Why bitter Lady Lucan left nothing to children

WHEN the Dowager Countess of Lucan’s body was discovered on Monday, after police battered down the door of her house, her son, George, was the first to confirm her ‘peaceful’ death.

I can reveal, however, that George, who became the 8th Earl of Lucan when his father was declared dead by the High Court last year, stands to receive nothing from the will of his mother Veronica, below. Neither will there be a penny for her daughters, Frances and Camilla, according to one of her friends. Her home was in one of London’s most expensive districts, Belgravia, and would be expected to fetch up to £5 million. ‘Veronica was clear that she would leave nothing to her children,’ says her confidante, who was in touch with her last week. ‘She never forgave George for choosing to live with her sister, Christina, when he was a teenager. She

became even further estranged from him after she discovered he had entered her house to take some of her belongings while she was in hospital.’

The friend adds: ‘Veronica even put her solicitor’s name on forms when asked for her next of kin.’

The children continued to live with her in the years immediately after the disappearance of the 7th Earl in 1974. He fled after their children’s nanny, Sandra Rivett, was bludgeoned to death.

Veronica was hurt in the attack and he was named as the murderer.

In 1982, custody of all three was transferred to Christina and her husband, Bill Shand Kydd. Veronica did not contest this, and George and his sisters had no more contact with her.

In 2015, Lady Lucan told me: ‘I did not suffer a mental breakdown. Custody of my children was transferred to the Shand Kydds because my son declared in an affidavit he would find it much more congenial to live as part of the family of his aunt and uncle.

‘My son bartered the accidental privilege of his birth to live as part of another family.’

George says he and his sisters had to move to the Shand Kydds as they were under the direction of the Official Solicitor.