Bunny Wailer Family Hit With $5 Million Hospital Bill, Stowe’s Lawyer Says “There Is No Issue, Bill Will Be Paid”

Reggae legend Bunny Wailer racked up a hospital bill of $5,275,763.61 in the last six weeks of his illness at a medical facility in the Corporate Area as his health rapidly deteriorated and he needed around-the-clock medical care to prolong his life.

Members of the late legend’s family have complained to the media that the family has been unable to settle the bill and that if their father’s affairs were being managed in the way they should, they would not have been in the uncomfortable financial position that they find themselves mired in.

“We have been kept in the dark by individuals who should have our best interest at heart,” their statement said. “Some of us have taken the initiative to begin organising our father’s personal and business affairs. In doing so, we have discovered that, contrary to what we were being told, there has been (and is) more than substantial income to cover all expenses. Our father, though deceased, is being held hostage, while we are being forced to sign a deal with VP Records to cover these costs.”

“There [should be] no reason for there to be outstanding hospital bills since 2020. We should not have to sign a record deal to bury our father. The truth is, however, Bunny Wailer’s legacy speaks for itself,” Wailer’s 13 children said in the joint statement.

Maxine Stowe, Bunny Wailer’s close partner and business manager, refused comment and instead referred queries to her lawyer, who when contacted, said that the hullabaloo was “much ado about nothing”.

“The medical bill is under a guarantor. The hospital has a commitment with Mr. Livingston’s lawyer for the full bill to be paid. There is no issue,” the lawyer who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.

“The bill covers the final costs for the hospital plus the fees for four professional doctors, which consists of two internists, a blood specialist, Mr. Livingston’s personal physician, as well as a therapist. Millions had already been paid up until January 2021, there is no issue, the unfortunate thing is that there are parties who have a vested interest in attempting to embarrass a true legend of Reggae.”

The Reggae legend, who passed away on Tuesday, March 2, had been originally scheduled to be interred on April 10th at his Dreamland Farm in Portland.

Carl Livingston, the brother of Bunny Wailer, told DancehallMag that the family had “set a date but the Prime Minister said no funerals could be held, so right now, like everyone else, I am waiting on the Prime Minister’s announcement”.

Gary Himelfarb, aka Doctor Dread, founder of RAS Records and the Grammy winner’s former manager and music publisher, says that the reputation of a devout Rastafarian, a legendary singer and activist of Bunny Wailer’s calibre, should not be sullied by public arguments within the family.

“I am upset, and I know that Bunny Wailer would have been upset too. He was a private person and didn’t want people knowing his business, he would have been ‘bloodclaating’ people right and left. They need to put aside all the BS, and let Jah B be buried with grace, dignity and show the man the respect he deserves and put aside their differences,” Himelfarb told DancehallMag.

“The only thing they need to be concerned about right now is getting him buried and you know,  Maxine has something on the table where there is a deal to do something with Bunny’s masters and pay his hospital and make sure that their father gets a proper burial.  The 10 commandments say it clearly, ‘honour thy father’, and I really want to emphasise that,” he said.

Himelfarb, said he kept in touch with him until his death. He was Wailer’s music publisher and manager in the 1990s and helped organize tours of Europe and North America for the artiste who won three Grammy Awards for Best Reggae Album that decade.

The third of those Grammys came in 1997 for Hall of Fame: A Tribute to Bob Marley’s 50th Anniversary, which was released by RAS Records.

Himelfarb said that he recently lost his mother and he got together with his estranged siblings to settle her estate and implored the Livingston clan to do the same.

“We got along enough to go and settle her estate and give her a proper burial during COVID, let Jah B be buried with respect. as a Rastafarian where certain things are dealt with at a certain level with respect for I and I, he would have been so upset, I know him good, I am upset, I love Bunny as a brother and he deserves to be buried with respect,” Himelfarb said.

In the meantime, the children are not backing down and reiterated comments in a previous interview that Maxine Stowe, who has been Bunny Wailer’s manager and caregiver up until the time of his passing, “has no authority whatsoever as it relates to our father’s estate”.