Inside Allan Moffat’s heartbreaking family feud as motor racing legend battles dementia
The full, bitter extent of Allan Moffat’s family’s feud over his will has been revealed in court documents as the motor racing legend battles his own fight with dementia.
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The bitter and heartbreaking family battle over the will of Australian motor racing legend Allan Moffat has been revealed in court documents.
The 80-year-old, who is battling dementia, is in the middle of a heated tug of love between his estranged partner Susan McCure and his son Andrew and close friends.
Both sides claim in documents filed in the Supreme Court that the legendary driver has been held captive or isolated by the other. It has also been claimed he was encouraged to rewrite his will to exclude family members.
The court action was launched by fellow driver Larry Perkins, on behalf of Moffat as the administrator of his estate, against Ms McCure in August last year.
Ms McCure in an affidavit before the court claims after 38 years together Moffat was ‘stolen’ from her in June 2019. The couple had split in 2017 and briefly rekindled in 2019.
Moffat moved into a nursing home in July 2019.
“I did not wish to separate from Allan in November 2017 or at all and were it not for the circumstances principally manipulated by Andrew Moffat as I hereinafter depose to, I verily believe Allan and I would be together today living as man and wife,” Ms McCure stated.
Ms McCure said she believed friends of the racing great convinced him to leave and kept them apart over the following 17 months.
“I often became angry and resentful of Andrew and others. I was sometimes perhaps even irrational and began to drink to find solace,” Ms McCure stated in her affidavit.
“I had a number of discussions with Allan over the following months. It became more and more apparent to me that Allan was being kept away from me by other people with whom he was associating. This is why I describe Allan as having been taken from me.”
The pair briefly reconciled in April 2019 which is when Andrew Moffat claims Ms McCure took his father back and prevented other family and friends from visiting or contacting him.
Moffat returned to live with Andrew Moffat in June 2019 before moving into a nursing home a month later.
In his affidavit, Andrew Moffat accused Ms McCure of having a drinking problem and failing to take proper care of his father.
“I became increasingly concerned that Susan was shutting Allan out from his family and friends, including myself; that she was not bringing Allan to his regular medical appointments,” Andrew Moffat said in his affidavit.
“This increased my concerns about Susan’s excessive alcohol consumption and how that could affect your ability to care for Allan.”
Perkins, as the administrator of Moffat’s will and mate of almost 50 years, claimed in court documents that after trying and failing to contact his friend on the phone after Moffat moved back in with Ms McCure in 2019 he contrived to meet him outside his home one morning.
“He was delighted to see me,” Mr Perkins stated in court documents.
“He told me he thought that I and all his friends did not wish to see him. He became quite emotional when I told him we all wanted to see him but were being prevented by Susan from doing so.
“Since he has returned to live with Andrew on 20 June 2019, Allan has become happier and more outgoing again.”
The battle over Moffat’s estate became public last year after Mr Perkins launched legal action against Ms McCure to ensure Moffat’s will “reflects what the intentions of Allan George Moffat would be likely to be, or what his intentions might reasonably be expected to be, if he had testamentary capacity.”
Ms McCure said in court documents she had not influenced Moffat’s decisions regarding his current will which was drawn in 2016 and described herself as “reluctantly a defendant.”
Lawyers for both parties did not respond for comment.
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