Asia-Pacific News
Everest conqueror's children try to stop widow selling watches
Nov 5, 2010, 1:19 GMT
Wellington - The two children of Everest conqueror Sir Edmund Hillary are trying to stop his widow from selling a valuable collection of Rolex watches, a newspaper reported Friday.
Peter and Sarah Hillary claim they - not Lady June Hillary - own the watches and have hired lawyers to stop the auction scheduled for November 13 in Switzerland, the New Zealand Herald reported.
They include a watch presented to the explorer by a Rolex retailer in India after he climbed Everest in 1953. Hillary went on to become the face of Rolex in advertisements for the company, which made watches called Explorer after him.
Peter Hillary told the paper he was very disappointed to learn that the watches were up for sale.
'It's a sad thing to do,' he said. 'As per my father's will, all of these types of items were part of the estate that were left to Sarah and me.'
He said he and his sister had 'barely had a word' with Lady June since his father died in January 2008.
'It's not an uncommon story with second marriages,' he said. 'That's the reality.'
Their mother, Louise, died in an air crash in 1975.
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