Bob Hawke estate battle settled after claim by daughter Rosslyn Dillon

A $4m claim was made by Hawke’s youngest daughter, who said his ambition to become PM had left her a broken woman.

Former prime minister Bob Hawke in 2018. Picture: AAP

A sensational $4 million claim on Bob Hawke’s estate by his youngest daughter, Rosslyn Dillon, has been settled out of court, six months after her explosive claim her father’s ambition to become prime minister had left her a broken woman.

Ms Dillon’s challenge to her father’s will in the NSW Supreme Court detailed shocking allegations about how she had been raped multiple times in the early 1980s by one of her father’s key political allies, the late Victorian Labor MLC Bill Landeryou.

The 59-year-old claimed when she told her father, he had replied that she couldn’t go to police at the time because it would hurt his tilt for the Labor Party leadership, a decision that had “haunted” her ever since.

Hawke and Rosslyn Dillon in Sydney in 2013. Picture: AAP

Mr Hawke would go on to be elected prime minister in 1983 and remains the country’s most popular and longest serving Labor leader in history.

Mr Hawke’s widow, Blanche d’Apulget, told The Australian on Friday her lawyers had finalised a settlement with Ms Dillon this week, but she was unable to comment as the details were strictly confidential.

Ms d’Apulget, who was diagnosed with breast cancer two months ago, is currently undergoing chemotherapy treatment.

“I’m not well at the moment, I’m being treated for cancer,’ Ms d’Apulget said. “I’m just focusing on my health now.”

Ms d’Apulget’s lawyer, Michael Henley, told The Australian, Ms d’Apulget was “a wonderful person ... just a lovely lady”, and the will dispute, like every litigation, had been “traumatic”.

The settlement followed a concerted media campaign promoting Ms Dillon’s claims, dating back to July, some five months before Ms Dillon lodged her claim in court.

“We were very surprised at the amount of media coverage because we didnt talk to any media,’ Mr Henley said.

Ms d’Apulget, who famously continued her off and on affair with Mr Hawke for three decades years while he was still married to his first wife, Hazel Hawke, was left the bulk of the Labor leader’s multi million dollar fortune.

Ms Dillon and Hawke in 1985.

Ms Dillon launched her legal claim in 2019.

Mr Hawke’s three children, Roslynn, Susan Pieters-Hawke and Steve Hawke were all left $750,000 each, as was Ms D’apulget’s son, Louis Pratt.

But in her NSW Supreme Court affidavit Ms Dillon argued her father’s provision for her had failed to recognise her “sacrifice” to her father, remaining silent about being raped to protect his career, at a time when she was already vulnerable and struggling with heroin addiction.

She said in her affidavit Mr Landeryou, who died in February 2019, had raped her three times in the early 80s “at the Hilton Hotel, at Parliament House and at his home in Sunshine (Melbourne), where he sneaked into the spare room where I was sleeping.”

“I am still haunted by the sexual assaults,’ Ms Dillon said in her affidavit. “I feel that I may have had a chance to get over these rapes if I was able to report the ­incidents to police.”

Then Prime Minister Hawke, wife Hazel, and Ms Dillon with her baby son, David, in 1983.

Ms Dillon, a disability support worker, said she suffered from depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and relied on welfare and her son David, to survive.

She argued Ms d’Alpuget should give up some of her bequest so she could move from her $500-a-week cockroach-infested Sydney apartment to a $2.5m house in the city’s eastern suburbs, fitted out with $60,000 in furniture and other household basics, including $4000 worth of towels.

She also needed $30,000 to pay for dental implants.

“I have no teeth of my own in my mouth,” Ms Dillon said.

Hawke and wife Blanche d'Alpuget. Picture: AAP/Australian Women's Weekly

Ms Dillon’s lawyers did not respond to inquiries from The Australian.

Ms Pieters-Hawke told The New Daily in November: “I love and support my sister. She did tell people at the time. I believe there was a supportive response but it didn’t involve using the legal system.”