Rose Porteous

Rose Porteous (born Rosario Magdalena Teresita Lacson on 26 October 1948), a Filipino-born Australian socialite, is best known for her marriage to Western Australia iron ore mining magnate Lang Hancock, and the protracted legal battle with his daughter, Gina Rinehart, over the circumstances that led to his death, and the distribution of his estate.

[citation needed] After spending time in Hong Kong, Spain, Singapore and Malaysia,[5] Porteous arrived in Australia in 1983 on a three-month working visa.

As The Age put it, "Rose made Lang feel younger, sprucing up his wardrobe, dying his hair and getting rid of his cane".

Central to Rinehart's lawsuits were the accusations that Porteous married Hancock only for his fortune and alleged that her stepmother's actions had contributed to her father's death.

Two successive state coroners refused to allow an inquest, but one was eventually granted in 1999 under the direction of WA Attorney-General, Peter Foss.

[10] It resumed three months later with a smaller witness list and ended with the finding that Hancock had died of natural causes and not as a result of Porteous' behaviour.

[3] A few months later, Porteous was revealed as one of several Australian celebrities promoting the SPC Ardmona brand of canned chopped tomatoes with the slogan, Rich and Thick.

[12] During 2005 it was reported that Porteous was being sued in excess of A$14 million by Melbourne-based law firm Slater & Gordon in unpaid legal fees.

[13] The dispute was lodged in the Victorian Supreme Court and Porteous unsuccessfully sought to have the matter heard in Western Australia, also claiming that she signed legal agreements in 2005, under duress.

[16] In March 2006, Porteous commissioned the demolition of her Perth mansion "Prix d'Amour", built with Hancock in 1990 for an estimated cost of A$7 million.