Fed: Pixie considers returning to Australia

AAP General News (Australia)
08-20-2001
Fed: Pixie considers returning to Australia

By Nalita Ferraz and Anthony Stavrinos

SYDNEY, Aug 20 AAP - The widow of fugitive businessman Christopher Skase wants to one
day return to Australia for a holiday.

Pixie Skase has told a national women's magazine she would not live in Australia but
wants to visit family and friends and return to Port Douglas.

"I have some wonderful memories of our life there," Mrs Skase told New Idea magazine.

Her husband, 52, who died at his lavish home on the Spanish island of Majorca on August
5, spent hundreds of millions of dollars building the Sheraton Mirage Hotel, Mirage Marina
and Mirage Country Club at Port Douglas in the late 1980s.

He later fled Australia, leaving behind debts of more than $177 million from the collapse
of his former Qintex media empire.

Ian Meikle, managing director of New Idea publisher Pacific Publications, would not
reveal the exact figure paid for the interview but said it was within the range of $75,000
to $150,000.

A New Idea source said the pricetag was closer to the high end of the range offered by Mr Meikle.

"Initially we were approached. Our response was reasonably ambivalent. We'd liked to
have got the story but the cost was pretty high," Mr Meikle told AAP.

"We stepped back from it and then we were subsequently approached to take the story
at a fraction of our competitor's bid because apparently Mrs Skase had enjoyed a better
relationship with New Idea over the years she'd been in exile."

Mrs Skase's representatives are now understood to be negotiating to sell the exclusive
television interview rights.

Channel Nine's director of news and current affairs Peter Meakin today said the network
was negotiating for the exclusive interview rights through its flagship 60 Minutes program.

Nine's main rival, Channel Seven, today said it was not in the bidding.

Mrs Skase told New Idea about the day of her husband's death from cancer.

"He seemed to doze off and I was sitting next to him on the bed reading and he was
leaning on me," she said.

"Then I felt him collapse on me and his face had gone from a normal colour to being
quite yellow."

She said she called out to Mr Skase's nurse, but nothing could be done to save her
husband of 25 years.

"I'm so glad I was with him when he died, so glad."

Mr Skase was wanted in Australia on more than 60 criminal charges and the misappropriation
of more than $10 million from Qintex shareholders.

He fought a 10 year legal battle with Australian authorities trying to extradite him from Spain.

Mrs Skase said she had no regrets about sticking with her husband to the end.

"It was worth all of it, every minute," she said.

"I would never have left him - it was never an option.

"We weathered the most amazing highs and lows, and there have been times when it has
been absolutely hideous.

"But there's always been so much joy."

However, public trustee Max Donnelly is believed to be investigating whether Mrs Skase
could be held legally responsible for her husband's financial troubles.

A spokeswoman for Attorney-General Daryl Williams said any decision to pursue Mrs Skase
over the lost millions would be up to the trustee.

Mr Williams has said criminal charges against Skase would be withdrawn but the government
remained committed to hunting down his assets.

AAP nf/as/rp/cjh/br

KEYWORD: SKASE PIXIE

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