BLANCHE’S NEW HEARTACHE
The widow of former Australian prime minister Bob Hawke reveals a shock cancer diagnosis amid a bitter court battle over his millions
Just weeks before she marks the first anniversary of Bob Hawke’s death, his second wife, Blanche d’Alpuget, has confirmed she has started chemotherapy to treat breast cancer after finding a lump in her left breast.
“Yes, it’s true. I’m being treated at the Kinghorn Cancer Centre [in Sydney],” she said.
The 76-year-old widow, who met Bob at a party in 1970, before becoming lovers six years later, said she was shocked to discover a lump in her left breast by accident “about six or seven weeks ago”. She has warned others to undergo regular check-ups because cancer has no age limit. “You never think you’re going to get cancer – not at my age, but it happens,” she said.
On top of the cancer diagnosis, Blanche, 76, is also in the throes of a bitter court battle with her stepdaughter Rosslyn Dillon over Bob’s $18 million estate. Ros, 59, is claiming $4.2 million from her father’s fortune, saying the $750,000 she received in Bob’s will – along with her siblings Sue Pieters-Hawke and Stephen Hawke and their stepbrother Louis Pratt – isn’t enough.
The mother-of-two is claiming the money will help her secure a $2.5 million home in Sydney’s Eastern suburbs. She also wants to spend $30,000 on a new set of teeth and $4000 on towels.
The case is in private mediation, and listed to go before NSW Supreme Court on May 7 – just days before the first anniversary of Bob’s death. He died age 89, on May 16 last year.
Blanche says she believes the public dispute over Bob’s will is the result of heartache over his death.
“I think it’s just grief. Then probably her friends talked her into it and it’s now in the hands of lawyers,” she tells.
If Blanche isn’t well enough to attend court to fight Ros, she has revealed she will call upon Ros’s sister Sue to act as her stand in.
Blanche, who married Bob in 1995, after he officially divorced his first wife Hazel Hawke earlier that year, said he was her “soulmate” in an interview before his death, admitting she would move forward “with great difficulty” if she lost him.