George, 8th Earl of Lucan stands to receive nothing from the will of his mother Victoria, pictured
When the Dowager Countess of Lucan’s body was discovered on Monday, after police battered down the door of her house, her son, George, was the first to confirm her ‘peaceful’ death.
I can reveal, however, that George, who became the 8th Earl of Lucan when his father was declared dead by the High Court last year, stands to receive nothing from the will of his mother Veronica.
Neither will there be a penny for her daughters, Frances and Camilla, according to one of her friends.
Her home was in one of London’s most expensive districts, Belgravia, and would be expected to fetch up to £5 million.
‘Veronica was clear that she would leave nothing to her children,’ says her confidante, who was in touch with her last week.
‘She never forgave George for choosing to live with her sister, Christina, when he was a teenager. She became even further estranged from him after she discovered he had entered her house to take some of her belongings while she was in hospital.’
The friend adds: ‘Veronica even put her solicitor’s name on forms when asked for her next of kin.’
The children continued to live with her in the years immediately after the disappearance of the 7th Earl in 1974. He fled after their children’s nanny, Sandra Rivett, was bludgeoned to death.
Veronica was hurt in the attack and he was named as the murderer.
In 1982, custody of all three was transferred to Christina and her husband, Bill Shand Kydd. Veronica did not contest this, and George and his sisters had no more contact with her.
In 2015, Lady Lucan told me: ‘I did not suffer a mental breakdown. Custody of my children was transferred to the Shand Kydds because my son declared in an affidavit he would find it much more congenial to live as part of the family of his aunt and uncle.
‘My son bartered the accidental privilege of his birth to live as part of another family.’
George says he and his sisters had to move to the Shand Kydds as they were under the direction of the Official Solicitor.
Cheeky! Kardashian pulls Yoga poseur Posh leg…
Victoria Beckham’s ‘leg-in-air’ yoga pose is a regular feature of her look-at-me social media account.
Now Kourtney Kardashian, has posted a cheeky tribute. The TV reality star, 38, copied the fashion designer’s ‘bend it like Beckham’ look by extending her leg in the air at a right angle, dressed in a metallic blue jumpsuit and pointed Balenciaga boots, and talking on her mobile phone.
Earlier Kardashian’s toyboy beau, Younes Bendjima, had taken her to see Paris St-Germain, the team David Beckham ended his career with.
Kourtney Kardashian, left, has posted a cheeky tribute to Victoria Beckham, right
She wrote next to the photo she shared online: ‘Victoria, I’ll call you later, I just got back from the football.’ Some of Victoria’s fans felt the picture was a ‘dig’ at the one-time WAG. But Posh, 43, sent herself up in a follow-up photo, lounging in a pink silk gown with a towel round her head, holding a monogrammed ‘VB’ phone.
‘Right back at you,’ she wrote.
John Suchet, the Classic FM host, has signed up for a trek to the lost city of Machu Picchu in the Peruvian Andes for charity.
‘I told my brothers [Poirot actor] David and [advertising executive]Peter over dinner I was going on the trek and they said “rather you than me”.
‘Two bottles of champagne later they had both signed up to join me,’ he says.
Let’s hope they all return safely without David having to use his little grey cells.
Did opera-loving assassin take potshot at Humphrys?
BBC Radio 4 is no stranger to cut-glass accents, but Today host John Humphrys reveals his mellifluous tones may be able to shatter a car windscreen.
The 74-year-old veteran Welsh broadcaster, who once sang with the London Welsh male voice choir, stops himself dozing off on long car journeys by singing opera.
Humphrys is no Pavarotti, however. When he tried to hit the highest note during a rendition of Nessun Dorma, his windscreen ‘shattered’, and his car careered off the road. ‘For a moment, I assumed an opera-loving assassin with sensitive ears and a high-powered air rifle had been on the bridge under which I had just driven,’ he says.
The BBC man later tested whether his voice can shatter glass on an episode of Newsnight.
He recalls the sonic experiment was unsuccessful, and ‘very painful’ for listeners.
Quite unlike his boorish interrogations on Today.