Funeral to bring warring Buttrose clan back together

The warring Buttrose clan of Vaucluse will be expected to lay down their swords after years of animosity when they celebrate the life of family matriarch Robyn “Elizabeth” Buttrose.

Elizabeth and Will Buttrose. Will is the late brother of Australian media identity Ita Buttrose. Picture: Supplied

The warring Buttrose clan of Vaucluse is expected to lay down their swords when they convene at a Sydney Catholic church on Tuesday to celebrate the life of family matriarch Robyn “Elizabeth” Buttrose, nee O’Brien.

Elizabeth, who died September 20, was the widow of respected economist and banker Will Buttrose and sister-in-law to Ita, media doyenne and former chair of the ABC.

Elizabeth, who was 78 when she died, was also mother of budding lawyer and reformed A-list coke dealer Richard, legal practice director Evie and scandal-plagued former Sydney socialite Lizzie.

Her grandson is Lizzie’s son Andrew Spira, the brawny self-made entrepreneur who, a court last year heard, concocted an elaborate plan to flee Australia and become a drug dealer in South-East Asia, where he planned to hijack a yacht and fund a militia.

That was before Spira was caught in possession of a fake passport in Darwin last year and remanded into custody.

Elizabeth Buttrose with daughter Lizzie while the matriarch was in care following a stroke. Picture: Instagram

He later pleaded guilty to a string of fraud and drug charges for which he was handed a $39,000 fine and put on an 18-month good-behaviour bond after a court heard he had suffered “deprivation and neglect” while living with his alcoholic mother and her partners. The experience, he alleged, tipped him into heavy drug use, which at its height saw him take 40 prescription sedatives a day as well as methamphetamine, cocaine and cannabis.

Spira’s drug abuse began, it was heard in court, when his mother introduced him to ice at age 14. She subsequently denied it.

Following Spira’s grandmother’s death, her prized family home, believed to be worth upwards of $12 million, is likely to become the focus of renewed attention as real estate agents descend ahead of its inevitable sale.

Ita Buttrose. Picture: AAP Image/Paul Miller

Andrew Spira. Picture: NewsWire/Jeremy Piper

Elizabeth was forced to vacate the home following a stroke in 2019.

Within months of her move to a care facility, her daughters began making plans to sell the property and divide the proceeds. This plan reportedly outraged their brother, who, promptly sought a caveat to prevent the sale.

It triggered the appointment of the NSW Trustee & Guardian a year later to manage the septuagenarian’s estate.

Richard Buttrose. Picture: Toby Zerna

Lizzie and Evie Buttrose.

By 2022, Richard and Evie, who had been given her mother’s power of attorney while her brother was in jail (it was later removed), were facing off in the Supreme Court with the NSWTG over Evie’s withdrawal of $700,000 from her mother’s account between 2017 and 2019 and a sum gifted to her brother.

The siblings later settled those proceedings.

That settlement, it’s believed, has helped repair the two siblings’ fractured relationship enabling them to collaborate on their mother’s forthcoming funeral.

With Lizzie expected to be now en route for the funeral from Port Douglas, word on the streets of Vaucluse last week was that she has been furiously busy, rallying old sympathisers and drinking chums to her side.

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Originally published as Funeral to bring warring Buttrose clan back together