Rolf Harris's daughter changes her name as she looks to cut ties
October 19, 2023Rolf Harris’s daughter changes her name as she looks to cut ties with the disgraced entertainer’s toxic legacy
Rolf Harris’s daughter has changed her name in an attempt to cut ties with the disgraced entertainer’s toxic legacy.
The 59-year-old, formerly Bindi Harris, has now assumed the name of Ava Reeves, as she looks towards building her career as an artist.
As Rolf’s only child, Bindi is thought to be a multi-millionaire following the disgraced TV star’s death earlier this year.
A source close to the family told The Sun: ‘Obviously, anything by a Harris is pretty much unsellable so Bindi is working under the pseudonym in a bid to be taken seriously in the art world.
‘She’s chuffed that galleries have begun to take on some of her pieces.’
Harris served three years in jail for a string of indecent assaults.
Rolf Harris ‘s daughter has changed her name in an attempt to cut ties with the disgraced entertainer’s toxic legacy (pictured together in 2014)
The 59-year-old, formerly Bindi Harris, has now assumed the name of Ava Reeves, as she looks towards building her career as an artist (pictured together in 1967)
He died of neck cancer and old age earlier this year after spending the last six years following his release from prison living as a near-recluse with his wife in their £5million riverside mansion in Bray, Berkshire.
News of the abuser’s death on May 10 and his subsequent secret cremation was revealed after it was registered with Windsor and Maidenhead Council, bringing closure to some of his victims.
In June 2014 Harris was convicted of 12 indecent assaults, after a trial exposed an avalanche of evidence showing his disturbing behaviour towards women and girls.
The entertainer was convicted of abusing a close friend of his daughter, Bindi , over the course of 16 years as well as an eight-year-old girl seeking an autograph and two girls in their early teens.
Harris had strongly denied the charges against him, which took place between 1968 and 1986 but was convicted and sentenced to five years and nine months in prison.
Upon his release in 2017 he lived as a near-recluse, with reports he was suffering from neck cancer and this had left him unable to speak, and was seen in a wheelchair when out of the house. An undertaker’s private ambulance was photographed outside his riverside home on May 11.
In a statement released by his solicitor at the time, his family said: ‘Rolf Harris recently died peacefully surrounded by family and friends and has now been laid to rest. They ask that you respect their privacy. No further comment will be made.’
The cause of death was revealed as ‘metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of neck’ – the medical term for neck cancer – and ‘frailty of old age’.
After getting neck cancer, Rolf Harris (pictured during the pandemic) could no longer talk or eat and requires around the clock care
His wife Alwen, 91, a jeweller and sculptor, is in a wheelchair because of Alzheimer’s disease but the couple, who married in 1958 and have one child, lived together with the help of around the clock care
Harris is survived by his grandson Marlon, 25, daughter Bindi, 59, and wife Alwen, 91, a jeweller and sculptor. She is in a wheelchair because of Alzheimer’s disease but the couple, who married in 1958, lived together with the help of around the clock care.
Harris’ health has deteriorated in recent years and that he was hospitalised during his stint in prison when his diabetes spiralled out of control.
‘He’s in poor health and has declined rapidly. He doesn’t come out any more and when he does it’s only ever with his carer,’ one neighbour said in 2019.
Harris hadn’t spoken publicly since his release from jail in 2017 but released a statement in Mr Merritt’s recently released book Rolf Harris: The Defence Team’s Special Investigator Reveals the Truth Behind the Trials.
‘I understand we live in the post truth era and know few will want to know what really happened during the three criminal trials I faced – it’s easier to condemn me and liken me to people like Saville and Glitter,’ Harris said.
‘I was convicted of offences I did not commit in my first trial. That is not just my view but the view of the Court of Appeal who overturned one of my convictions. I had already served the prison sentence by the time of the appeal.
‘I changed my legal team after the first trial, and I was told that if the truth was out there, William (Merritt) would find it and he did.
‘The evidence he found proved my innocence to two subsequent juries.
‘I’d be in prison serving a sentence for crimes I did not commit if it were not for William’s investigation.
‘It is difficult to put into words the injustice that I feel.’
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