More parents favouring one child over another, multiple marriages and the rise in property prices have led to a huge increase in inheritance disputes. reports on the anguish these family feuds can cause

Anna Moore

Although it was more than a decade ago, Marianne can still recall the moment she learned the contents of her late mother’s will. ‘My brother sent me a copy in the post,’ she says. ‘Until then, it had never crossed my mind that our mother would do anything other than share her possessions equally between my brothers and me. But I couldn’t see my name mentioned in the will. I kept reading and rereading it. And then, when I realised that my mother had left everything to my brothers, it felt as though I’d been physically attacked. Time stood still. I couldn’t stand up; I couldn’t breathe. I was in shock. I’ve been in therapy on and off ever since.’

Marianne is the only child from her mother’s first marriage. Her father died when she was two, and her mother remarried and had two sons. ‘They were my brothers, and their dad was the only dad I’d known,’ she says. ‘I thought we were a solid unit, a normal family.’ Marianne’s stepfather died first, leaving everything to her mother who lived until her late 80s.

‘I remained close by and had been there for her – visiting, doing shopping, collecting medicines,’ says Marianne, who is divorced with no children. ‘In the will, it was as if I’d never existed. Mum’s house, her savings, her belongings all went to her sons. I looked back at holidays, Christmases, birthdays in a different way. All those years, had I never been loved or wanted? My brothers accepted the terms of the will, and made no effort