Daughter of Ted Hughes in legal row with his widow over royalties
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Your support makes all the difference.The family of Ted Hughes, the late poet laureate, is locked in a squabble over who has the right to the literary earnings from his £1.4m estate.
The writer's daughter, Frieda Hughes, claims that Carol Hughes, his widow, has failed to honour his dying wish that copyright fees be divided between his close family. Frieda, the daughter of Hughes's first wife Sylvia Plath, says her stepmother's refusal to agree to the terms has soured their relationship.
Hughes was the Poet Laureate from 1984 until his death in 1998, aged 68. His will was published six months later and he left an estate of £1.4m to his widow.
Frieda, 42, claims that before his death her father wrote precise instructions for his second wife in a letter accompanying his will. He allegedly asked that the copyright earnings, estimated at £200,000 each year, be divided between his widow, Frieda, his son Nicholas and his sister Olwyn. In March 2000, Mrs Hughes wrote to her stepdaughter saying she was not legally bound to act on Hughes's letter. Mrs Hughes, 54, denies acting improperly and has reportedly paid more than £100,000 of copyright revenue to family members.
There have been further negotiations but Frieda says there is now an "impasse". She said: "There seems no prospect of any resolution without court proceedings which I have no wish for.
"I have found myself not only without my father, whose loss devastated me, but also without the stepmother I had loved, and trusted, as my father did.
"I walk into bookshops and see my father's astonishing works on the shelves, and I have to acknowledge that I now feel they have been disconnected from me."
A statement issued by Mrs Hughes's solicitor, Damon Parker, said the late poet had known that second wife would exercise her "absolute discretion and best judgement" in administering his estate "in the fairest, most workable and most appropriate manner for all concerned, whilst taking into consideration her own financial security and her rights as a widow". The statement added that the letter had no legal status.
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