What a family!
Days after row over Old Etonian who ‘abandoned pregnant lover’, his brother’s at war with parents over £5m country pile
A SCANDAL-HIT family are locked in a bitter legal feud over their ancestral mansion and its 3,000-acre grounds.
Former Grenadier Guard Peter Reeve, 71, and his wife Henrietta, 62, a lay canon at Lincoln Cathedral, had attempted to sell Leadenham House after divorcing several years ago.
But their eldest son William, 38, has taken them to court in an attempt to block the sale of the Lincolnshire estate which he argues is his rightful inheritance. The Old Etonian has run up vast legal costs battling his parents – claiming it is ‘worth it’ to protect the family heritage.
Lord Justice Baker told him yesterday at the High Court: ‘It’s a tragedy for your family, it’s certainly very sad indeed.’
It comes just days after the same family was mired in another controversy – when William’s brother James, 37, was accused of impregnating a former lover and then abandoning her.
Georgina David, 35, complained she was left relying on family handouts in her rented Chelsea flat because her polo-playing ex said he could not afford to help pay for his eight-month-old son.
After marrying in 1978, Mr and Mrs Reeve brought up their four children in the 20-bedroom grade II listed Leadenham House, built in 1790 and worth at least £5million. Opposite the main home is a £725,000 house, also grade II listed, where Mrs Reeve now lives. There are views of the countryside and the grounds also incorporate the family’s polo club, where tickets to see matches can cost £200.
Mr and Mrs Reeve divorced in 2011 and agreed to sell the estate two years later, splitting the proceeds 60/40 respectively.
However their eldest intervened, claiming ‘proprietary estoppel’ – meaning he believed he was given clear assurances he would acquire a right over the property – his inheritance. ‘It was built by the family, and I’ve always been the next person to take it all over and to safeguard it for the next generation,’ said Mr Reeve, who has been estate manager for 12 years.
‘I’ve devoted my life to this place, at some detriment to myself, on the basis of all the assurances and understandings since day one, pretty much since I was born.’
Despite losing his case last year, he was given grounds to appeal on ‘apparent bias’. He believes the previous judge gave unfair weighting to his mother’s evidence.
The start of yesterday’s appeal began in dramatic fashion. A few minutes into his opening words, Mr Reeve, who is representing himself, began faltering and almost fainted.
Mr Reeve said his father had agreed to sell the estate to save him from the ‘millstone’ it had become. However, he said his father now had ‘an awful lot of regret’ because the legal battle had shown him how much the estate really meant to his son.
Mr Reeve told the Daily Mail: ‘I’m not going to stop fighting – because this is the most important thing to me.’
He admitted that the legal costs had a ‘tendency to run away’ but added: ‘What I’m trying to protect is more important and worth it. That’s the bottom line.’
Old Etonian who runs a polo club, his canon mother … and how he ‘abandoned his pregnant lover’