Johnny Hallyday’s Family Battles Over The Late Rocker’s Estate

NANTES, France (CelebrityAccess) — A legal ruling on Friday only appeared to throw fuel onto the fire in an ongoing legal battle over the estate of the late French rock star Johnny Hallyday.

According to the Associated Press, a French court in Nanterre on Friday put a freeze on Several of Hallyday’s estates in France at the request of his two eldest children, but refused to allow them to take a role in the upcoming release of a posthumous album from Hallyday, a ruling that favors Hallyday’s widow and adopted children.

After Hallyday died late last year, his complex will — written in 2014 in California under U.S. laws that don’t apply in France — left Hallyday’s estate to his 43-year-old widow and fourth wife, Laeticia Hallyday, along with their school-aged children. Hallyday’s two eldest children were left out of the will.

However, under California estate law, all children receive automatic inheritance rights. The question of whether French or U.S. law will be applicable in the case is a key question that is further complicated by Hallyday and his wife residing most recently in Los Angeles, the AP reported.

Hallyday’s two eldest children 34-year-old daughter Laura Smet (Hallyday’s given name) whose mother is the French actor Nathalie Baye, and David Hallyday, 51, whose mother is French singer and actor Sylvie Vartan, are celebrities in their own right, and the acrimonious legal dispute has been fodder for French tabloids.

Hallyday’s estate is likely to be substantial. One of the most popular French artists in the history of rock, if not the world. Hallyday’s career spanned five decades, over the course of which he released more than 75 albums, and sold more than 100 million records.