Former pop princess Vanessa Amorosi can’t pay her mother back without kicking her out of the house and selling the property.
Amorosi’s mother, Joyleen Robinson, may have lost the ugly battle in the Victorian Supreme Court to keep her “dream home”, but her daughter still owes her $870,000 in restitution – money the court heard she cannot afford to pay.
In 2001, when Amorosi was at the height of his stardom, his tax return showed he earned $862,000 in a single year.
On Monday, Judge Steven Moore ruled that Amorosi’s mother had 60 days to leave the Narre Warren North property where she had lived since 2001.
Perched on a grassy hill on Boundary Road, the house in Melbourne’s southeast had been at the centre of the court battle amid claims Amorosi had gifted it to his mother during a kitchen chat sometime that same year.
The $870,000 owed to Ms. Robinson was to pay off the $650,000 plus interest her mother had previously given her in what she claimed was payment for her “dream home.”
The court heard that Amorosi was not only unable to pay the money, but could not even obtain a loan to pay the amount.
“Ms. Amorosi’s counsel has stated, at Ms. Amorosi’s direction, that she does not believe she will be able to obtain a loan to fund the payment of the $650,000 plus interest and that she instead wishes to sell the Boundary Road property to obtain the funds necessary to pay Ms. Robinson,” Judge Moore said.
Vanessa Amorosi arrived in the Supreme Court of Victoria in October last year. She now claims she cannot get a loan to pay for her mother’s eviction from her “dream home”.
Amorosi’s mother, Joyleen Robinson (center), must leave the home she considered her own
“Otherwise, I would not have the resources to make the payment without the sale of the Boundary Road property.”
The singer rose to fame in 1999 with the release of her debut single ‘Have a Look’, which achieved gold status in Australia.
The following year, she achieved international success with her debut studio album, The Power.
Amorosi performed at the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.
Their performance of ‘Heroes Live Forever’ at the opening ceremony garnered international acclaim.
But it was their song “Absolutely Everybody” that became the unofficial anthem of the games and went on to be a huge hit in Australia and many European countries, including Britain and Germany.
Their combined album and single sales have surpassed two million worldwide.
Amorosi, who flew to Australia from her home in Los Angeles to attend last year’s trial, became suspicious of her mother’s handling of her fortune in 2014 when she hired forensic accountants to begin investigating her mother’s handling of her wealth.
Seven years later, she hired lawyers and filed a 213-paragraph lawsuit with the Supreme Court.
Mediation between the parties resulted in a significant reduction in that claim and the dispute over the Narre Warren North property was finally resolved by Judge Moore.
Vanessa Amorosi hired attorney Philip Solomon KC (pictured) and a group of other attorneys to fight her case.
The Narre Warren North property Vanessa Amorosi must sell to pay her mother and leave her homeless
During the trial, Amorosi was forced to sit on the witness stand, where she was questioned about her personal finances.
Ms Robinson’s lawyer, Daniel Harrison, repeatedly told Amorosi that she was falling on hard times and described her financial situation as “poor”.
“What I’m suggesting to you is this: the reason there’s a limited amount of money in the Llama Trust now is because what you’ve been earning over the last 20 years or so has, over time, been eaten up by what you’ve been spending over the last 20 years. Do you agree with that?” he then asked the star.
—I know that’s what my mother has implied, yes. I don’t agree —Amoresi replied.
“And I suggest to you that your present financial situation… is not good, is it?” Mr Harrison continued.
“Why do you suggest that?” Amorosi replied.
‘I don’t agree.’
‘I suggest to you that your current financial circumstances are the reason why you are now saying that you have a claim to the Boundary Road property. Do you agree with that?’ he continued.
“I don’t agree,” Amorosi said.
Mr Harrison had claimed that Amorosi’s mother made a verbal agreement with her daughter in 2001. which would allow him to buy the Narre Warren site from his daughter for $650,000 at any time.
On the witness stand, Ms Robinson also claimed that her once-famous daughter had struggled financially in the lean years that followed.
Joyleen Robinson arrives at court during the trial with her husband Peter (left) and their daughters.
Vanessa Amorosi’s last horse remains on Narre Warren North property. Her fate remains unknown
One year, Mrs. Robinson claimed that her daughter was so poor that she could not even afford to buy her Christmas presents.
“I love my daughter, I would give her anything, so I gave her money because she needed it,” Robinson told the court.
“She was a mother helping her daughter who was going through a difficult financial situation. I know she wanted to buy some Christmas presents and also for her little son.”
Ms Robinson, who then wired her daughter $25,000, said her daughter had told her about her money problems.
“She basically told me she needed money,” he told the court.
The court heard Amorosi was also forced to leave her original home in the United States due to rising costs.
“Vanessa informed me through her sales representative in the United States that she could not afford to stay there because of all the additional expenses, fire insurance and all the bills that were accumulating with that property,” Ms. Robinson said.
Vanessa Amorosi continues to tour and perform. She is pictured at a 2023 gay pride event in Sydney
Now that the case is virtually closed, a new battle looms over who will have to foot the massive legal bill Amorosi incurred in pursuing the case.
In addition to losing her home, Ms Robinson fears the $870,000 in restitution her daughter has been ordered to pay her will amount to little if she is ordered to pay her legal costs.
Amorosi had hired a team of lawyers, including an expensive King’s Counsel, a high-ranking court attorney.
“That’s my concern right now, because I’m waiting to see if I have to pay half or all of his expenses. They haven’t decided that yet,” Robinson said.
“Every time we’ve gone to court, she’s paid for a royal lawyer, a lawyer, a junior lawyer, her lawyer. How stupid of me, I’m going with just one lawyer.”
Ms. Robinson said the lawyers’ bills continued to arrive in the mail months after the trial ended.
“I’ll be very close to bankruptcy,” he said.
The battle is due to take place in the Victorian Supreme Court next month.
