Public Snubs, Lies, Jealousy...And An $18M Inheritance!

The unseemly war between the women in Bob Hawke’s life exposes a bitter 25-year falling-out

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Glamorous author Blanche d’Alpuget will always be the “other woman” to the three children former prime minister Bob Hawke shared with his first wife Hazel Hawke.

They were estranged from their dad for years after he walked out of their 39-year marriage in 1995 to start a new life with Blanche.

She later revealed she had been Bob’s “other woman” or mistress for 19 years before he even divorced Hazel after she was swept off her feet when she interviewed Bob for a biography she was writing in 1976.

With more details emerging last week about the ugly court battle between Bob’s former heroin-addicted daughter Rosslyn Dillon, 58, and Blanche, 75, over his $18 million estate, it became clear this feud between his mistress and his children – and grandchildren – runs very deep.

When family and friends should have been marking the late Labor leader’s 90th birthday last week, Rosslyn went public with her claim she was raped by one of Bob’s parliamentary mates in the 1980s and urged by her dad not to report the crime at the time to protect his prime ministerial ambitions.