Brittany Higgins lists French home for sale

Brittany Higgins and her husband are trying to sell their French home as legal bills for the former political staffer mount.

Ms Higgins and partner David Sharaz bought the house last year and only left to live in the southwest of France in December.

A year before moving, Ms Higgins was awarded a little more than $2.4m for her loss of earning capacity, legal costs, medical expenses, domestic assistance and $400,000 “for hurt, distress and humiliation” over her alleged rape by former colleague Bruce Lehrmann in Parliament House in 2019.

But a defamation case nearing its end in Perth has added to Ms Higgins’ legal bills, and she and her husband have now listed the French home for sale.

The three-bedroom, two-bathroom home on a 5000sq m property is listed for $690,000.

It sits about 100km east of Bordeaux.

“Welcoming home filled with charm on a well kept garden of over an acre with pool and small lake,” the listing reads.

The next buyer will surely enjoy the fireplace, french windows and spacious kitchen.

“Upstairs are two more bedrooms, one with a private shower room and spacious loft access currently used as a dressing-room. A garage and a cellar.

“The house overlooks the garden, lake and a swimming pool surrounded by the tiled terrace.”

In December 2022, Ms Higgins signed a deed of settlement with the commonwealth of Australia, seeking compensation for her alleged rape.

The settlement was confidential but eventually came out in court.

Ms Higgins and her husband got married in Queensland in June, announced she was pregnant in July, and in December jetted off to Europe to “heal and escape the online attacks she received, particularly in the wake of the Channel 7 Spotlight program that elevated her rapist”, a spokesperson for Ms Higgins said at the time.

Plenty of lawyers have gotten plenty rich from perhaps the largest legal saga in Australian political history.

This year, Mr Lehrmann brought a defamation case against Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson; however, Justice Michael Lee found, on the balance of probabilities, that Mr Lehrmann had raped Ms Higgins on Liberal senator Linda Reynolds’ couch in Parliament House in 2019. Mr Lehrmann is appealing and maintains his innocence.

The civil defamation case came after a criminal trial against Mr Lehrmann was abandoned because of juror misconduct.

For the past month a Perth court has been hearing a defamation case that Senator Reynolds has brought against Ms Higgins.

In July, a spokesperson for Ms Higgins said this case alone had incurred more than $1m of legal fees.

The former defence minister is suing Ms Higgins in the Western Australian Supreme Court for damages over a series of social media posts she says damaged her reputation.

The senator was not satisfied with an apology from her former staffer and mediation failed to keep the sordid affair from reaching open court.

Lawyers for each side gave closing addresses on Tuesday.