Latest news with #DavidSharaz
News.com.au
3 days ago
- News.com.au
Brittany Higgins quietly sells French chateau
Brittany Higgins and her husband David Sharaz have said au revoir to their French chateau. The couple have sold their three-bedroom estate for an estimated $700,000, The Daily Telegraph reports. Ms Higgins, who welcomed a son, Freddie, in March, announced the news on social media, sharing snippets of memories from the sprawling property. 'Our quiet little safe haven has officially sold,' she wrote. 'We really thought that this was our forever home. Alas, it was not meant to be. 'I'll always be sad Freddie never had the chance to spend just one night in his nursery. However, we must persist! 'It's a bit of an accidental blessing to be back in Aus — starting over surrounded by the love of all our favourite people.' The news comes after Ms Higgins announced she accepted a role as director of public affairs for boutique public relations agency Third Hemisphere, where Mr Sharaz also works. Ms Higgins said on LinkedIn she was 'so excited' to begin her new role, telling followers the company held 'values that aligned with my own'. 'To be in a workplace run by a fellow survivor and someone who fundamentally believes in the importance of corporate social responsibility is an absolute delight,' she wrote. The couple snapped up the partially-furnished house French villa for an estimated $600,000. The purchase came about a year after Ms Higgins was awarded $2.4 million in compensation over her alleged rape by former colleague Bruce Lehrmann in Parliament House in 2019. Situated in the tiny town of Lunas, about 100km east of Bordeaux in south-west France, the 5000 sqm home is on a hillside with a pool, lake and local views. Months later, the pair put the house on the market to cover legal costs of the defamation case brought against them by Ms Higgins' former boss, Senator Linda Reynolds. The property was originally listed for €420,000 ($A737,800) then reduced to €404,000 ($A709,700) later that month. It was then lowered to €367,500 ($A596,500) in January, just before the couple moved back to Australia ahead of the birth of their son. According to The Daily Telegraph, the pair were set to make a loss on the sale, but the Euro has since fallen in value. Sign up to the Herald Sun Weekly Real Estate Update. Click here to get the latest Victorian property market news delivered direct to your inbox.
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Brittany Higgins' staggering windfall for selling her French chateau is revealed - as she scores a job despite being awarded 40 years in lost wages over being medically unfit to work
Brittany Higgins has landed yet another windfall after selling her taxpayer-funded French chateau within days of announcing a plush new gig. Higgins and her husband David Sharaz purchased the three-bed, two-bath estate, about 100km east of Bordeaux in south-west France, in 2023. The exact closing price was not clear but followed repeated cuts to the asking price from €420,000 (AU$682,820) last year to €350,000 (AU$600,000) earlier this year. While they were widely tipped to sell the property at a loss after repeatedly lowering the listing price, it will no doubt have improved the couple's financial outlook. Not least because it came within days of Higgins announcing she would return to the workforce at boutique PR agency Third Hemisphere. She shared the announcement in the Australian Financial Review alongside a caption reading: 'Your girl is finally back in the workforce!' Higgins took the job, where Sharaz also works, despite four years earlier receiving a government settlement which included a $1.48million payout for lost earning capacity. The former Liberal staffer made a compensation claim for damages in March 2022 after alleging she was raped in parliament by her former colleague, Bruce Lehrmann. Ms Higgins shared the news of her appointment on Instagram with the caption: 'Your girl is finally back in the workforce!' He has always denied the claims but was found to have raped Ms Higgins on the balance of probabilities by Justice Michael Lee in April last year - a decision Lehrmann is currently appealing. In Ms Higgins' draft statement of claim, first reported by The Australian newspaper, it was stated that she had a 'reasonable expectation of being promoted regularly and to eventually pursue her own political career, before suffering from the injuries and disabilities'. She had been 'diagnosed as medically unfit for any form of employment, and has been given a very poor prognosis for future employment'. The claims were untested in court given Ms Higgins was awarded the $2.4million by payout after one day of mediation talks. More than half of the sum was in respect of her loss of earnings, while the rest was made up of medical expenses, legal costs and '$400,000 for hurt, distress and humiliation'. The couple purchased the house using the proceeds of the settlement, of which she said she retained about $1.9million after taxes and fees. Within months, the couple were forced to list the property for sale to meet her legal costs in the ongoing defamation suit brought by her former boss, Linda Reynolds. A verdict has yet to be handed down for Ms Reynolds' defamation suit against Ms Higgins which concluded in September last year following a five-week trial. Higgins wrote on Wednesday she was 'so excited to be the new Director of Public Affairs for the female-founded public relations agency'. 'It was so personally important to me that wherever I ended up working had values that aligned with my own,' she said. 'To be in a workplace run by a fellow survivor and someone who fundamentally believes in the importance of corporate social responsibility is an absolute delight.' Senator Reynolds launched a separate legal action against the Commonwealth in April claiming it failed to act in her best interests in reaching the settlement. In a statement released at the time, Senator Reynolds said the payout 'sent a message' that Higgins' claims, including that her then-boss had failed to support her following the rape allegations, were true.
Daily Mail
6 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Brittany Higgins follows her husband and takes on a new role at his workplace - as she reveals the very personal reason she decided it was the right fit
Brittany Higgins has revealed she is returning to the workforce and joining the same company her husband is employed at. Ms Higgins is now the director of public affairs at the independent public relations agency Third Hemisphere, the Australian Financial Review reported. The announcement comes just months after her husband David Sharaz announced in March he had taken on the role of director at the independent PR agency. The pair are working from home full-time as they navigate early parenthood after welcoming their three-month-old son Freddie into the world on March 2. The role is a natural fit for Ms Higgins who worked as the Liberal Party media adviser before she was thrust into the limelight after stressful rape and defamation trials. Following the trials, Ms Higgins became an outspoken advocate for survivors of sexual assault. Ms Higgins explained her decision to join Third Hemisphere was cemented after fostering a connection with the firm's founder and CEO Hannah Moreno. The pair shared a connection as Ms Moreno was also a rape and domestic violence survivor who campaigns for gender equality and fights against sexual harassment. 'There was this general feeling of 'how long do I have to be the story for?' At what point do I get to put it to rest... and have my own identity outside this narrative of Brittany Higgins,' Ms Higgins said. 'I also have a brand reputation and I don't want to align myself in a corporate sense with someone that could be doing something untoward. I had to join a team that I fundamentally believe in and which believes in the same things that I do.' In August 2021, Bruce Lehrmann was identified as the Liberal Party staffer accused of raping Ms Higgins inside Parliament House in 2019. Ms Higgins had shared her alleged sexual assault with Channel 10 journalist Lisa Wilkinson in an interview aired on The Project. Lehrmann has always denied the allegations. Lehrmann faced the ACT Supreme Court in late 2022 but the case was dropped after a juror brought outside research into the deliberation room. A second trial was also aborted, citing concerns for Ms Higgins' mental health. In 2023, Lehrmann launched legal proceedings against Wilkinson and Channel 10, claiming he'd been defamed by The Project episode. The ruling in that lawsuit left Lehrmann in ruin with Justice Michael Lee finding that, on the balance of probabilities, he raped Ms Higgins. He has appealed the ruling with the case to go before the Federal Court of Australia in August.
News.com.au
13-05-2025
- Politics
- News.com.au
Linda Reynolds claims she was ‘obliged' to sue Brittany Higgins in a civil defamation case
Liberal Senator Linda Reynolds will claim she was 'obliged' to sue Brittany Higgins in a civil defamation case in new court documents seeking taxpayer-funded compensation for her losses and damages. In the latest branch of the byzantine web of legal action associated with the saga, her legal team have asked the Federal Court to consider whether taxpayers should make a contribution to cover her 'losses' including legal costs in the WA Supreme Court. While the total amount she has spent on the case is not stipulated it is conservatively estimated to be hundreds of thousands of dollars. In new legal filings, the Liberal Senator's legal team argues she 'has suffered, and is continuing to suffer, loss and damage.' 'These losses include: Legal costs associated with being obliged to commence proceedings so as to vindicate and restore her reputation,'' the document states. 'Further particulars of the legal costs incurred to date in vindicating the Applicant's reputation will be provided prior to trial.' The firm is claiming equitable damages or alternatively, damages for breach of fiduciary duties; or damages for negligence; further or other relief as the Court deems just. The defamation case in the WA Supreme Court is tied to social media posts on Instagram and Twitter made by Ms Higgins and her husband David Sharaz which Senator Reynolds says 'maliciously' targeted her. She argues the posts falsely alleged she had 'harassed' Ms Higgins and mishandled the former staffer's claim she was raped by Bruce Lehrmann. 'They were published in furtherance of a plan by the defendant and Mr Sharaz to use the defendant's allegations of a rape and the political cover-up… as a weapon to inflict immediate political damage upon the plaintiff and the then government,' the Senator's original WA Supreme Court statement of claim reads. Mr Lehrmann has always denied the rape allegation and was charged but never convicted before the trial collapsed as a result of juror miscondct Now, there is a new legal case spawned by the ongoing saga in the Federal Court. Liberal Senator Linda Reynolds is suing the commonwealth for unspecified damages over its conduct in Brittany Higgins' compensation case in the Federal Court. Senator Reynolds' legal team will argue that the $2.4 million taxpayer-funded payout offered to Ms Higgins in late 2022 had the effect of 'publicly affirming' Ms Higgins' allegations against her. As a result, she argues to clear her name she then had to sue Ms Higgins for defamation in a civil lawsuit in the WA Supreme Court. The civil defamation case lodged in the WA Supreme Court was concluded in September but no judgment has been made and Justice Paul Tottle has reserved his decision. In legal documents lodged with the Federal Court, Senator Reynolds says the commonwealth was in breach of its duty to act in her best interests when it settled Ms Higgins' claim after a one day mediation. The mediation follows around 12 months of discussions between Ms Higgins legal advisers and the Commonwealth, a process that was delayed by the criminal trial. Taxpayers paid for legal advice for Senator Reynolds and Liberal Senator Michaelia Cash in the original negotiations over the compensation claim for Ms Higgins because it was an issue that arose in the course of their work as ministers. But Senator Reynolds is now taking legal action against those lawyers– including for negligence – against law firm HWL Ebsworth which acted for the commonwealth in the case. Senator Reynolds' has long argued that the Commonwealth threatened to not to pay her legal fees and any costs awarded if she attended the mediation. As a result she agreed not to attend the mediation despite the fact that she wished to do so. As a result of that decision the Defence Minister argues she was unable to dispute any of Ms Higgins' allegations in her compensation claim. Last month, Senator Reynolds told The Australian newspaper that the commonwealth and its lawyers had been 'hopelessly conflicted'. 'The Attorney-General and his ministers had been such staunch public supporters of Ms Higgins, politicising her untested, unsubstantiated and untrue allegations against me and it is impossible to reconcile how they considered they could act in my best interests and advocate for me in those circumstances,' Senator Reynolds said. 'Ms Higgins' allegations concerning me were entirely defensible but in settling the claim against me it sent a message to the nation that those allegations were so true, so damning, so abhorrent that the commonwealth was prepared to pay her $2.445 million after only a single instance of mediation, in a single day for proceedings not yet filed and quite possibly statute barred. 'That settlement validated the sustained defamation and fuelled further defamation which I have been forced to defend and prosecute, at great personal and financial cost.' She confirmed she had appointed her own lawyers Clayton Utz, to help defend Ms Higgins's claims. However, she says the Commonwealth took over the claim on behalf of Senator Reynolds and their solicitors, HWL Ebsworth, were appointed to her. Senator Reynolds' lawyers had written to HWL Ebsworth stating their concerns and pointing out that 'the plain conflict of interest by reason of the public support offered to Ms Higgins and her version of events by the Attorney-General and other approving Ministers'. In her statement of claim, Senator Reynolds' notes that Ms Higgins was permitted to extend her claim beyond the one-year limitation period, which was due to expire on December 6, 2022. A 27-page annexure to the statement of claim outline multiple examples where Senator Reynolds says the evidence is contrary to Ms Higgins' particulars of liability concerning Ms Reynolds. A spokesperson for HWL Ebsworth has previously declined to comment while the matter was ongoing. In a separate action, Senator Reynolds' former chief of staff, Fiona Brown has lodged a fair work case against the commonwealth.
Daily Mail
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Brittany Higgins makes ‘devastating' admission as she celebrates major parenting milestone with her husband David Sharaz
Brittany Higgins took a playful jab at her mum while sharing a gushing post with her partner David Sharaz about their baby son to celebrate their first Mother's Day. Ms Higgins shared on Instagram on Sunday sweet photographs of herself with her ten-week-old son Freddie, and of her own mother Kelly nursing her sleeping grandson on her shoulder. Ms Higgins also posted a throwback photo of herself as a baby in her mother's arms just over 30 years ago, and wrote a tribute to her mum. 'It's my first Mother's Day as a parent and the past two months has just reaffirmed how lucky I have been to walk through life with such an amazing mum by my side,' she wrote. 'I have a newfound appreciation for her strength, selflessness and the love she's always had on tap to pour into me when required. Thank-you for always showing me the way — I love you lots!' In a joking postscript, Ms Higgins added: 'P.S. it's only slightly devastating that you are far and away Freddie's favourite person. David and I will try not to take it personally x.' The post attracted messages wishing Ms Higgins a 'happy Mother's Day' and telling her to 'enjoy every minute'. Sexual abuse survivor and mental health campaigner Sharri James posted: 'Happy Mother's Day, dear friend' along with a red heart. Mr Sharaz also shared a separate post, praising his wife Ms Higgins. 'Watching Brittany become Freddie's mum has been the greatest joy of my life,' he wrote. 'She guards his peace in ways he'll never know. In those late nights and early mornings, with sacrifices she never names. (You know, like sleep. Woman never sleeps.) 'But that's Britt. Fiercely protective, endlessly loyal, and instinctively loving to those lucky enough to be in her orbit. 'Freds, you've got a great mum. (I'll show you this when you can read.) 'Spoil the women in your life today. Those with children big or small, those who are still hoping, those who mother through love not biology, those who once were, and those we'll never forget. Happy Mother's Day.' It comes just a few weeks after the couple shared their son's full name in a heartwarming message on Easter Sunday. 'The best kind of Easter egg we've ever received,' Mr Sharaz captioned a series of family photos. 'Baby Frederick Leon Sharaz's first Easter.' The boy's middle name may be a tribute to Ms Higgins' personal lawyer, Leon Zwier. The former political staffer and her ex-journalist husband were flooded with high-profile messages of support after announcing Frederick's birth on March 2. Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, Marie Claire editor Georgie McCourt, The Block judge Shayna Blaze and Olympic swimmer Leisel Jones were among the well-wishers. The heartfelt messages were well-earned, following what Ms Higgins described last October as an 'acutely stressful' pregnancy. At the time, Ms Higgins shared the results of a second trimester blood test which, she said, revealed a 'high possibility of a genetic disorder'. Ms Higgins said the genetic disorder itself wouldn't have concerned the couple, but meant the baby might be 'incompatible' with life beyond the pregnancy. Compounding the stress were an ongoing defamation trial brought against Ms Higgins by her former boss, Liberal Senator Linda Reynolds, and the death of her grandmother. After moving into a French chateau in late 2023, the couple were forced to list the property for sale to cover the costs of the defamation suit. In January, the couple lowered the listing price for their French chateau to €367,500 (AUD $620,000) from an initial listing price of €420,000 (AUD $722,000). Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz bought the three-bedroom estate after settling a suit against the federal government for $2.4million. Ms Higgins said she held onto about $1.9million after fees and taxes. The couple now reportedly plan to live in Melbourne's east after marrying last year on the Gold Coast. The payout came after the rape trial of her former colleague and fellow ex-political staffer Bruce Lehrmann was thrown out in response to juror misconduct in 2022. The charges were later withdrawn altogether following concerns relating to Ms Higgins' mental health. Last year, Lehrmann lost a multimillion-dollar defamation suit against presenter Lisa Wilkinson and the Ten Network over a 2021 interview with Ms Higgins. Federal Court Justice Michael Lee dismissed the case after finding that Lehrmann had, on the balance of probabilities, raped Ms Higgins. As a result, the 29-year-old was ordered to pay $2million in costs to the Ten Network. Earlier this month, within days of the birth of Ms Higgins' child, Lehrmann filed submissions with the Federal Court in which his lawyer laid out the grounds of his appeal of Justice Lee's decision. Lehrmann has since been committed to stand trial in a Queensland rape case surrounding an incident alleged to have taken place in Brisbane's west in 2021.
