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FOLLOWERS OF the entertaining X account of Gayle Killilea saw her react in characteristic fashion to a two-page spread in the Indo about her new mansion near Ascot: “As the former Baroness of Ballsbridge, I’d like to thank my beautiful breasts for helping me conquer Berkshire. They cost me enough.” But Gayle will also have spotted a legal filing by one Dermot Desmond, confirming he is up for a fight.
Last weekend the Indo devoted 1,200 words to a piece headlined: “The barons of Berkshire: Killilea and Dunne’s grand design for an Ascot mansion”. The article related to planning permission granted for a new 8,500 sq ft “modernist pad” to replace a house acquired for €2.75m.
Killilea lives in Berkshire in a pile picked up for around €5m back in 2018 but the latest acquisition is held in the name of her children.
Rather bigger than either UK property is Walford on Dublin’s Shrewsbury Road – famously the most expensive house bought in Ireland when acquired for €58m by Seán Dunne at the height of the boom. After being purchased in 2016 for a handy €14.2m by a Desmond family trust, the replacement property stands at a whopping 17,200 sq ft.
In December last year, Gayle Killilea – the self-described “MILF, journalist, writer and involuntary but brilliant professional litigant” – filed proceedings against Dermo and his Dunebridge Worldwide vehicle, claiming the moneybags had failed to honour an agreement to pay her €2m for plans and specifications for Walford. All was quiet since then but now DD’s legal eagles, Meaghers, have lodged a ‘memo of entry of appearance’, confirming Der Kaiser has no intention of dishing out €2m to Gayle.
They could sell seats for this one.
