a “wake-up call.”
The actress and socialite, known as the “Queen of Versailles,” spoke with Fox News Digital about the aftermath of losing her husband David Siegel and sister Jessica within days of each other in April 2025.
“I feel like with these losses that I’ve had, in some strange ways, got me closer to God,” Siegel said, adding that she feels her purpose is to bring people together to save lives.
David, founder of Westgate Resorts, died on April 5 at age 89 after battling cancer. Three days later, her sister Jessica died at age 43 from an accidental drug overdose.
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In 2015, her daughter Victoria died at age 18 from an accidental overdose of methadone and sertraline.
“Had I not gone through this hardship, I could have taken life for granted and not really given back to the full potential that I was put here for,” she said.
“[God has] put me in a position. I now realize that with the Broadway show coming out, building the largest home in America… I mean hopefully I still look OK for my age… and you know, we have a hotel in New York right, and just all of these wonderful things that can’t be there for gluttony,” she said.
WATCH: JACKIE SIEGEL SHARES HOW HER LOSSES BROUGHT HER CLOSER TO GOD
“I just realized he put it in place for a purpose. I just know that my purpose is to bring people together to save lives,” she added.
According to Siegel’s foundation, Victoria’s Voice, “on the day she died, Victoria had a pulse when first responders arrived and found her unresponsive, but they were not equipped with naloxone, and Victoria became another statistic” Since then, “Victoria’s Voice is dedicated to drug awareness and prevention and saving lives from overdose.” David had also led efforts to increase naloxone access and use especially among law enforcement.
“And through that – through saving lives – because I know people come back. The sheriff’s department, like Seminole County Sheriff told me they used Narcan 700 times this past year. So. I just know in one county, we’ve saved lives in that 700 administrations of the Narcan. And that gives me strength,” she explained.
“And to have people come up and give me a hug. That and give people comfort that have also lost their child or people that say, ‘Thank you, you saved my child’s life,'” Siegel said.
Siegel said her foundation, Victoria’s Voice, prints and distributes copies of her late daughter’s diary to help engage parents and teenagers in conversations about drug use and addiction.
After Victoria’s death, one of her friends forwarded a text from her telling her mother that in the event of her death, to find her secret diary she kept and to publish it.
Victoria’s Voice helps educate people and provide tools to prevent overdoses and substance-use disorders, according to the foundation’s website.
WATCH: JACKIE SIEGEL EXPLAINS WHY SHE HAS NO REGRETS
She also works with Fentanyl Fathers, who are fathers who lost children to a drug overdose and now travel the country to talk about it.
Siegel was recently in New York for the Angel Ball, where she served as a presenter for Amy Green with the Green Foundation, which focuses on saving the oceans.
“I’ve gotten this wonderful network of loving people — people that really care about this world. They care about our next generation. We care about our planet,” she said.
Siegel also opened up about losing her sister, who died on April 8, 2025, at age 43.
She said she was reaching out to family members about David’s death to organize a group painting therapy session, noting that she and her sister Jessica had always loved painting.
“I guess she just got depressed and got a line of cocaine from her neighbor,” she claimed. “I thought it was cocaine, but it was Fentanyl. And she died so fast.”
“We donated all of her organs. Her heart, her lungs, her skin, everything. So there’s a lot of people and I can’t wait to meet them someday. Maybe I’ll invite them to Versailles,” she added.
“I think through this, the grief that I’ve had, it’s almost like a wake-up call for me,” Siegel reflected.
“‘Cause I could have gone down a bad path in life, like when my husband started making a lot of money and he was like going to Las Vegas and just that life of more like the party scene I guess,” she said. “We could have gone down that path, but we started to… but when our daughter passed away, that’s like when we kind of straightened up and said, ‘Hey wait a minute, you’ve got a problem here.'”
David and Jackie were the subject of a 2012 documentary called “The Queen of Versailles,” which followed their effort to build a mega-mansion in Florida dubbed Versailles — named after France’s famed Palace of Versailles — amid financial hurdles.
Their 90,000 square-foot home remains under construction and is expected to become the largest single-family home in the U.S. – and one of the most expensive – when completed.
The home features 14 bedrooms and 30 bathrooms, with a 35-car garage and an in-house pub.
Construction began in 2004 but paused in 2008 during the recession, when David’s company, Westgate Resorts, was hit hard and briefly listed the mansion for $65 million.
The documentary renewed public interest in their project and Westgate Resorts later recovered financially, allowing construction to restart in 2013.
Hurricane Ian, a category four storm that struck Florida in 2022, caused an estimated $10 million in damage to their property, according to TMZ.
A stage musical based on the documentary debuted in August 2024 at Emerson Colonial Theatre in Boston, starring Kristin Chenoweth as Jackie and F. Murray Abraham as David.
“The Queen of Versailles” began performances on Broadway on October 8, 2025, and officially premiered on Nov. 9, 2025, at the St. James Theatre with the same cast.
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Siegel said Chenoweth studied her closely and picked up on her mannerisms while preparing for the role, adding that the two spent time together ahead of the premiere.
“She’s just such a professional that she just kind of studied me, listened to my little gestures, you know, when I go like this, and you know my little quirkiness, whatever I do,” Siegel said.
She also gave Chenoweth a tour of their Versailles mansion.
After seeing the show for the first time, Siegel said of Chenoweth: “I just told her that she plays me better than I play me and that as petite as she is, she’s bigger than life.”
“But I want people to know that this show was like an inspiration, and it seems like, I think in a way that all I care about is this house. But it’s entertainment, and I’ve got so much more in my life that isn’t even expressed there about the things I do, caring about people and everything, and animals,” she added.
When she saw the musical for the first time, Siegel said she started crying, because she felt like they brought her loved ones back to life.
Siegel also recalled how the documentary eventually turned into a Broadway musical.
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She revealed that she was on the beach when it happened — specifically Cocoa Beach.
“This young girl, her name was Lindsey Ferrentino, she comes up to me, and of course I have no hair or makeup, and she says, ‘Are you the Queen of Versailles?’ And I said, ‘Yeah.’ And she says, ‘How would you like a Broadway show about you and your story?’ And suddenly here I am on the beach, it’s like, you wouldn’t think of something big getting discovered on the beach in Cocoa Beach.”
“So I gave her my phone number and she was a young girl. I didn’t know who she was, didn’t Google her or anything. And about like eight or nine months later, I get a call back, and she says, ‘Broadway wants to do it.’”
Siegel said she has no regrets, noting that everything happens the way it’s supposed to.
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“It’s not only the good things that get you to where you are. It’s the bad things, and you have to take the lesson learned from the bad,” Siegel said, adding that she’s been considering moving into Versailles in January.
“Or if one door shuts, it may be that God shut the door because that maybe shouldn’t have gotten that job because there’s a better one waiting for you,” she added. “So I try to look at things as the positive side. And sometimes you don’t appreciate the good things until some of the bad things happen.”
“And then when the good things do happen, you appreciate it so much more,” she reflected.
