The estranged mother of Australian singer Vanessa Amorosi claims her daughter hid the birth of her child from her after a row over her finances.
Amorosi’s mother Joyleen Robinson endured another painful day in the witness box at the Supreme Court of Victoria, as she detailed her devastation over the bitter row with her daughter.
On a day of turmoil, Amorosi’s lawyer tried to dismantle Ms Robinson’s evidence in a brutal cross-examination that ended in tears.
Amorosi, 42, filed a lawsuit in 2021 alleging “unconscionable behavior” by her mother.
Vanessa Amorosi arrived at the High Court in Melbourne last week
The legal dispute centers on two properties to which Amorosi claims her mother is not entitled.
One of those houses includes the Narre Warren North house, which Ms Robinson says was given to her by Amorosi at the height of her fame in 2001.
The second is Amorosi’s home in the US, which is owned by a family business that also owes Westpac bank $650,000, the court heard.
“I thought I owned it, but her name was still on the title because… I trusted her 100 percent, so I wasn’t too concerned about taking her name off the title,” Ms. Robinson said in court on Tuesday.
“We had an agreement and I kept that agreement.”
Mrs. Robinson said she never asked for any payment from her daughter for the thousands of dollars she claimed to have given her over the past two decades.
‘She is my daughter and I loved her. Like I said, I would do anything for my kids,” she said.
Amorosi, who flew to Australia from her home in Los Angeles to attend the trial, had become suspicious of her mother’s handling of her fortune in 2014 when she hired forensic accountants to investigate her mother’s handling of her wealth involved.
Joyleen Robinson (second right) claims Vanessa Amorosi was promised her dream home. On the right are Robinson’s daughter and Natasha, Vanessa’s sister, who has repeatedly accompanied mother to court
Joyleen Robinson and her daughter Natasha – a Vanessa look-alike – who has accompanied her mother to court on several occasions
The court heard that Amorosi had all but given up any relationship with her mother the following year when she was about to give birth to her son.
Mrs Robinson broke down in tears and said she was heartbroken when she heard her daughter was about to give birth.
‘I had heard from my stepdaughter that my daughter was having a child and that it was on the way… and I didn’t know anything about it. “I’ve never met my grandson and I learned his name from the newspaper and Vanessa and I were so close I was heartbroken,” Mrs Robinson said.
Mrs Robinson claimed to have provided thousands of dollars to her daughter over the years when her daughter fell on hard times, the court heard.
‘My daughter and I were like one person, I loved her, I thought she loved me no matter what she did. She was a good daughter,” she told the court.
“The agreement we had. She loved me very much. When I married my first husband, I was an abused wife. she always said she would make me a nice house and take care of me, but i love my children so much, your honor.
“I didn’t want to take that much money from my daughter, so we had an agreement that I thought she understood that if she needed the money, I would sell (my house), which would require working three jobs.”
Mrs Robinson said she believed her daughter knew she would pay her the cost of the 50-acre Narre Warren North estate in 2001 when she needed the money.
“I thought we were both on the same page: If she needed the money, I would sell the only real estate in my name… to help her, and that was our agreement between mother and daughter, and that’s what i did. I paid it without any drama. It doesn’t make any sense.’
Vanessa Amorosi made a big hit in the early 2000s with her singing at the Sydney Olympics
Vanessa Amorosi’s former studio is still located in the controversial house in Narre Warren North
But under heated cross-examination by Amorosi’s barrister Philip Solomon QC, Ms Robinson was accused of lying about such an agreement.
Mr Solomon criticized Amorosi’s mother and she was taken to parts of her evidence that she now admitted was wrong.
“Stop making speeches and answer my questions,” Mr. Solomon told her at one point.
‘Don’t add editorial comments… don’t be passive.’
Mrs Robinson claimed she never had a written agreement with her daughter regarding the property, repeating again and again that it was a ‘mother-subsidiary agreement’.
“I loved her unconditionally,” she told the court. ‘I still love her. That’s the heartbreaking part.’
The court heard that Amorosi earned just under $1 million in 2001 after appearing on screens at the 2000 Olympics.
But in late 2014 she was evicted from her home in the United States after apparently running out of money, a court heard.
Last week, Amorosi denied that she had ever given the property to her mother, who she said had always called it “her dream house.”
“There was never a conversation about me giving her a house as a gift. She had a house. We all lived in it… but I knew that Boundary Road was her dream house and it was 50 acres and it was the house that she loved and so we all moved there as a family and we had countless conversations over the years when “I bought things about reaching an agreement where we could do trades… but never this deal to give me $650,000 in trade 20 years later,” she said.
The civil trial continues.
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