While the Siegels put Versailles on the back burner, they hadn’t forgotten it.
In addition, a family tragedy forced the Siegels to take a hard look at their priorities.
The original Palace of Versailles was clearly your inspiration.
Tell me about why that spoke to you.
My husband’s dream was to build this home.
We went on our honeymoon in France and had a very romantic time.
On the way flying back, my husband [said] he wanted a bigger family.
I didn’t realize he wanted this many kids.
I’m going to name it Versailles."
I was like, “Who names a house?”
Where I grew up, you don’t name a house maybe a neighborhood.
In fact, where I grew up, we didn’t even have neighborhoods.
There’s no such thing as an HOA or gated communities.
You bought a piece of land and built your shack on it or whatever.
That’s how we grew up, but it was his inspiration.
The square footage kept growing.
I know that the project was on hiatus for a while.
What were you doing during this time?
That’s one of the big questions.
Everyone wants to know what happened to Versailles.
Why is it taking so long?
Discovery+ really shows the balancing act that I have to do as a mother.
What happened [was] the crash of 2008.
No one bought it.
Everything else is … What do you call it?
Not commercial, but stock market they’re all public companies, but we’re privately owned.
He also made my own Versailles in the sky, in Las Vegas.
[It was Elvis Presley’s] apartment or penthouse, I guess.
It wasn’t fulfilling to be building this house.
It was a really a traumatic time for the two of us.
What do you think that parents and teens could do to prevent addiction?
We’ve [talked about] Narcan.
Since my daughter passed away, the drug epidemic has gotten worse, and it’s really bad.
We’re losing our next generation.
After our daughter passed away, we slowed down on construction again.
We were totally [blindsided].
We didn’t know our daughter was on drugs, but they’re everywhere.
It happens that quick.
I really can’t stress to other parents the importance of educating your kids.
you might’t trust anyone.
You don’t buy anything off the street and put it in your body not even a vaping cigarette.
It’s like these other toxins.
My hairdresser had one son, 15 years old.
All he liked was marijuana, and marijuana off a plant is safe.
You’re not going to die from it.
Jackie Siegel plans to open Versailles for wellness retreats
It’s totally messed up.
I don’t know if they know what was in that vape.
Don’t trust a stranger.
It’s getting that bad out there.
Unfortunately, since my daughter passed away, the drug epidemic has gotten even worse.
That’s another reason we decided to finish Versailles.
What’s really important in life is to give back to the world.
I feel like I can do that to the world.
It’s almost six years after my daughter passed away.
Through Victoria’s Voice, I’ve made connections with people that are reaching out for help.
They want to stay drug-free and alcohol-free, substance abuse-free.
We have a dance club, and there doesn’t have to be drugs and alcohol.
I’ve got a yoga room, like a Zen garden.
It’s really going to be a retreat, like a spa.
Do we want the tennis court or do we want to make a croquet field and soccer field?
We’re trying to decide on that.
We’ve got 1700 feet on the lake.
People can go boating.
You said you were blindsided about your daughter.
Since then, I’m sure you’ve learned a lot.
You’ve educated yourself a lot.
It’s really crazy.
The drugs cause so much addiction, [and it’s] a really horrible thing.
It’s not so much about getting high, but it’s to stop that pain of the withdrawal.
They say that your body wants to go crazy because your body needs more.
It’s a true addiction, and it’s not [only] a mental addiction.
My husband is against medical marijuana.
I’m actually for it.
It’s like Democrats and Republicans being married together, that throw in of thing.
Now, they have edibles and stuff, and for me, it’s safe.
If they buy anything off of the street, the problem is that fentanyl is now out there.
We have a problem with open borders with fentanyl coming in.
I’ve heard of drug busts they found a thing of fentanyl that could kill the entire city.
Now, it’s fentanyl.
I was on a show with Captain Lee in “Below Deck.”
That’s what happened to his son.
His son had chronic back pain or something, and he was addicted to Percocet.
It’s hard to accept, but it’s happening everywhere.
Our kids have grown older.
The twins are 15.
They don’t want an ice skating rink.
They don’t need the swing set or the merry-go-round, all that stuff.
We took out the nannies' rooms.
They’re getting bigger closets in their bedrooms.
We got the whole second floor.
So we’re redoing, like re-laying out all of their bedrooms.
They carousel’s gone, but I might put it back in when we have grandchildren.
It’s in the warehouse right now.
The ice-skating rink is converted to a dance club, like a teenage club.
They put a workout room in there, like a hardcore muscle-building workout.
We have the British pub from the 1800s.
That was shipped over from England.
I found out [that I’m related to] King Edward III and King Edward II.
My mom did the genealogy, so I have royalty in my blood.
Maybe that’s why Versailles landed in the right hands of the right person.
It was destiny, I think.
What did it feel like to restart construction?
You took a break from it and then got back to it.
This is the first time I’m in charge of Versailles now, and I’m on a roll.
I really want to finish it.
I’ve learned a lot this year.
I’ve learned about quality control.
I’ve learned about containers, shipping supplies from overseas.
It’s not just about picking out a color of paint or marble.
I’m picking up semiprecious stones for my floors.
I just got back from Indonesia, and there’s so much.
You have to worry about weight-bearing walls or if the ceiling’s made to support a chandelier.
It’s really quite intense.
Even with my Benihana kitchen, I took it out because we couldn’t get the right ventilation.
The ceilings are too tall, but my husband put it back in.
We’re going to have that battle maybe on Season 2.
Versailles is just one of Jackie Siegel’s many projects
How did the new show come about?
How did you get back into that?
He wanted to shy away from the cameras, and I was married to him.
We have our mission in life of saving lives.
Discovery, they’re are not a tabloid.
I’ve got my family life and the Versailles.
My other life is taking care of my husband, being a wife.
And you got to do meal planning.
As a mother, this is so much [what] it seems like most of the time.
and then they pop on the couch.
The women’s job is never done.
It’s more charitable I don’t get paid to do it.
I have a thrift mart [where] we donate a lot to a battered women’s safe house.
I really enjoy giving back to the community.
That really makes a person whole, to be a productive member of society.
Too many people in this world…
It’s really true.
What are you most looking forward to when you move into Versailles?
I want to be a mom and a wife and get it done.
I plan [on] the house being done around a year from now, May 3rd, 2023.
It’s my goal because that’s going to be my husband’s 88th birthday.
“Queen of Versailles Reigns Again” is now streaming on Discovery+.
