Hallyday’s children to contest will that left them nothing
French rocker whose death united nation in grief splits his family by leaving estate to 42-year-old fourth wife
A BITTER public feud erupted yesterday among the family of the late French rock star Johnny Hallyday after two of his children challenged his will, which leaves his entire reported €100million (£90million) estate to his fourth wife.
More than a million people gathered to mourn the death of the crooner they called “the French Elvis” at his funeral last month in which Emmanuel Macron, the president, delivered a eulogy that moved many to tears across the country.
But weeks after the huge show of national unity, Hallyday is at the heart of an ugly dispute after his 34-year-old daughter, the actress Laura Smet, announced she was challenging the will because it failed to leave her anything.
“Not a guitar, not a motorbike, and not even the signed sleeve of the song Laura which is dedicated to her”, wrote her lawyers in a statement to the press.
Instead, to her “stupefaction and pain”, all of the rock star’s wealth and the rights to the 110million records he sold were left to Laeticia, his last wife, a 42-year-old former model. The inheritance will eventually go to Jade and Joy, the daughters they adopted in Vietnam.
Ms Smet’s lawyers said her halfbrother David Hallyday was also contesting the “rewritten” will, which was drawn up in California, where Hallyday spent much of his later years.
They argue that this is contrary to French law, which would automatically have given three quarters of the inheritance to his four children, with at least part of the remainder going to his wife.
Ms Smet wrote a heart-rending letter to her late father, who died aged 74.
“It is still killing me not to have been able to say goodbye to you, Papa – do you know that at least?” she wrote. “So many questions without answers. All those times when we had to hide to see and call each other,” she added.
Yet “I found out a couple of days ago that you have rewritten your will to totally disinherit David and me,” she went on. “It was only a few weeks ago that we were having a meal together and you said to me, ‘So when are you going to have a child?’ But what can I tell that child about you, someone whom I have admired so much?”
Ms Smet, who tried to commit suicide when her father nearly died in 2010, said he visited her dreams every night. “You are handsome, with no tattoos, you are finally free...”
“I would have preferred if all this had stayed within the family,” Ms Smet wrote, “but unfortunately, in our family this is how it is.”
“I am proud to be your daughter. I love you Papa,” she added.
Cracks had already emerged in the family after Hallyday’s death. His two biological children refused to walk next to Laeticia and
‘I found out a couple of days ago that you have rewritten your will to ... disinherit David and me’
her two daughters at the funeral in Paris’s la Madeleine church, sat apart and took a separate plane to fly to his burial in Saint-barthélémy in the French Caribbean. David’s mother, the singer Sylvie Vartan, criticised the choice of burial site, saying she was “sad” the singer was “so far from us who loved him so much”.
According to French media, Hallyday drew up and signed four wills.
Two recent legal precedents ruled that French law had no reason to trump Californian law regarding the inheritance of two famous French composers who had lived in the US for decades.
In a statement, Laeticia Hallyday denounced “the media outburst regarding the inheritance of her husband”, but said she remained “calm” and determined to “ensure the work and memory of her husband is respected”.