Finally, Pixie Skase says she's sorry

PIXIE Skase says she feels "desperately sorry" for the victims of her husband's collapsed business empire.

TWO decades after fleeing to a life of luxury, leaving thousands of broke shareholders behind, Pixie Skase says she feels "desperately sorry" for the victims of her husband's collapsed business empire.

The widow of the fugitive businessman Christopher Skase has broken her silence about her grief for shareholders for the first time since returning to live in Toorak 18 months ago, saying she does not miss her husband.

But her claims that Mr Skase cried for the shareholders he left high and dry have been branded as nothing more than crocodile tears by those still fuming over their losses 21 years later.

Now living in a rented two-bedroom Toorak apartment - after collecting a $1 million life insurance payout after her husband's 2001 death - Ms Skase has told Australian Women's Weekly she feels sorry for those who were caught up in the $1.5 billion corporate debts owed by his Qintex company, as well as the $172 million worth of personal debts the Skases racked up.

"I feel desperately sorry for the shareholders, as did Christopher," she told the magazine.

"The only time I have ever seen him cry was when he was discussing the impact of the collapse on the shareholders with Robert Holmes A Court, who was a dear friend."

Ms Skase admitted her late husband made crucial mistakes in his management of the leisure empire, saying he trusted too many people and allowed problems to fester instead of acting to fix them.

But the widow's attempts to bare her soul after fleeing to Spain so her husband could avoid Australian justice were met with skepticism by Australian Shareholder Association spokeswoman Helen Dent yesterday.

"She may be serious, but it is hard to give any credence to that," she said.

"To catch Skase crying at the thought of all those shareholders that he discharged damage to? There is no way that shareholders would find that credible.

"I think he was aware of how hard he made it on people, but whether he cared is a different matter. He certainly gave every indication that he didn't care."

Australian Women's Weekly declined to disclose if Ms Skase had been paid for the interview, but Ms Dent said she and every other shareholder would find it extremely distasteful if she was profiting from her husband's transgression.

Brisbane man Bernie Wotherspoon was among 160 workers who lost $500,000 in entitlements when Lloyds Ships, an associate of Skase's Qintex, collapsed in 1989.

He was out of pocket by $9000 and some of his mates by up to $20,000.

"I'd like to see what sort of swish nightlife Pixie still lives. It's water under the bridge for me now and it wasn't her fault, but how much of the Skase artwork is still hanging on her walls?" Mr Wotherspoon said.s

Mr Skase's media and resort companies, headed by Qintex, collapsed in November 1989. The next year he and his wife fled to Spain and vowed never to return to Australia to face dozens of charges including fraud.

Although he fought a battle to avoid Australian justice based on his poor health, victims were furious at repeated reports of the Skases enjoying a luxury lifestyle in Majorca.

Now living with her dog Nevis and spending her days with friends, daughters and grandchildren, Ms Skase said she did not miss the five-day parties, lavishly appointed yachts or excess of her former high-flying life - nor does she miss Mr Skase.

"My life has moved on from my time with him, she says. [The] grief I felt after his death was all-consuming. But that grief sat on my shoulders like a block of cement and I had to let it go."