PUBLIC SNUBS, LIES JEALOUSY,,, AND AN $ 18M INHERITANCE
The unseemly war between the women in Bob Hawke’s life exposes a bitter 25-year falling-out
Glamorous author Blanche d’alpuget will always be the “other woman” to the three children former prime minister Bob Hawke shared with his first wife Hazel Hawke.
They were estranged from their dad for years after he walked out of their 39-year marriage in 1995 to start a new life with Blanche. She later revealed she had been Bob’s “other woman” or mistress for 19 years before he even divorced Hazel, after she was swept off her feet when she interviewed Bob for a biography she was writing in 1976. With more details emerging last week about the ugly court battle between Bob’s former heroin-addicted daughter Rosslyn Dillon, 58, and Blanche, 75, over his $18 million estate, it became clear this feud between his mistress and his children – and grandchildren – runs very deep.
When family and friends should have been marking the late Labor leader’s 90th birthday last week, Rosslyn went public with her claim she was raped by one of Bob’s parliamentary mates in the 1980s and urged by her dad not to report the crime at the time to protect his prime ministerial ambitions.
The shocking claim came just a day after texts between Rosslyn’s son Paul and Blanche revealed his distress over the author’s decision to auction Bob’s belongings just three months after his death in May – which netted the widow $671,630.
BIZARRE EXCHANGE
“Blanch are you kidding with this auction? Selling all the Harry Bilsons? No thought to ask family to take furniture or anything?!! Don’t you have a limit?” he wrote. “Bob said I could have the carousel so I’m just surprised you’re selling it.”
Bob’s grandson, who also bizarrely referenced “false information” relating to “the circumstances in which Bob died” during the exchange of texts, was referring to a Harry Bilson painting, Fairground Carousel, which sold for $7800 at the auction.
The not-so-secret feud between Blanche and Bob’s children first spilled over in public in 2011
when police were called to the Qantas Chairman’s Lounge at Brisbane Airport after a furious Blanche slapped eldest daughter Sue Pieters-hawke “hard three or four times”.
Blanche’s fury was sparked by an article Sue wrote in The Age in July 2010, to correct a perception that her much-loved mum was a “dowdy doormat” who only stayed with Bob in order to become First Lady.
‘They weren’t as nice to Blanche as they could have been’
Blanche, who penned two biographies about Bob, felt it was a personal attack on her integrity as a writer, and the pair remained frosty for years, with the former PM confirming the feud in 2014.
“The kids weren’t happy about the fact that I divorced and married Blanche. And they weren’t as nice to Blanche as they could and should have been,” he told Australian Story. Blanche was more direct. “They didn’t want me as part of the family and they actually put that in writing,” she said.
Sue, 62, who like Ros and brother Stephen was left $750,000 in her dad’s will, appears to have made her peace with Blanche long ago, even praising her as a “wonderful stepmother” after Hazel’s death in 2013. She is not joining her sister in contesting the will.
The thawing of relations between Sue and Blanche was evident at Bob’s memorial in June when Blanche thanked Sue but snubbed Ros and Stephen, who is also not contesting the will.
“I’m grateful for what I received,” Sue told ABC’S 7.30 after Ros launched her legal bid to contest Bob’s will in July, asking for a $4 million slice of his fortune to buy a house in Sydney and funds for dental work.