Australia – from www.kidsolo.com – A former Penthouse Pet of the Month has a made claim for a portion of the fortune of late cardboard king Richard Pratt.
A mother of two from Sydney’s eastern suburbs, Madison Ashton, made a claim against the Pratt estate in the NSW Supreme Court last Monday.
The legal challenge comes just weeks after Pratt’s former Sydney mistress, Shari-Lea Hitchcock, and the couple’s daughter, Paula, went to court to contest the will in a bid to gain access to a larger slice of the Pratt empire.
Mr Pratt, chairman of Visy, was one of Australia’s richest men.
12-year-old Paula inherited more than $20 million in shares from her father in his will.
Pratt’s widow Jeanne is listed as the executor of his estate.
Both Ms Ashton, 35, and her lawyer refused to comment on the exact contents of the statement of claim.
Outside of her modelling career and the adult entertainment industry, Ms Ashton is listed on the Australian Security and Investment Commission register as the director of several consultancy companies.
from www.smh.com.au – A NEW combatant in the form of a mystery brunette has emerged in the increasingly crowded battle over the late billionaire Richard Pratt’s fortune.
A Sydney woman named Madison Ashton, believed to be a model who also works in the adult entertainment industry, has made a claim against the Pratt estate in the NSW Supreme Court’s Equity Division under Mercantile Law, Partnership Disputes.
Details of the claim will not be known until Friday when the lawyer representing the Pratt estate, Leon Zwier of Arnold Bloch Leibler in Melbourne, is due to file a defence with the court.
However, last night Channel Nine’s A Current Affair reported Ms Ashton was ”well known” to both Pratt and his former mistress and mother of his youngest daughter Paula, Shari-Lea Hitchcock.
ACA reported claims Pratt had convinced Ms Ashton to quit the adult entertainment industry and had struck up a ”financial arrangement”, detailed in an email, in which Pratt was allegedly supporting her.
The ACA host, Tracy Grimshaw, told viewers the program had ”withheld some of the more sordid details out of respect for the Pratt family”.
Ms Ashton’s lawyer, Fred David, did not return the Herald’s call yesterday.
Ms Hitchcock, who with her daughter is already engaged in a legal claim for a greater slice of the Pratt estate, told the Herald she was unaware of Ms Ashton or her claim.
According to the documents filed in Ms Hitchcock and her daughter’s civil action against the executor of the estate, Pratt’s widow, Jeanne, 12-year-old Paula ”is a person to whom the deceased owed a responsibility” and ”claims to have been left without adequate provision for her proper maintenance and support and claims such provision as the court thinks fit should be made for her out of the estate of the deceased”.
The Herald has reported Pratt left Paula $22.8 million, which she will receive at the age of 21.
This is in addition to $5.7 million in shares controlled by a trust, a $5 million Watsons Bay home and a south coast farm.
Hitchcock’s lawyers initially launched a will challenge in the NSW Supreme Court, but given that probate was lodged in Victoria, the battle has moved to Melbourne.