The long-running feud between Heloise Pratt and Alex Waislitz has gotten a lot of attention from the public in Australia’s high society. Once a power couple known for their charitable work and business skills, their breakup showed problems in one of the country’s most famous dynasties. What started as a romance between two worlds—old manufacturing wealth and ambitious finance—turned into a ten-year fight over money, power, and family legacy.
From New York to Melbourne, a powerful couple
In the 1980s, a young and ambitious Alex Waislitz met Heloise Pratt, the daughter of the late packaging magnate Richard Pratt, in New York. Alex was working for Robert Holmes à Court, Australia’s first billionaire, at the time. He was learning how to make deals and how to invest in high-stakes situations. That connection would soon lead him to meet the Pratt family, which would change his life forever.
Heloise and Alex got married in 1994, which brought together their financial goals and their family’s industrial history. They moved to the richest parts of Melbourne and started a family and a business together. They had three kids—Jake, Milly, and Joseph—and over the course of more than twenty years, they got richer through a combination of inheritance and smart investments.
Thorney Investments and Project Rose: Building an Empire
Thorney Investments is the company that made Alex Waislitz rich and would later define his identity and his divorce. Richard Pratt gave his future son-in-law $1.2 million in Amcor shares in 1991. This gift helped start what would become one of Australia’s most successful investment portfolios. Over the next ten years, Alex turned that small amount of money into hundreds of millions by making smart stock picks and taking big risks with companies.
The Pratt family set up a plan for who would take over the business in 2005 with a structure called Project Rose. It set up the Halex Family Trust, which is named after “Heloise and Alex,” with both of them having 50% control. The main goal of the trust was to protect the couple’s money and take care of their three kids. It also became the way Thorney Investments owned things, mixing personal and business interests so much that it was impossible to separate them later without causing chaos.
Problems in the Marriage
The fairytale was over by 2014. Heloise and Alex were still polite to each other in public, but their emotional and financial trust in each other had been broken. At first, their divorce in 2015 seemed to go smoothly. They shared custody of their kids and seemed determined to keep the value of their joint ventures. But the peace was not strong.
Both of them started dating again. Heloise started dating musician Jon Stevens, and Alex started dating singer and actress Rebekah Behbahani, who goes by the name Behani in her professional life. What might have been private changes quickly became a media circus when accusations, lawsuits, and family problems started to come up around their new partners.
Trusts, Townhouses, and the Start of War
Alex and Rebekah had a daughter named Storm in 2019, but their relationship was full of problems. There were arguments over property transfers, a separation deed, and claims involving Rebekah’s sister Venus Behbahani-Clark, who is a lawyer and used to be on the Real Housewives of Melbourne.
By 2024, the tensions between Alex and Heloise that had been building for years turned into open war. Heloise filed a big lawsuit in the Victorian Supreme Court, saying that Alex used money from the Halex Trust for his own benefit. She said that he:
took more than $21 million from the family trust to help Rebekah’s music career;
- Paid himself and his charity more than $1 million without her permission;
- Used companies linked to trusts to buy expensive homes in Toorak;
- bought a $20 million penthouse in the Saint Moritz development in St. Kilda;
- Changed board records and didn’t give out financial information.
Her lawyer told her that loans were being disguised as gifts and that Heloise’s rights as a co-trustee were being ignored. Alex’s lawyers called the accusations “a muddle” and said that she didn’t understand the business structures she had trusted him with for a long time.
A dynasty in trouble, family fights, and public scandals
The courtroom fight quickly became a national story, turning private trust documents into tabloid fodder. Heloise’s actions also changed the business world. She is said to have taken Alex off of several Pratt-linked boards and put trusted Visy executives in his place.
Venus Behbahani-Clark, on the other hand, was fighting her own legal battle over one of the Toorak townhouses that Alex had promised her. She said there was a secret deed of gift and confidentiality that kept her from talking about his personal life. Her court papers and upcoming memoir, Gaslit: The Truth and Nothing But the Truth, made an already sensational story even more dramatic.
In 2024, Rebekah Behbahani was the target of a sextortion attempt when private photos were leaked online. This added to the stress. The scandal made people even more interested in the Waislitz family, which was already known for its expensive real estate and ongoing lawsuits.
At the same time, there was another Pratt sibling fight going on in the background. Paula Hitchcock, the daughter of Richard Pratt and socialite Shari-Lea Hitchcock, was suing her half-siblings, including Heloise, for access to the multi-billion-dollar Pratt Family Trust.
The 2025 Agreement: A Costly Peace
After months of fighting in court, the two sides came to an agreement in September 2025, just days before a very publicized trial was set to start. The terms were shocking but final:
- Alex Waislitz kept control of Thorney Investments, which meant that his investment empire would keep going.
- Heloise Pratt got a $325 million payment in two parts.
- Their kids still got money from the Halex Trust, and Alex still had some power to help his new family.
- For Alex, it was a costly win that kept his business independent. For Heloise, it was the end of a ten-year fight for recognition and fair pay.
After the Fight
Alex Waislitz is still one of Australia’s most well-known investors today. He still manages a diverse portfolio of mining, biotech, and technology businesses through Thorney Opportunities and Thorney Technologies. People sometimes criticize him for his high management fees and inconsistent performance, but he has had big successes like Monadelphous, Afterpay, and Hub24.
Heloise Pratt, on the other hand, is now focused on giving back. She is in charge of directing tens of millions of dollars each year to health, education, the arts, and Indigenous programs as chair of the Pratt Foundation. Her estimated net worth is almost $2 billion, which comes from both money she inherited and money she made herself. She has been through a lot of trouble over the years, but she is still a respected business leader and community advocate.
The Legacy of a Modern Dynasty
The Pratt–Waislitz story is more than just a divorce and money story; it shows how hard it is to deal with a lot of money. Even the most powerful families have a hard time balancing loyalty, legacy, and their own goals.
They got Amcor shares as a gift, and the story ended with a $325 million settlement. In between those times is a story of love, betrayal, control, and survival. It reminds us that money can buy safety, but it can’t guarantee peace.
In the world of billion-dollar empires, every friendship costs something, and every fight leaves a mark.
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