Gayle Rivkin and her eldest sons, Jordan and Damien,
last night revealed their struggle to forgive the stockbroker for
"12 years of wreckage", saying they were left feeling unloved.
"Some of his friendships in the 90s were completely different
from his friendships in the 80s," Mrs Rivkin said. "He discovered a
bunch of playmates. These people just knew exactly what he wanted
and massaged his ego continually. It was just sickening and of
course he loved it."
Mrs Rivkin said her husband had been cruel, narcissistic and
unappealing, and his weekends in the hospital ward of Long Bay Jail
for insider trading now gave her "a sense of relief" from the daily
struggle to keep him alive.
His arrogance during the insider trading trial evaporated with
his collapse in jail, and later in front of Mrs Rivkin he screamed
for 20 minutes and was "frothing at the mouth". He was the "maddest
person" at the private
Rivkin's behaviour changed markedly following an operation for a
brain tumour and his diagnosis with depression around the time of
the 1987 stock market crash. He turned from a "loving and slightly
eccentric" father to becoming "extremely selfish, and cruel",
ignoring his family.
Mrs Rivkin said her husband, on the anti-depressant Prozac,
became a person she no longer knew and she felt "unloved".
"He was always ecstatically happy. Spending money like you can't
imagine," she said.
As well as buying businesses he did not understand - nightclubs,
a jewellery and fashion business and exotic cars - Rivkin fought
with his children. "He told my daughter he didn't love her ... she
was crying ... I told him I'd never forgive him for saying such a
thing," Mrs Rivkin said.
Jordan, 30, said the people his father was associating with were
not there for the "noblest" of reasons.
"My father bestowed quite expensive gifts on these people,
whether it be expensive watches, expensive cars - I'm aware of a
Ferrari that was given to someone."
Damien, 31, said he was hurt by his father's decision to disown
the family and spend time with "these people".
"The reason is clear, his sons were honest with him and these
people weren't, they were willing to tell him how wonderful he was
and we were going to tell him as it, you know, as it was," Damien
said. "We weren't going to flatter him shamelessly."
The family said they found it difficult to forgive Rivkin for the
grief and pain he had caused the family. Mrs Rivkin said she has now
"taken control and cut out all those crazy excesses".
"I am very upset that he's spent so much money and this was going
to be my children's inheritance, and I spent quite a lot of time
last year being very angry at him but now I'm sorry but I'm not
angry at him any more because I can't be," she said. "And it's just
now a fight to try and make him believe that he's got his family who
love him."
Jordan said his father was now "full of regret".
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