BOB’S KIDS VS BLANCHE
LAWYER REVEALS DETAILS BEHIND THE BITTER FEUD FOR BOB’S FORTUNE
Former prime minister Bob Hawke passed away in May of this year, leaving behind an astonishing Labor legacy for everyday Australians. But it took only two months after his death for the family he left behind to become entangled in an ugly battle over his estate.
Bob’s second wife Blanche d’alpuget received the lion’s share of his vast, multi-million dollar fortune, while his three children Rosslyn, Susan and Stephen, and stepson Louis Pratt, received a one-off payment of $750,000 each. According to The New Daily, Hawke’s youngest daughter Rosslyn Dillon appointed lawyers to contest the division of his will. Rosslyn reportedly engaged family law firm Tiyce & Lawyers to fight the will, citing “inadequate family provisions”.
It is believed Rosslyn told Blanche of her intention to challenge the will in a ‘tense’ phone call in May.
If Rosslyn and Blanche do not reach a private agreement, it could reach the NSW Supreme Court. Leora Tius, Wills and Estates Associate solicitor at Sydney’s Atkinson Vinden Lawyers, told New Idea that Rosslyn has a strong chance in fighting the provision of her father’s will.
“This is a very common scenario where children are claiming against an estate where there is a step-parent,” Leora says. “In a study it was found that around three quarters of the claims were successful.
“Being successful in a family
provision application might mean the person making the claim receives a greater share of the estate than what they were left in the Will, but whether this amount is what they were seeking is another story.”
Leora says a “blended family” with a stepmother makes the case very complicated.
“There are many competing interests, especially when two spouses each have their own respective children. It can create more tension in the family as there’s no guarantee the second spouse to die will leave anything
“THEY DIDN’T WANT ME IN THE FAMILY – THEY PUT IT IN WRITING”
to the children of the first spouse to die,” she says. “Some people feel a very strong moral obligation to provide for [their children] and they might leave equal shares for the spouse and the children, or others will feel that their spouse is more deserving.”
The sum of $750,000 may seem like a hefty pay cheque to most – but the Hawke children were accustomed to a certain lifestyle thanks to their father’s prime ministership. This could mean the adult children can argue the $750,000 is simply not enough to support them.
“This will be taken into account, particularly if their lifestyle over the years was as a result of support from their father,” Leora adds.
“But really it will depend on how strongly the daughter in this case can show that, in fact, she deserves a greater share.”
Relations have long been sour between the Hawke children and their stepmother. Blanche was 14 years Bob’s junior when the pair met in 1970, later embarking on an affair that would stretch almost 20 years. Bob parted from his first wife of 38 years, Hazel, in 1994, marrying his biographer and lover only months later.
It was a blow to the family from which they never truly recovered.
Bob’s grandson David Dillon described it as an “earthquake” to ABC News.
“It was an earthquake within the family. They were the quintessential happy couple, as far as I was concerned,” he said.
In 2011, there were even reports of an “airport brawl” between Susan Pieters-hawke and Blanche. Susan later told ABC’S 7.30 that her stepmother had slapped her in the face.
“I approached her to say a friendly hello, but she slapped me hard three or four times, and yes, I was shaken,” she said.
Bob noted the rift in 2014. “The kids weren’t happy that I divorced [their mother] and married Blanche. They weren’t as nice to Blanche as they could and should have been,” he said.
Blanche added: “They didn’t want me as part of the family and they actually put that in writing.”
Their frosty relationship appeared to thaw out after Hazel’s death in 2013.
“Particularly since
I lost Mum, we have become extremely close,” Rosslyn said.
After Bob left parliament in 1992, he accumulated an impressive fortune, including a $15 million Northbridge home and a $3.63 million apartment, purchased solely in Blanche’s name.
Sources estimate his entire wealth sits around $20 million.
Bob died peacefully at home on May 16, 2019, at the age of 89.