Lady K, 105, snubs son by selling family pile for £2m
During her social heyday, she was the wife of Britain’s wartime ambassadoror to Cairo. At her r East Sussex home, Haremere Hall, she entertained the likes of Winston Churchill, Charles de gaulle and King Farouk of Egypt.
But the Dowager Ladyy Killearn, grandmother to o supermodel Liberty ross, has finally managed to sell her country untry pile after one of the most bitter family disputes of modern times.
For Jackie, who celebrated her 105th birthday in January, has spent the past five years at war with her son, the current Lord Killearn, and grandson, the Hon Miles Lampson, over th the fate of the 300-year- old Jaco Jacobean house, which is held in a family trust. i in order to keep her in the st style to which she was a accustomed, Jackie first attempted to sell privately the 100-acre property in 2 2011 for a knock-down price o of £1.65 million. Fo ll o wi n g her so n’ s in intervention, a High Court jud judge blocked the sale, agreeing that the property was woe-full woefully undervalued. But with the help of flamboyant married property agent robert Hay (pictured with Lady Killearn) — who, to the dismay of her family, also has Jackie’s power of attorney — she has
managed to sell Haremere Hall (above) on the open market for just over £2 million. The buyer is said to be a friend of Hay’s called William Seabrook, an Essex-based fruit farmer.
‘Contracts have been exchanged,’ chirps Hay. ‘Lady Killearn has been there a lot in the past three months, but has come to London to do the Season and has visited the Chelsea Flower Show. In any case, she will now have the right to live there for the duration of her life.’
It is thought that Lady Killearn’s son and grandson would have preferred the house to remain in the family, despite the extensive renovations that are required.
While her son declines to comment, Lady K is no stranger to unseemly disputes. In 2008, former butler Paolo Sclarandis took her to an employment tribunal, claiming unfair dismissal.
Mr Sclarandis, who worked for Lady Killearn at her other home in London’s Harley Street, said she lived amid squalor and behaved like a despot, calling him a ‘selfish prat’, a ‘toad’ and a ‘monster’, and hurling walking sticks at him during his 67-hour working week.