Disney Heiress Says She Regrets Solo Private Jet Flights as She Commits to Paying Fair Share (2024)

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• Celebrity Belief & Identity
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Disney heiress Abigail Disney is expressing her regrets over her wasteful past behavior — and committing to being more environmentally conscious, she says.

The granddaughter of Walt Disney's brother and co-founder Roy Disney, has spoken out in a report called "Proud to Pay More." In the document she expresses her regret about flying solo cross-country on her family's private Boeing 737 plane, among other extravagances.

She writes of her actions, "Nearly two decades ago, I used the jet to fly alone from California to New York. As I strapped myself into the aircraft’s queen-sized bed for some shut-eye, I had an uncomfortable epiphany: this was wrong. As I crossed the continental US, I was dumping untold amounts of toxins and pollutants into the air, and for no other reason besides my own selfish convenience."

Abigail, who is also an Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker and activist, explains in the open letter that, "Because of my grandfather’s extraordinary success, I have lived a life of enormous privilege. I don’t think there is a single luxury, comfort, or convenience that I have not experienced over the course of my life on account of my family’s wealth and fame."

After determining that her way of life was unethical, she says she took steps to change.

She's given up flying private and has made "other adjustments to my routines in an effort to protect the environment," she explains. She told the Financial Times in 2019 that she's given away $70 million over the past 30 years, and revealed her current wealth. “I’m roughly around $120 million and I have been for some time now," she said.

One such commitment is joining 250 billionaires and millionairesin a request to lawmakers to be taxed more on their extreme wealth.

The authors of the "Proud to Pay More" report, which was submitted at the World Economic Forum on Wednesday, also included actor Brian Cox, who played the fictional billionaire Logan Roy on Succession, and American heiress Valerie Rockefeller.