Rose, indiscretion and money: Why Rinehart and her father fell out

afr.com:

Decades old private correspondence between Lang Hancock and his daughter Gina Rinehart have shed new light on their bitter relationship breakdown, with the mining pioneer accusing his only child of prompting him to sign a legal document under duress.

Letters between Hancock and Mrs Rinehart, now Australia’s richest person, were aired in the WA Supreme Court on Wednesday during a marathon four-way legal battle over the rights to the family’s mining riches.

Gina Rinehart, right, her children John Hancock and Bianca Rinehart, top, and Rose Porteous with Lang Hancock. 

The court heard that Hancock’s relationship with his daughter began to break down after her marriage to Frank Rinehart, as well as his own relationship with his housekeeper Rose Porteous in the 1980s.

Lawyers representing Mrs Rinehart’s two eldest children, John Hancock and Bianca Rinehart, produced handwritten letters and agreements detailing “the rupture” in the relationship.

After years of feuding over control of the family’s mining assets and his relationship with Ms Porteous, Hancock had reached “breaking point”, barrister Adam Hochroth said.

“I am not prepared to have you in a position whereby you can destroy my life’s workings to a point where I have nothing to leave you and the children in my will,” Hancock wrote to his daughter, responding to her questions about company accounts.

“I am not prepared to continue any further argument. You’ve had me worried sick over the past three years and the straw that broke the camel’s back was your indiscretion about family business.”

Mrs Rinehart was crucially concerned that shares held by her late mother, Hope, would eventually be given by Hancock to Mrs Porteous, rather than her and her children.

The court heard