What did Linda Drysdale do to upset her father?

Question

During Knives Out, we learn that

Harlan cut his family out of his will, and left his entire fortune to his nurse, Marta.

His motivation for this, with regards to his family members, can be explained:

His son, Walt seems unsuited for running his publishing company, and constantly pushes for movie rights, against Harlan's wishes.

His other son, Neil is deceased, but presumably the inheritance would have gone to his wife. However, we discover that Neil's widow, Joni, was cheating him out of money for her daughter's education

If we're counting in-laws, his son-in-law, Richard, who is cheating on his daughter, Linda.

However, for Linda he still seemed to care for her based on what we see in the movie with him leaving her a letter telling her about Richard's infidelity and the lack of any conflict shown. So why

did he cut her out of his will?

Answer 1

I agree that Linda is the least worse

person who boasts about being totally self-made while neglecting to mention the million-dollar loan her daddy gave her to get the business started. She’s ruthless and has a dirtbag husband and a cretin for a son, but by Thrombey standards, she’s not half bad

But still, she wasn't considered a good person or even a good business woman in her father’s eyes.

Also she wasn't short on money, so she can continue without getting an additional fortune

Although Linda won't inherit any of Harlan's money, she still has income from her own business

You can also argue that he didn't want the money for Linda to effectively be used by her husband.

Answer 2

Linda, with her husband's fidelity issues, was certain to be going through a divorce soon. As such, her husband would lay claim to half her inheritance. I don't think Harlan disliked her, I think he just didn't want any of his children to get the inheritance, and there were certainly reasons to exclude every one of them. Linda, to her credit, didn't need the inheritance, she had already built a real estate empire which started with a loan from Harlan, so it's easy to say his conscience was clear when it came to her share.

Answer 3

I'm not sure. Linda seemed to be the apple of Harlan's eye. She was the only accomplished Thrombey who did not need Harlan's help financially. I think he left her out of his will because he didn't like Richard or the fact that he was cheating on her. She was the only Thrombey who genuinely loved and cared for Harlan as opposed to what he could do for her. However, her pride was hurt upon learning that Harlan left everything to Marta so the knives came out as a result, even for Linda. She was a good person overall.