Earl’s ‘rebel’ daughter, 56, loses fight for share of £1m

AN EARL’S rebel daughter who ‘hated’ her family’s aristocratic lifestyle lost a claim to a share of his £1.3million fortune after a judge said it was her fault she ended up in a council house.

Lady Tara Wellesley, 56, railed against her family’s blueblooded values and did not see her father, the seventh Earl Cowley, for 26 years before his death aged 81 in 2016.

But after he left her £20,000 in his will, Lady Tara, of Gospel Oak, north London, went to court for a bigger payout to buy her council house and begin a career in the art world.

Dismissing her claim, Judge John Linwood told the High Court it was her fault that she and her father were estranged. He highlighted her bohemian ‘drink and drug’ lifestyle.

Her father left the bulk of his estate to her brother, the eighth earl Graham Wellesley, an income for his widow, Dowager Countess Carola, and split the rest of the inheritance between Lady Tara’s four younger step-sisters.