The Anthony Bell and Kelly Landry split: explosive new claims about the truth behind the AVO
EXCLUSIVE: The businessman’s friends have told of her drinking before the incident, her last-minute trip to Hobart and his plans to fight for his daughters.
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EXCLUSIVE
ANTHONY Bell has told friends the incident that led his wife Kelly Landry to seek an apprehended violence order against him came after she had been drinking and accidentally “smacked” their toddler’s head into a door frame.
The Daily Telegraph can also reveal Landry hired Australia’s most highly regarded divorce barrister Grahame Richardson SC before dashing to Tasmania to publicly embrace Bell for winning the Sydney to Hobart.
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A friend of the couple yesterday said that in the hours before Bell allegedly pushed the former TV presenter on November 18, he saw her drinking cocktails and champagne at Rose Bay restaurant Catalina, then more champagne on a boat, then more at a friend’s home.
After returning to their $20 million Watsons Bay home the pair argued, during which she said she was going to take their two daughters and leave.
Sydney’s “accountant to the stars” has confided to his inner circle that he was standing in the front doorway when Landry — carrying their youngest daughter, Thea — attempted to push past him. Thea’s head “smacked” the door frame.
He then took Thea from Landry, which his friends say she considered an attack.
Yet the next day, other friends spent time with the couple and their daughters in the Southern Highlands where they had gone for a long weekend at a farm.
Bell and Landry also took friends on their superyacht to hear Crowded House perform outside the Opera House the following weekend.
The November 18 incident only came to light earlier this month when she sought interim AVO orders and Bell wrote to his accountancy firm’s clients saying that Landry had alleged he had pushed her and embarrassed her in front of friends after his Sydney-to-Hobart victory on December 28. Bell accepted modified AVO terms without admitting wrongdoing. His lawyer Chris Murphy told Waverley Local Court Bell he never wanted to see Landry again.
The Telegraph can also reveal:
* A trip Bell reportedly bought for Landry to a $1000-a-night Byron Bay “healing” retreat after the alleged attack was paid for before the incident;
* Her Instagram account has been edited to remove reference to her thanking him for the trip, which she had called an “early Christmas present”;
* Bell has returned to work at his accountancy firm, telling 150 employees “I will prove myself innocent”;
* He will fight her push for full custody of Thea, 2 and Charlize, 5.
The interim AVO included a standard condition that Bell must not be in the company of Landry for at least 12 hours after taking illicit drugs, forcing Bell to clarify in the letter to clients that he has never taken any drugs.
A friend of his last night said: “I’ve never known a person more anti-drugs than Anthony Bell. I am not going to stand by and let it be said that he’s a drug addict. It’s just not true.”
He has told friends he is willing to take a toxicology test to prove he did not take drugs after skippering supermaxi Perpetual Loyal to line honours. A witness to the victory celebrations said he did not see anything that could embarrass Landry. She did not buy a plane ticket to Hobart until after it was clear Bell would win the race in record time.
Calls to Landry were not returned.
Bell declined to comment. “I will not torture my kids,” he said.
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