By Charlotte Karp For Daily Mail Australia
15:26 31 May 2024, updated 22:23 31 May 2024
- Torrential ran is forecast for Brittany Higgins’ big day
- Rumours over whether Lisa Wilkinson was invited
Rain is set to lash the picturesque $20million estate where Brittany Higgins and David Sharaz will tie the knot today.
The happy couple have been waiting about 18 months to exchange vows, after Mr Sharaz proposed to the former Liberal staffer atop Cape Byron Lighthouse at sunset on New Years’ Eve in 2022.
Despite moving to a chateaux in the French countryside in December, they quietly booked an afternoon wedding ceremony at The Valley Estate in Currumbin Valley on the Gold Coast for Saturday, June 1.
However, the pair now face a dire weather forecast of ‘a very high chance of rain’ from about midday onwards, with a torrential downpour set for the evening and into Sunday.
Ms Higgins and her fiancé have rubbed shoulders with Labor senators, former prime ministers, and TV personalities since they were thrust into the spotlight in 2021, but it’s unclear if the wedding will be a star-studded affair.
Rumours have been swirling that Lisa Wilkinson and Grace Tame didn’t make the cut.
On Wednesday, Wilkinson was spotted in Mosman, an affluent suburb in Sydney’s lower north shore, sporting a $1,850 Celine caramel woolly jumper and $1,700 black Dior sandals.
She completed the look with white jeans, large black sunglasses, and a tan leather handbag, as she sat in a cafe sipping a cappuccino with an iPad, AirPods and a big smile on her face.
The TV host and Ms Higgins have been close since the former staffer divulged her rape allegations in an interview with Wilkinson on Network Ten program, The Project, in February 2021.
After Ms Higgins gave her evidence in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case in December, Wilkinson approached her in the courtroom and gave her a big hug.
The wedding venue is set on nine acres of landscaped gardens and, according to The Valley Estate’s website, it’s the ‘epitome of luxury’.
‘A bespoke, one-off space crafted to inspire celebration and reflection with loved ones,’ the site read.
‘The Valley Estate hosts exclusive, bespoke wedding celebrations.’
Ms Higgins’ best friend and business partner Emma Webster will be her maid of honour.
Ms Higgins’ wedding date was revealed in the WA Supreme Court last week amid Linda Reynolds’ defamation case against her over social media posts which she claims damaged her reputation.
Outside court last week, Ms Reynolds’ lawyer Martin Bennett said he made an application to get a copy of documentation relating to a trust account in her name.
The Brittany Higgins Protective Trust was established in February last year after she was given $2.4million in compensation over the way her rape claims were handled between 2019 and 2021.
Chief Justice Peter Quinlan was told Ms Higgins was getting married early next month and her lawyers would need more time to prepare submissions for the application.
Mr Bennett said: ‘We do not know who the trustee is, we do not know what law of Australia, Victoria, NSW or the ACT that governs it, we need to know those facts and we get that by finding a document.’
The application will try to determine who the trustee is and who to sue in the event Ms Higgins says she cannot pay damages, if she loses the case.
Chief Quinlan accommodated for her wedding date and ordered that the matter return to court for a directions hearing on June 17.
On Friday, Lehrmann lodged an appeal to overturn a damning defamation judgement against him.
Lehrmann lost his defamation case against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson on April 15 when Federal Court Justice Michael Lee found on a balance of probabilities that he had raped Higgins in Parliament House in 2019.
After the judgement in April, Ms Higgins released a statement on Instagram saying she felt vindicated: ‘I was raped. No judgment was ever going to change this truth.’
‘I lived with the shame, humiliation, and fear of what telling my story would mean for my life and career, like so many other victim-survivors.’