Family feud over multimillion-dollar will turns ugly

Two short, nasty sentences posted on social media in a moment of fury could end up costing one woman her entire family inheritance.

When Rupert Cooper died in October last year, he left $AU175,376 (£100,000) to his second son John and $AU87,688 (£50,000) each to his two daughters, Deirdre and Brigid.

The rest of the British farming magnate’s estate — including a 168 hectare farm and other properties — went to his eldest son, Oliver, who sold the farm and its historic family manor for a staggering $AU8.76 million (£5 million) earlier this year.

Needless to say, the siblings were left bitterly divided by Mr Cooper’s will and the way he decided to carve up his fortune.

But the family feud took a nasty turn when it spilt into the Instagram account of Oliver Cooper’s glamorous daughter Jade Holland Cooper, a successful fashion designer in her own right and founder of the Holland Cooper brand.

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Ms Holland Cooper, 31, shared a photo of a newspaper article profiling her and her business on social media in May — but her aunt Deirdre Goddard 72, couldn’t resist taking a swipe.

“Some of us know the truth about you, your family and money. Please don’t take us all for fools,” Ms Goddard wrote in a comment attached to her niece’s post.

The comment was soon deleted, and Ms Holland Cooper blocked her aunt online, preventing her from commenting further.

But those 19 words could now end up costing Ms Goddard her entire inheritance after Oliver Cooper, the executor of their father’s will, attached new conditions relating to the Instagram spat.

According to The Sunday Times, Mr Cooper sent both of his sisters a formal letter in response to the social media comments.

He wrote he was “shocked that Jade should be targeted in this way”, adding his daughter had “nothing to do with Dad’s will and has received nothing from his estate directly or indirectly”.

Mr Cooper said: “The fact that her (aunt) would do this was profoundly upsetting to her.”

He then explained he would hold back the inheritance owed to both sisters unless Ms Goddard posted a “detailed and unequivocal” apology to Jade on Instagram as well as posting “an unreserved apology” letter to her in the mail.

He said those conditions were “not negotiable” — but if they were met, he would double their payments to $AU175,376 (£100,000), the same amount pledged to their brother John.

But Ms Goddard has refused, telling the Sunday Times the offer was little more than a “bribe”.

She explained she had been angered by her niece “flaunting” her business at the same time her father had claimed there was no money to pay the amounts bequeathed to his siblings from his late father’s estate, which is why she made the original comments.

“Her Instagram site is a catalogue of self-adoration, vulgarity and flagrant excess for the whole world to see,” Ms Goddard said of her niece.

In a letter sent to her eldest brother, Ms Goddard wrote: “Any person would recognise the huge disparity between the millions you will inherit and have already received and the £50,000 ($AU87,688) that Brigid and I will receive.”

Meanwhile, Brigid Fairman has sided with her sister, claiming their brother was trying to “cause strife” between them.

Before the family farm was sold in September, Mr Cooper had claimed there was no money left over after paying off his father’s debts and his healthcare costs.

His lawyer Peter Crix told the Sunday Times “proper procedures" were being followed.

Ms Holland Cooper is the wife of the founder of the Superdry fashion label, Julian Dunkerton.

She married the 53-year-old multi-millionaire earlier this year in a lavish ceremony.

The Holland Cooper brand, founded in 2008, is famous for its tweed luxury clothing “inspired by the British countryside”.

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