£ 15m legacy is a betrayal says tycoon’s angry widow
Daily Express Monday July 27 2015 THE widow of business tycoon and legendary gambler “Black Jack” Dellal has said she felt “betrayed” after being left with “only” £ 15million of her husband’s £ 400million fortune.
Former beauty queen Ruanne Dellal was given her husband’s entire estate after his death but was shocked to learn it amounted to just £ 15.4million.
Her multi- million- pound lawsuit against six of Dellal’s children in a bid to secure what she feels is rightfully hers has torn apart one of Britain’s most glamorous dynasties.
In her first interview since launching legal action, Ruanne claimed her husband – 30 years her senior – duped her by secretly giving away more than £ 300million to family members through a series of trusts.
Speaking in the September edition of Tatler, the 62- year- old former Miss South Africa insisted that she was not a “gold- digger” but “the victim of a gross injustice”.
Her case is against Dellal’s children from previous relationships – Guy, Lorraine, Diane, Gaby ( from his first marriage to Zehava Helmer), Jasmine and Rowan ( by a long- term relationship with Katya Douglas) – as well as the tycoon’s 96- year- old sister, Violet, and a grandson, Alex.
Model Alice Dellal, Guy’s daughter and Dellal’s granddaughter, is also embroiled in the family dispute.
Ruanne, the mother of two children – Zack and Catherine – with her husband said she had been a devoted wife, despite considering a divorce to secure a large settlement before his death. “I nursed Jack,” she said. “The children and I were with him right to the end. I adored him, I trusted him, I was loyal and faithful for 25 years and I did not deserve to be treated the way I have been treated.”
Ruanne said she was advised by her solicitor, Dellal’s psychiatrist and doctors to divorce him. “I had devoted 20 years of my life to him and even though I pleaded for security after his death, he simply would not give it to me,” the widow said. “Now I know he betrayed me in spite of holding my hand and saying, ‘ Darling, trust me. You will have more than any of them’.”
A lawyer involved in the proceedings described it as “one of the most bad- tempered cases I’ve ever been involved in”.
Weak
Ruanne remains in the couple’s lavish Nash terrace overlooking Regent’s Park, worth an estimated £ 8.5million, and owns two properties worth close to a combined £ 4million.
She recently sold for £ 3.5million their 10- bedroom home, Manor Farm, in Brown Candover, Hants, where Dellal died in 2012 aged 89.
The Dellal family attempted to have Ruanne’s case thrown out when it first came to court in April, arguing that it was “extremely weak” as the widow was well provided for.
The couple met at Aspinall’s casino in the 1980s and lived together for a decade before marrying in 1997.
Ruanne said she regularly saw her husband, an avid roulette player, “lose a million pounds in a night”.