The dirty laundry of one of Australia’s richest dynasties will be exposed in a series of explosive court cases after a vicious feud erupted between divorced billionaires Héloise Pratt and Alex Waislitz.
The former couple have started trading barbs in the Supreme Court of Victoria, with the legal action threatening to expose all their juicy romantic and financial secrets.
The sensational battle centers on control of the $1.3 billion stock investment empire led by Mr Waislitz and co-owned by Ms Pratt.
But the estranged lovers are now also embroiled in intense legal battles on multiple fronts.
And it comes in the middle of a nasty nude photo sextortion scandal involving one of their new lovers.
Ms. Pratt is the eldest daughter of the late billionaire cardboard king Richard Pratt, chairman of the philanthropic Pratt Foundation and, according to the 2024 Forbes Rich List, the nation’s 29th richest person with a personal fortune of $1.93 billion.
She is also the sister of Donald Trump confidante Anthony Pratt, who recently donated $15 million to the president-elect’s campaign earlier this year.
Ms. Pratt, 62, married Mr. Waislitz in 1994, with the businessman parlaying $1.15 million loaned to him by his father-in-law into a multibillion-dollar fund management company and a personal fortune of $1.48 billion.
Although the couple officially separated in 2015, they initially maintained amicable relations over joint ownership of Thorney Investments and their shared custody of their three children, Jake, Milly and Joseph.
They both moved on romantically after their split, with Ms. Pratt linked up with newly single rock star Jon Stevens, who had just broken up with fiancé Jodhi Meares.
Billionaire socialite Heloise Pratt is now dating rock star Jon Stevens
Billionaire businessman Alex Waislitz is engaged to singer Rebekah Behbahani
The former Noiseworks singer’s 18-month engagement to James Packer’s first wife ended in a torrid row at their mansion in Sydney’s eastern suburbs in February 2015.
Meares, now 53, had accused Stevens, 63, of common assault and domestic violence, and was served with a battery order, after the argument, with the charges effectively confirming the end of their relationship.
Police eventually dropped the charges, which Stevens described as “ridiculous,” two months later – but by then the singer had been booted from his new band, the Dead Daisies, and more than thirty shows were canceled as a result of the allegations.
Around the same time, Mr Waislitz was spotted in Ibiza with British nightclub singer Vanessa Von Tain, but despite calling the Melbourne investor her “lover” on social media during the trip, the romance quickly fizzled out.
Mr Waislitz, 66, has now found a new partner in the arms of 34-year-old singer and actress Rebekah Behbahani.
The couple moved in together in February 2019 and welcomed a daughter, Storm, later that year before briefly splitting.
They are now being sued by Ms Behbahani’s sister, former Real Housewives of Melbourne star Venus Behbahani, in the Supreme Court of Victoria.
The 40-year-old lawyer and mother of four claims her younger sibling promised to give her a mansion in Melbourne’s exclusive Toorak in return for helping her launch her pop career and caring for her and her daughter during her brief estrangement with Mr. Waislitz.
Heloise, along with brother Anthony, is the eldest child of the late cardboard king Richard Pratt
Jon Stevens was engaged to Jodhi Meares until their bitter split in 2015
Meares is the first wife of billionaire James Packer
Stevens rocks with his band The Dead Daisies
According to court documents, Venus Behbahani claims that Mr. Waislitz agreed to give Rebekah two mansions and $2.5 million as part of a separation agreement after they split in October 2019.
She claims her sister then agreed to give her one of the houses as part of a deed of gift and confidentiality agreement they drew up in December.
However, Mr Waislitz and Rebekah reconciled a few months later in February 2020, and their divorce agreement was never enforced.
Instead, they announced their engagement in November of that year.
Despite the couple’s reconciliation, Venus kept her sister’s promise to give her the Toorak mansion that still stood and launched legal action against them last year after taking a caveat on the property.
In their defense filed in the High Court, Rebekah claimed she was in a distressed state when she signed the agreement with her sister, while Mr Waislitz denies they have any obligation to give anything to Venus.
In a counterclaim, Mr. Waislitz accused his soon-to-be sister-in-law of living in the house with her family without permission since November 15, 2022, and sought an order to force her to leave the house and revoke the caveat she had placed on the property have it removed. .
That case will go to trial on May 27 and is expected to last 15 days.
In the meantime, Ms Pratt has also launched legal proceedings against her ex-husband, filing her own explosive claim in the Supreme Court of Victoria last month.
She has accused Mr Waislitz of “acting dishonestly” by paying himself and his charitable foundation $1.147 million without her knowledge or approval.
Sisters Venus Behbahani and Rebekah Behanhani fight over a mansion in Toorak
Venus Behbahani starred in season four of The Real Housewives of Melbourne
Ms. Pratt also accused him of withholding board documents and financial information from her relating to Thorney Investments, which Mr. Waislitz runs and co-owns, and their other associated companies.
The heiress initiated the action following a rift in their one-time friendly relationship after finalizing their divorce and spending much of the past two years trying to divide their financial interests through lawyers.
Mr Waislitz hit back at his ex-wife on Christmas Eve as he filed his defense at the High Court, angrily rejecting her allegations.
In it, he described her case against him as ‘shameful’ and insisted she had not interfered in their affairs and that her claims against him are in danger of being dropped.
Like Mr. Waislitz and his fiancée, Ms. Pratt is also fighting a separate legal battle with a sibling.
The socialite’s half-sister, Paula Hitchcock, won a minor legal battle in October in her separate battle to claim a share of the Pratt family’s vast fortune.
The 27-year-old love child of Ms. Pratt’s late father and his mistress Shari-Lea Hitchcock is suing her half-siblings, Ms. Pratt, her brother Anthony Pratt and sister Fiona Geminder, after they were removed from the Pratt Family Trust.
Ms Hitchcock has asked the NSW Supreme Court to annul a deed of estoppel that prevented her from claiming the inheritance as a Pratt child under the terms of the Trust.
She argued that she was always recognized and accepted as a full-fledged family member by both her late father and his wife Jeanne.
Paula Hitchcock is suing her half-siblings for a share of the Pratt family’s vast fortune
Mrs. Hitchcock is the love child of the late billionaire Richard Pratt and mistress Shari-Lea Hitchcock
Richard Pratt and his wife Jeanne both recognized Mrs. Hitchcock as his daughter
Jeanne Pratt with her three children, Anthony, Heloise and Fiona
She alleged that Mrs. Pratt assigned her a bedroom in the couple’s home, regularly invited her to attend the weekly family Shabbat and that the couple had listed her as their financial dependent in 2007.
Her half-siblings argued that Mrs. Hitchcock’s case should be dismissed because she was not a child of both of their parents, as required under the Trust, and insisted that their mother’s acceptance of Mrs. Hitchcock did not make her the child of Mrs. Pratt would “change.”
However, Judge Michael Meek rejected their argument and granted Ms Hitchcock time to change her claim that she meets the criteria of a “child” of the Pratt family.
“I reject the siblings’ contention that there is no rational basis for concluding that (Ms. Hitchcock’s) recognition by Mr. Pratt as a member of his family implies that she could be considered a ‘child’ of Ms. Pratt,” he decided.
“What seems relatively clear is that the definition of ‘child’ … is couched in broad terms, which may include a child who is not the biological child of either Mr. Pratt or Mrs. Pratt.”
Meanwhile, on yet another legal front, Rebekah Behbahani was forced to contact police earlier this year after a slew of “intimate images” of her were posted online by an anonymous social media account without her consent on June 20.
A second cache was uploaded by the account the next day before the profile disappeared, with Ms Behbahani telling police she was the victim of an ‘extortion attempt’.
There is no indication that members of the Pratt family, Ms. Behbahani’s sister or Mr. Waislitz were responsible for posting the images.
“I am deeply saddened by this malicious invasion of my privacy. No one deserves to be subjected to such abhorrent acts,” Ms. Behbahani said in a statement at the time.
‘This unlawful behavior is part of a long-running and escalating campaign which is now the subject of police investigation.
‘It’s been a living nightmare. We will not give in to the extortion. I trust that the perpetrators will face the full force of the law.”