Oleg Cassini's widow released from Nassau's jail

The widow of famous fashion designer Oleg Cassini was freed on bail Friday after spending about six months in the Nassau County jail for defying a judge’s order in the years-long battle over her husband’s nearly $60 million estate.

Nassau Surrogate’s Court Judge Margaret Reilly put Marianne Nestor Cassini, 68, on an international no-fly list as one of the conditions of her release.

The judge also made the Manhattan resident surrender the deed to her East 19th Street residence, warning the woman she’d lose ownership of the home if she skipped court in the future.

“Do you understand that?” Reilly asked Nestor Cassini.

“The answer is yes,” the inmate replied, her hands uncuffed for a morning court proceeding as two deputy sheriffs kept watch behind her.

The judge had jailed Nestor Cassini on May 4 for civil contempt after the woman defied a court order in the ongoing inheritance fight over the assets of the designer behind Jacqueline Kennedy's wardrobe when she was first lady.

The judge's order demanded that Nestor Cassini share business records, financial documents, computer passwords and keys with the court-appointed receiver who is administering the affairs of two companies, Oleg Cassini Inc. and Cassini Parfums Ltd.

Reilly's ruling is related to the need for an accurate accounting of the estate’s assets so they can be divided.

The fight over Cassini’s estate started more than a decade ago, following his 2006 death at age 92. It first pitted Cassini's widow against his two daughters from his earlier marriage to 1940s film star Gene Tierney.

Following the daughters' deaths, Nestor Cassini has been battling her late husband’s grandson, Alexandre Cassini Belmont. He lives in Spain and has claimed a right to half the estate.

The assets include Jacqueline Kennedy memorabilia, worth an estimated $1.8 million, and about $50,000 in keepsakes connected to Princess Grace of Monaco, the late actress Grace Kelly. The estate also includes a 43-acre property in Oyster Bay Cove that features an Italian Renaissance-style mansion and a water view.

In 2015, a different Nassau judge had awarded half of Cassini’s estate to his children, and the other half to Cassini’s widow.

But in 2017, Reilly found "ample evidence" Nestor Cassini had transferred “multiple estate assets into her own name," and had been “derelict and neglectful” when she had acted as the estate’s executor.

The judge then ordered Nestor Cassini to pay surcharges of more than $20 million to the estate, a figure estimated at around $50 million with interest.

During her incarceration, Nestor Cassini complained repeatedly to Reilly that she couldn’t do anything to meet terms of the court order because she was “locked in a cell.”

But the judge had said that the “keys” to freedom were in Nestor Cassini’s own hands.

Reilly said Friday she was granting Nestor Cassini’s release so the widow could search for and review other records she needed to produce in order to comply with the court order.

Belmont’s attorney, John Barnosky, declined to comment after court.

Nestor Cassini’s attorney, Steven Gaitman, said the widow had been working to comply with the judge’s order since hiring him about a month ago.

“I think she’s quite pleased,” he said of his client after court Friday, when law enforcement officials brought Nestor Cassini back to jail to process her release.