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Vanessa Amorosi considers herself a private person, but she has finally shed light on the court battle and the secret that tore her family apart.
The Absolutely Everybody singer, who is now 44, was catapulted into fame after being scouted by music producers when she performed in a restaurant as a teenager.
While her career reached dizzying new heights, behind closed doors, it was a different story, and she became embroiled in a legal dispute with her mother.
Why did Vanessa Amorosi sue her mother?
Speaking to 60 Minutes, she spoke about successfully suing her mother in 2024, over a dispute over her earnings.
“I feel like that’s the elephant in the room,” she told Tracy Grimshaw.
“Like, people want to know about it. ‘Why would you do this to your family? Why would you do this to your mum?’ Like, trust me, I don’t want to do that. Like that, that’s not a good time. That’s not a good time.”
She initially purchased her first home in 2001 in Boundary Road in Narre Warren, Victoria, for $650,000. At the time, she and her mother, Joyleen, were equal title holders.
“I knew from the beginning of purchasing that house that she wanted it,” Vanessa said. “I remember her saying, ‘This is my dream house. This is the house I always wanted.'”
At the time, she said she was not worried, and “really trusted” her mother, who she was “very close” to.
After that, the singer purchased other properties, including one in California, and took out a $1.2 million loan.
However, she was then told by her mother that she might not be able to keep it. Her mother and stepfather managed the trust that the home was in.
Why does Vanessa Amorosi have to pay restitution?
She said she knew she was the breadwinner and was in disbelief about being in debt.
“No, because I was still doing a lot of corporates, I was still travelling a lot, I was working in and out of studios, I was still getting royalties. There was still money coming in,” she said when asked if anyone flagged her spending with her.
However, she took her mother to court after she claimed she made a deal with her daughter around the kitchen table – if she could repay Vanessa the original price for the home, she could earn it outright.
Since then, Vanessa claimed that she did not recall that conversation, and the case tore her family apart.
With an Australian upcoming tour in 2026, she said she couldn’t promote it, and sweep her family matters under the rug.
“Well, I don’t want to be that person that goes on to talk about the things that are really excited but then doesn’t address what’s gone down publicly, because it’s like, ‘Well, why won’t you talk about it?'” she explained.
“But it is opening a box of emotions, of trauma. It’s digging up something that I’d like buried, and it’s attached to many different dynamics within that household. Like, it’s not just about the conversations and the money and, you know, it’s, it’s about the dynamics of how things ran.”
Now, she’s working with child safety advocate Hetty Johnston to establish a law that protects the earnings of child entertainers.
Based on Coogan’s Law in the US, the singer said she did not want entertainers to go through the same legal battle she did.
“So if you or a child earns anything over $5,000 a year, then a law, the law is triggered that a trust account has to be opened and 15% of that child’s gross earnings need to go into that trust account,” she began.
So far, Vanessa’s Law has attracted interest, but it was still in the earliest stages.
“This should already be here. It’s been going on over 80 years in the United States. We can do it. It’s whether or not there is enough, impetus for government, enough noise for government to react.”
Her traumatic past
During the interview, she also spoke about her late father, who hit her and her mother.
“…maybe that helps people have a little bit of insight to the, the bond that was, that was made between my family,” the mother of one explained.
After her mother left him, Vanessa said it had a long-lasting impact on her.
“Like, the weirdness that happens behind closed doors, wanting to keep people out, like, creating this barrier that everybody is the enemy, you know?” she began.
“I’ve been raised where, especially when things became, when I became successful, is to not trust anybody.
“You know, everybody’s out to get you, your friends, your boyfriend, anybody. All of them out to get you. They don’t want you; they want what you have. So it, you become very isolated and you cling to the people in that barrier.”
