Mining billionaire’s 'love child' daughter has her $25 million inheritance slashed
The Perth daughter of a late billionaire mining heir has had her inheritance slashed by almost $20 million.
Olivia Mead's older half-sisters each received $400 million when their father died, but on Wednesday the Court of Appeal ruled the 22-year-old could make do with $6.142 million.
Ms Mead is the "love child" of billionaire mining heir Michael Wright, whose estate has been described as colossal.
In 2015, she contested her father's will, claiming the $3 million he left her wasn't enough.
"For a long time, I thought that maybe he didn't love me," she told Sunday Night in 2015.
She said she needed money for a $2.5m home, a $1.6m piano and a diamond-encrusted guitar.
She won and was awarded $25 million, but the executor of her father's estate has won an appeal against the decision.
The Court of Appeal ruled the amount awarded to Ms Mead had been based on flawed and irrelevant findings and that too much emphasis had been placed on the size of the estate.
The court said $6 million would instead "constitute adequate provision for the respondent's (Ms Mead's) proper maintenance."
It would allow her to buy a $1.5 million house in Perth and provide her with $100,000 a year for life.
Ms Mead would not comment on the verdict.
