French rock singer Johnny Halliday’s widow wins row over his will and pockets £30.7million
‘Wicked’ widow of French Elvis Johnny Halliday pockets assets of up to €34 million after a two-year battle with his older children who were written out of the 73-year-old’s will – but she’s also inherited his €30 million debt
- Laeticia Hallyday, 45, has won the legal row over her late husband Johnny’s will
- Bitter legal battle followed death of The ‘French Elvis’ in December 2017, aged 74
- His American will left all his estate to his wife, and nothing to either of children
- Settlements were agreed with eldest children Laura Smet and David Hallyday
- Laeticia, mother to Jade, 15 and Joy, 11, inherited of £30.7million from fortune
By Claire Toureille For Mailonline
Published: 11:55 EDT, 6 July 2020 | Updated: 11:59 EDT, 6 July 2020
After a bitter legal battle of more than two years, the question of Johnny Hallyday’s inheritance has finally been resolved.
Laeticia Hallyday, 45, the widow of the ‘French Elvis’ who died in December 2017 from lung cancer, aged 74, has inherited the singer’s properties, to the estimated value of €28 to €34 million, and an undisclosed amount in cash.
The singer’s eldest children decided to contest his will, which left his entire estate – originally esimated at €100 million – to Laeticia, excluding his son David Hallyday, 53, and daughter Laura Smet, 36.
This sum was later revised down to €38 million, after it was found that the value of his proerties and royalties had been overestimated.
The will had been drafted in the US, where Hallyday was then living with Laeticia and their two adopted daughters, and did not comply with French law, where children have automatic succession rights.
A bitter legal battle ensued, with Laeticia provking further outrage last year by announcing plans to have the singer exhumed and placed in her family vault – a move that saw her branded the ‘wicked stepmother’ by French magazines.
However, Laeticia’s lawyers announced last Friday, 3rd July, that a ‘definitive agreement’ had been reached between Hallyday and her late husband’s children, a journalist for French TV channel M6 reported on Twitter.
Laeticia Hallyday, 45, the widow of Johnny Hallyday, the ‘French Elvis’ who passed away in December 2017 aged 74, has inherited the singer’s properties, estimated between 28million euros (£25,367,580) and 34million euros (£30.8million) as well as any money he left her (pictured with their daughter Jade and Joy when the singer was still alive)
Hayllyday’s eldest children, David Hallyday, 53 and Laura Smet, 36, pictured at their father’s funeral on December 11, 2017, contested their father’s will, which was drafted in the US and did not comply with French law, where children are entitled to their parents’ inheritance
Laura Smet, an actress who is expecting her first child with her husband Raphaël Lancrey-Javal, received a settlement of €2.4 million in exchange for ‘renouncing any further legal action and recognising the American will, which excluded her and David.’
Meanwhile, her brother, a singer, song-writer and race car driver, who had said he did not want to receive money in solidarity with his sister and half-sisters, was granted the ‘moral rights’ to his father’s musical estate, meaning he will be overseeing how his musical legacy is used from now on.
While Laeticia won the battle, she also inherited Johnny’s hefty tax debts, which he accumulated throughout his life and are thought to be ‘around’ €30million.
David was born of Johnny Hallyday’s first marriage to singer Sylvie Vartan, while Laura is the daughter of Nathalie Baye, a famous French actress who had a torrid love affair with Hallyday after the end of his marriage to Vartan from 1982 to 1985.
Laeticia’s lawyers said the singer’s widow had expressed the wish to seek an agreement that would allow the family to reach peace (pictured with Hallyday in 2016)
Laeticia has inherited all of the singer’s estates in France and the US as well as his money, which she will use to look after their two daughters. She has also inherited the singer’s debts, estimated at £27million
Laeticia’s lawyer Gille Gauder, said in a statement that: ‘Laeticia expressed the wish to find an agreement with the eldest children of her husband,’ and that Laura ‘took the hand that Laeticia extended to her.’
Gauder hinted at the fact the agreement might be extended soon, saying that Laeticia had asked her legal team to reach several ‘goals’.
She wanted, he said, to find an agreement that ‘would allow the family to make peace and look to the future, to agree on the future of Johnny’s musical legacy, as well as protect the interest of her young daughters Jade and Joy’.
After an agreement was reached between the singer’s wife and daughter, his son, David, said he would not take any further legal action and wanted ‘nothing.’
The family put on an united front at Johnny’s funeral in Paris on December 2011, with Laeticia, Laura and David holding hands next to Jade and Joy
Laura Smet announced she was contesting her father’s American will in 2018. The document saw her excluded from any inheritance proceedings
With Laura expecting her first child and Laeticia in a new relationship with restaurant owner Pascal Balland, it seems all parties were ready to move on.
This marks the peaceful end to a legal battle which lasted two years and a half, and started only a few weeks after Johnny’s public funeral in Paris on December 11 2017.
Smet and Hallyday contested the singer’s will, which was written in 2014 in California under US laws, which don’t apply in France, where all children receive automatic inheritance rights.
Laura soon decided to take legal action and fight the American will. In February 2018, she had her lawyers release a public statement.
It read: ‘Laura Smet has discovered with stupefaction and pain the testament of her father Johnny Hallyday, in which the whole of his will and the whole of his artistic rights, will be exclusively handed over to his only wife Laeticia, in line with Californian law.’
Laeticia said she wanted to make peace with her husband’s children, protect his estate and musical legacy and protect their daughters
Paris lawyers Temime, Ravans and Sur said in the statement that they would be ‘carrying out all legal actions’ to challenge the will.
It was made in Los Angeles, where Hallyday lived with his young family towards the end of his life.
At the time, Laura touched wrote an open letter addressed to ‘cher Papa’ saying, ‘I have chosen to fight.
‘I would have preferred this to stay in the family, unfortunately, our family is like that.’
In April 2018, David and Laura won a first legal battle to put a temporary freeze on several of Hallyday’s estates in France.
However, the ruling did not affect Laeticia’s assets in the US, where the couple had lived with their two daughters during Hallyday’s last years.
Speaking of the dispute to French magazine Le Point in 2018, Laeticia said: ‘They’re stealing my grieving. ‘They’re pummeling me.’
Still, she said she was ready to forgive one day because ‘we’re a family’.
