Hardee's Founder Lost Control Of His Restaurants Overnight — All Thanks To A Bet (Allegedly)

Fast food has its fair share of scandals, falsehoods, and outright tall tales. Some of these fast food controversies got so big that brands had to deny them: Burger King used horse meat in its Whoppers, Subway's tuna wasn't actually tuna, and so on. Most of these proved to be urban myths or hearsay, but one fast food legend continues to raise eyebrows. That concerns how restaurant mogul Wilbur Hardee lost ownership of his namesake fast food  chain. Hardee himself claimed that in 1963, he engaged in a round of drinks and poker with his business partners Jim Gardner and Leonard Rawls after their company went public. He bet his stock and lost, which gave Gardner and Rawls a majority stake in Hardee's. 

However, the poker game story isn't the only one Hardee told about how he lost control of his company. In a self-published book issued eight years before his death in 2008, he claimed that Jim Gardner and Leonard Rawls orchestrated his departure by making him sign some documents while he was under the influence of alcohol. It was only after the two started selling franchises without his consent that Hardee realized what had happened. "I was stupid ... You know how it is — you make mistakes," he told author and journalist Jerry Bledsoe (via North Carolina magazine Our State).

Hardee's daughter, Ann Hardee Riggs, told NBC News that the loss of the franchise was a blow to her father: "He considered Hardee's his little child." Allegedly, after his partners' deception, he decided to sell his remaining stake. "He was the type of man that did not like to be controlled, so he just turned it completely over to them and walked out," explained Riggs. Hardee would go on to launch 85 other restaurants prior to his passing — some were more profitable than others, but none approached Hardee's level of success.

In his Our State feature, Jerry Bledsoe wrote that when he met Wilbur Hardee in 1984, he mentioned neither of the long-running claims about his departure from the Hardee's chain. He instead stated that the company's corporate structure, in which Hardee, Jim Gardner,  and Leonard Rawls had equal standing, allowed him to be outvoted by his partners on business decisions. Tired of the constant battles, he sold his stake for $20,000, but Bledsoe claimed that other sources said he received $37,000 from the deal. 

After Wilber's exit, the brand expanded nationally, though Gardner eventually left to pursue politics, leaving Rawls at the helm of the growing empire. At present, Hardee's remains a recognizable restaurant brand, albeit not among the most popular fast-food chains in America based on sales. It now operates under CKE Restaurants Holdings, alongside its sister company, Carl's Jr. The two brands share a similar smiling star logo, often prompting confusion on why Hardee's and Carl's Jr have different names.