The vast estate of a former Sydney beauty queen, including her $12 million northern beaches home, has been examined in a messy court feud over the validity of a will made days before her death.
Gail Margaret Thelen, who rose to prominence as a teen representing Australia at the 1974 Miss World pageant in London, signed a new will while gravely ill in hospital on April 20, 2021. She died a week later, aged 65.
A multimillion-dollar Clontarf home owned by the late Gail Thelen, a former Sydney beauty queen, was at the centre of an inheritance dispute.Credit: Jamie Brown, Nearmap
The NSW Supreme Court was required to consider her legal capacity to make that will, which would have benefited her partner Steven Rundle Bone by giving him a right to live for life at the Clontarf home, in addition to at least $1 million contemplated under an earlier will. The court challenge was brought by her brother, Paul Petith.
In a decision this month, Justice Ian Pike said Bone “appears to have been the driving force behind Gail changing her will” and stood to “benefit most”.
At the apex of her fame, Thelen, then known by her maiden name of Petith, appeared on the cover of Cleo magazine in December 1974 with her signature Farrah Fawcett-style flick. Thelen later worked for a brief stint as a police officer, following her father and brother into the force.
She met Bone, an American lawyer, in her late 50s while on a cruise from Barcelona to Singapore in November 2014. Her second husband, Werner Thelen, a former general manager of Visa Australia, had died in September.
She wed Werner in the late 1970s after a brief first marriage, and the pair had “accumulated considerable wealth”, the judge said.
When Thelen met Bone he “was working on the cruise providing estate planning and wealth management courses to passengers”, Pike said, and they “quickly formed a romantic relationship”.
“Mr Bone extended his time on the cruise, moving into Gail’s cabin to spend the remainder of the cruise with her after he was scheduled to leave the cruise.
“Gail and Mr Bone’s relationship lasted for a little over six years. It was no doubt a loving and caring one which included each caring for the other.”
Gail Petith and her father Jim, a senior superintendent, at her police passing out parade in Redfern in September 1980.Credit: Keith Edward Byron
At the time of Thelen’s death, Bone had been living with her in Sydney for about two years due to COVID lockdowns.
In a 2019 will, Thelen left Bone $1 million and a one-third interest in a multimillion-dollar trust distributing income to him and two other beneficiaries, including her brother, every quarter for 20 years or until Bone’s death, whichever was longer.
But under the 2021 will, Bone, now 74, would also have received “a right to live for his life at the Clontarf property or, in effect, at an alternative home using so much of the sale price of the Clontarf property, or the rent from it, to buy/rent the alternative home”, Pike said.
“It seems to be clear that the market value of the Clontarf property is in the order of $12 million.”
Pike examined a range of circumstances, including Thelen’s ill-health at the time she made the later will and “issues with her cognition as a result of a number of falls consequent upon long-term alcohol abuse”. He said Thelen’s mental health and cognition “declined significantly” between 2019 and 2021.
Her causes of death were aspiration pneumonia, ovarian cancer, for which she had been receiving chemotherapy, and long-term severe alcohol abuse.
Ultimately, Pike concluded he was “not affirmatively satisfied that Gail had capacity at the time of making the 2021 will or knew and approved the contents”.
Gail Petith, then 18, pictured in The Sun in 1974.Credit: Fairfax Media
However, he was “not satisfied that there was any undue influence exerted by Mr Bone” in relation to the will.
Pike said the 2019 will should apply, and there was “no reason” why the Clontarf property shouldn’t be sold. Assuming it was sold and the proceeds invested, the value of the trust from which Bone and two other beneficiaries would receive payments would be roughly $19 million, he said.
“If this earns a 5 per cent return, the annual income will be approximately $960,000 and Mr Bone’s share in the order of $320,000.”
He said Bone was also expected to receive at least $2 million from Thelen’s self-managed superannuation, plus the $1 million under the 2019 will.
Steven Rundle Bone in a photo from Facebook.Credit:
Pike rejected a separate application by Bone for further provision from Thelen’s estate. The court heard that as at September this year, his own assets totalled more than $5 million.
Thelen had “largely supported Mr Bone financially, particularly in the latter period of their relationship” in Australia, enabling him to increase his personal wealth, the judge said.
“[He] can readily afford, out of his own existing and to be received assets, to buy or rent suitable accommodation on Sydney’s north shore [befitting] his station in life, if that is what he wants to do.”
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