The tragic death of Paul Walker on November 30th, 2013 was a shock to fans worldwide. Many teary eyed stared at the news in disbelief, how was it possible? The mood prior to the tragedy was was excitement and anticipation of the 7th series in the Fast And Furious franchise. Everyone was looking forward to Brian and Dom speeding again in the action-packed thriller; instead, Paul lay dead as a result of his last speed ride dying in a car crash driven at 100 MPH. The car a Porsche Carrera GT instantly burst into flames and the coroner’s report stated that he had died of trauma and thermal injury. Ironically though, Paul wasn’t even at the wheel but Roger Rodas, his financial adviser who was the driver. Rodas died instantly.
Post Paul Walker’s death, the internet was abuzz with articles on the heartthrob; there were incredible facts about Paul Walker that we didn’t know. His generosity and his great personality were highlighted in tabloids around the world. But!! Not many spoke about one beautiful aspect of Paul’s life and that was a girl named “Meadow Rain” and she is none other than Paul’s daughter. Here are 12 facts you never knew about Paul Walker’s daughter.
Although Paul’s daughter was named Meadow Rain Walker, Paul gave her the nickname “Bear”. The possible reason why Paul gave her the beautiful name of Meadow Rain could be his association with his love for nature. Walker himself has a major in marine biology and has even anchored a show for National Geographic called “Expedition Great White”.
Meadow’s nickname too obviously had to be something to do with nature and hence the name “Bear”. If there are personal elements attached to the name, it was of course information privileged only for the family.
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Meadow Rain was born on November 4th, 1998. Although she spent her childhood with her mother, she went to live with Paul in 2012. The friendship between Vin Diesel and Paul was so close that Paul Made Vin Diesel godfather to his daughter. The touching gesture was reciprocated during the birth of Vin Diesel’s first child his own daughter. This is how he described his feelings when he named her.
“As I’m cutting the umbilical cord, I’m thinking to myself it's all because Paul Walker told me to go into the delivery room and so once it came time to sign the name, I started writing "Paul" and then just added i-n-e.’’ That’s right!! Vin Diesel’s daughter is named Pauline after Paul. He also posted a photo on Twitter with Paul Walker’s face superimposed as if looking down on them. He captioned it “Always”
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Although Meadow was an unplanned baby, a fact which Paul doesn’t refute, he admitted he couldn’t be happier as he doted on Meadow. Meadow was born when Paul and Rebecca Soteros were dating in the late nineties. They split up after a year but Meadow wasn’t neglected as Paul fulfilled his responsibilities as a father. Although the couple separated, both gave meadow the importance she deserved as a daughter.
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Meadow moved to Sana Barbara to live full time with Paul Walker in 2012. Although there aren’t many facts about the custody battle, Rumors were ripe with the assumptions that Rebecca’s drinking problem went against her. Paul, of course, was never hesitant in admitting how he regarded Meadow and that she was his life. At the time of his death, he was still the sole custodian of Meadow who lived with him in Southern California at the time. Paul Walker’s daughter would also travel a lot with him on shoots and did all the planning for their vacations and fun together.
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Paul Walker was concerned for his daughter being subjected to Rebecca’s problems with alcohol. It was reported that just hours before his death on November 30th, 2013, Paul phoned his mother Cheryl and pleaded with her to retire from her nurse’s job to become Meadow’s full-time guardian. In fact, Meadow had lived with her grandmother a year before Paul’s death because of his shooting engagements. Meadow was only 15 when Paul died.
The custody battle between Cheryl Walker and Rebecca Soteros raged on for months till both came to an understanding. Meadow then went to live with her mother. The agreement was reached after it was alleged that Cheryl asked Rebecca to go into rehab.
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Meadow is an Instagram star with 1.4 million followers. However Post death of her father, she became inactive for a while after all she was only 15. Her favorite person father and friend had just died a tragic death and something like that is too traumatic for anyone let alone a 15-year-old to deal with. She returned back to Instagram after awhile and one can see the strong feelings she has for her father because several of her posts are emotional tributes to her wonderful dad.
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Not just Vin Diesel but Meadow is close to the entire cast & crew of the Fast and Furious franchise. Paul always referred to Vin Diesel as his brother and in turn Vin Diesel and the entire crew always acknowledged Meadow as family. Incidentally, it was Meadow’s Uncles and Paul’s brother Cody Walker and Caleb who substituted for Paul as body doubles to complete the ongoing film Fast And Furious 7.
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When Meadow started socializing again after Paul’s death, the first event she went to was Justin Bieber’s world premiere of his movie “Believe” that debuted in Los Angeles. It was Bieber who invited her and even made all the arrangements including transportation for her to get there. Given the contradictory events surrounding his behavior, that was something nice of Bieber to do and it shows he takes care of his friends.
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Paul Walker was famous for his generosity and you can read a great story about him here. Meadow is as passionate as Walker was regarding charity. On Paul Walker’s birthday, she even established the “Paul Walker Foundation” whose website reads as its opening statement “Our mission is simple: DO GOOD”. Meadow has also carried on Paul’s legacy in protecting the environment where she plans through her foundation to help conservationists and ocean leaders in their quest for the protection of the planets natural resources such as wildlife, nature and the oceans.
In an interview, Paul was once heard saying “My mother’s a nurse, my sister’s going to nursing school right now, and my friends have construction backgrounds. God willing, the next time there’s a natural disaster I’m going to be there with 11 or 14 people and a handful of doctors. And the next time, it’ll be 150 people with 30 to 35 doctors.” It seems he has installed the same philanthropic nature into his daughter too.
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Meadow loves ice skating and music. She had even posted a few pictures of herself skating on Instagram with a touch of humor with the tag line “After my first fall”. As mentioned earlier, she was friends with Justin Bieber and was exposed a lot to pop music. In 2015, she was seen attending the Coachella music festival that is held regularly in California. The three day event draws a huge fan following to the tune of at least 250,000 people and hosts popular artists like Snoop Dogg, Rihanna, Eminem, Sara La Roux, Social distortion and Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Through her photographs you can see she has grown into a beautiful young woman and her life on social media is centered on her love for her father whose presence is always visible in many of her posts.
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As if the custody battle wasn’t enough, it was Paul Walker’s $45 million fortune that also sparked off another issue with Rebecca Soteros claiming she should also be given a share of the money. His girlfriend of seven years, Jasmine Pilchard-Gosnell, also felt she should be given a part of the assets. Paul Walker had earlier appointed his father Paul sr as the executor of his will which was drawn up way back in 2001 which left his entire $25 million estate to Meadow.
According to sources “There’s no way Paul’s family will let Rebecca get her hands on all the money,” the source said. “Paul’s family thinks they should be the financial caretakers.” His parents were reported to have said that Meadow will get part of the money but at the time she was too young to handle such an amount.
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According to friend Vince kreuse, Paul was a dedicated father 'Paul was one of the best people I have ever known,' he added. 'He was as selfless a person as I have met. He loved being a father and it was very clear that his daughter was the most important thing in the world to him”.
Paul Walker’s daughter meant the world to him and their loving relationship wasn’t a secret either. Paul loved speaking about Meadow and how important she was to him in his interviews. In turn, Meadow rain Walker always remembers her dad as the good human being and loving father that he was. The image below truly sums up how she felt about her father.
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