Voice star’s £2m row over family for-tune
Bo Bruce’s fight with viscount brother over estate
SHE is the aristocratic singer who found fame as runner-up on the first series of TV talent show The Voice.
Now Bo Bruce is locked in a discordant row with her brother Thomas, Viscount Savernake, over the future of their late mother’s £2million home.
They are the children of David BrudenellBruce, Earl of Cardigan, and his first wife, cookery writer Rosamond Winkley, Countess of Cardigan, who died aged 63 in 2012.
She left her estate to her two children in equal shares, including Leigh Hill House, on the Savernake Estate, Wiltshire, which she received in her divorce from the earl in 2009.
But the High Court heard that the inheritance has still not been shared between them due to a row over £450,000 allegedly owed by Miss Bruce to her brother.
Miss Bruce, 36, is applying to have her brother removed as estate executor so that the house can be sold and she can get her money. She admits owing him cash but claims it is ‘significantly less’ than he says.
But her brother, 39, fighting her bid to oust him, says no sale can go ahead before the amount she owes is decided by a court.
Barrister Steve Ball, for Miss Bruce – known formally as Lady
‘Defendant is a wealthy man’
Catherine Brudenell-Bruce – claims it is not legitimate for her brother to refuse to discharge his duties as executor pending the resolution of the row.
Mr Ball added: ‘It is also not irrelevant that the claimant is in parlous financial circumstances, whereas the defendant is an extremely wealthy man.’
In a statement, Miss Bruce, who married her musician husband Henry Binns in 2016, said she doesn’t have to repay him until she gets her inheritance.
She said: ‘I admit that I borrowed money from him on the understanding that I would be able to repay it when the money from the house came to me...’
For the viscount, Harry Martin argued that removing him as executor is unnecessary, as he can buy her out of the house once the size of the debt has been quantified.
The judge, Deputy Master John Linwood, said that decisions on both issues would be made in early 2022.