Eden Sassoon’s epic and tragic family history

On this season of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills we meet the daughter of hair sculpting genius and 80’s pop culture icon Vidal Sassoon, Eden Sassoon. And we learn that Eden has some pain in her background in regards to her family–a great deal of pain and loss.

Yes the 43-year-old tattooed business owner regales her co-stars with tales of tragedy and abandonment on the show.

She tells the story of her mother, actress Beverly Adams giving birth to her on a Friday and leaving that same day to vacation in the Hampton’s without her. Eden hints that the callous action foreshadowed her impending relationship with her mom. Then there is her sister Catya who coincidentally ran with an actor crowd in the 80’s that included Kyle Richard’s actress sister Kim Richards and Robert Downey Junior.

Kim and RDJ have battled substance abuse their whole lives, but sadly Catya overdosed in 2002 at age 33. Interestingly Eden claims that her family knew Catya’s early death was inevitable and hinted that it may have been a suicide.Catya-sassoon

So being the daughter of Vidal Sassoon may not have been the dream that people would have thought it would be. And given that dysfunction tends to be passed down from one generation to the next, you can guess that Vidal had a rough upbringing as well that may have been passed down to his children…albeit in a totally different way.

So Vidal was not born rich. In fact he was born dirt poor January 17, 1928 in Hammersmith, England in London’s East End to Jewish parents.

Source: Instagram

Source: Instagram

His carpet-salesman father abandoned him and his brother Ivor when he was 5 years old. His mom was too poor to support them so she placed them in an orphanage until age 14 when his mother put him to work as a shampoo attendant at Cohen’s Beauty and Barber shop.

Needless-to-say, Vidal likely had some serious abandonment issues and perhaps some issues emotionally connecting with anyone. He certainly had an obsession with achieving perfection and that “perfection” extended to his children.

And is part of why adopted son David hated his dad. In fact Vidal cut David out of the will and the £100million hairdressing empire.

David was adopted by Sassoon in 1975 at the age of three and a half.

His biological parents were from the racially divided South at the time. His father was an African-American man, and his mother was a married white woman in Memphis, Tennessee. He was conceived as the result of an affair between them. 

So interestingly Eden was a twin.

David told the UK mail in 2013 about how his adoption came about: ‘Beverly was carrying twins when she had Eden but there were complications and she lost one. Vidal was always working, building the business.

‘Beverly wanted four kids, two boys and two girls. She was doing night classes at university where she met my foster mum.”

David also claimed Vidal “cut me out of his will. He made my childhood a misery” claiming Sassoon forced him to have life-threatening weight-loss surgery.

He also claimed Sassoon’s  ‘obsession with perfection’ led to the drug death of Catya.

‘Dad created the ultimate dysfunctional family,’ …..

‘To be honest, I would have been better off if he had never adopted me. Money and image were all that mattered to him.”

Damn! This is in stark contrast to the accolades showered upon Vidal from fans. I wonder how Eden feels about David making these accusations?

Anyhow, Eden suggests that she has been involved in a long process of healing reflected in her numerous tattoos. She is a recovering alcoholic. She was married briefly to Tomer DeVito, but the marriage ended. She ended her last relationship after 3 weeks after her ex told her she was a “Type A personality”.

Hopefully Eden will open up more about what it was like being raised by her famous father.