A Made In Chelsea star who claimed he was left penniless after being cut out of his stepfather’s £38.5million fortune has lost his High Court battle for a payout.
Lonan O’Herlihy, known as ‘Posh PT’, sued the widow of millionaire property tycoon Hugh Taylor after receiving nothing from his vast estate.
However a judge has now thrown out the case against Jennifer Taylor, ruling the 36-year-old reality TV star had ‘no real prospect of success’ and was more than four years too late in bringing legal proceedings.
Mr O’Herlihy, who appeared on series eight of Made In Chelsea alongside original cast members Spencer Matthews and Binky Felstead, asked the court for £5million from the estate under inheritance laws.
He claimed Mr Taylor – who had been in a relationship with Mr O’Herhily’s mother Pamela from 1995 to 2004 – had acted as a ‘father figure’, funding his private school fees at Malvern College, Oxford, his university education at Oxford Brookes University, and his luxury lifestyle.
He said Mr Taylor bought him a £5,000 watch to mark his 18th birthday in 2007, paid for him and ten friends to stay in a house in Florida for a fortnight, and bought him an Audi worth around £45,000 for his 21st birthday.
‘Soon after that’, he said, Mr Taylor financed his stepson’s trips to Australia, New York and St Lucia to help with his future in property.
But when the multi-millionaire died in June 2019, his entire £38.5million fortune – including high-end properties, classic cars and even a World War II Hawker Hurricane aircraft – was left largely to his widow Jennifer Taylor in his 2015 will.
During the case, the High Court heard dramatic claims that the legal fight had left the personal trainer homeless, in debt and relying on friends for a place to stay despite ‘highly curated’ social media feeds appearing to show a ‘carefree’ lifestyle.
Lonan O’Herlihy, known as the ‘Posh PT’, has sued his mother’s ex-boyfriend’s widow for a share of his £38million estate
Mr O’Herlihy’s barrister Hugh Jeffery told the judge, Deputy Master William Henderson: ‘Lonan is now in a precarious financial position.
‘He has been able to make a reasonable income as a personal trainer…but he has no savings, no capital assets and very significant debts.
‘Moreover, on account of the extraordinarily aggressive approach taken by Jennifer’s legal advisors in this matter, he has split with his long term girlfriend; since March he has been homeless and dependent upon the generosity of friends to keep a roof over his head.
‘He owed his now former partner Millie £28,994 for litigation and living expenses.’
Lawyers for Mrs Taylor blasted the court claim as ‘opportunistic’, denying Mr O’Herlihy’s assertion he was ‘treated as a child of the family by the deceased and received emotional, educational, and financial support’ despite not being a blood relative.
The court case heard how Mr O’Herlihy had allegedly produced a shopping list of luxury items he wanted from the estate.
It included a £3million property in Queen’s Gate Place, South Kensington, a 1969-70 Mercedes 280SL Pagoda worth £250,000, a Patek Philippe watch, a Melehior d’Hondecoeter painting and £800,000 for the purchase of an investment property, said Richard Wilson KC, defending Mrs Taylor.
Mr Wilson told the judge: ‘The things he wants: a house and investment property, a classic car, an old master painting, an expensive watch – it would send a shiver down the spine of any wealthy parent.’
Mr Wilson claimed Mr O’Herlihy had received no financial support from Mr Taylor for years before his death.
Mr Hugh Taylor’s widow, Jennifer Taylor. She won the row over the multi-millionaire’s will against the Made in Chelsea star
Mr Taylor (pictured) was a property dealer as well as a renowned car and plane collector, who left behind a £38million estate after his death in 2019
A 2012 email from Mr Taylor to Mr O’Herlihy’s mother Pamela was shown to the court, which read: ‘Neither Rogan nor Lonan have a legal relationship with me and my donations to date have been because I was concerned about the future of two young men who lived in the same house.
‘It behooves you to explain to them that I am going to stop the facility as I am afraid I need it as much as they do. Maybe their father would care to accept his responsibilities and look after them as indeed he should.’
Mr O’Herlihy said the ending of the relationship with his ‘only father figure’ caused immense personal trauma.
His lawyers accused Mrs Taylor of ‘isolating’ her husband from him, adding: ‘Lonan considers that if it were not for Jenny’s behaviour, he and Hugh would have maintained a close relationship, developed the property business together as they had always planned and he would not have been disinherited.’
He claimed the pair were forced to meet in ‘secret’ and that Mrs Taylor once screamed at him that her husband’s fortune ‘was all for her girls now’.
The judge ultimately sided with the widow, ruling Mr O’Herlihy had ‘no real prospect’ of proving that Mr Taylor ‘owed him any obligations or responsibilities’ at the time of his death.
Deputy Master Henderson found the reality star was capable of earning enough as a personal trainer to support himself at the standard of living he had created after 2012, when his relationship with Mr Taylor ended.
He also rejected Mr O’Herlihy’s claim that he deserved money because he once expected to inherit or join Mr Taylor’s property empire.
Because the underlying claim had no real prospect of success, the judge refused to extend the six-month legal deadline for challenging the contents of the will once probate is granted.