Bankrupts who fly high! How Brittany Higgins and David Sharaz have jetted off to the United States ‘thanks to a powerful former TV star benefactor’ – despite crushing debt ruling
Bankrupt Brittany Higgins has flown to the US with her husband and infant son, as rumours swirl that the trip was funded by a powerful benefactor.
Higgins and her husband David Sharaz were bankrupted by her former boss Linda Reynolds following Federal Court proceedings last year, after the former senator successfully argued the couple defamed her on social media.
The ex-Liberal staffer owed about $340,000 in damages and interest to Reynolds plus 80 per cent of her legal costs, estimated at more than $1million. Sharaz owed about $750,000 in legal costs.
Higgins’ assets amounted to about $10,000, the court heard, despite receiving a $2.4million payout in a civil case against the Federal government in 2022.
The couple is now subject to a set of bankruptcy rules, with limitations on earnings, vehicles worth more than $9600, and international travel.
Bankrupt individuals are allowed to travel internationally, but they must surrender their passports to the trustee appointed to recoup the funds, and ask permission from the trustee to fly to other countries.
The Daily Mail understands Higgins and Sharaz were granted permission from their trustees to travel to the US – and with at least one of them out of a job, it’s unlikely they’re funding the trip themselves.
Rumour has it the trip was bankrolled by a high-profile US star ahead of planned speaking engagements together.
Pictured: Brittany Higgins with her son Freddie on a Qantas flight. The photo was uploaded to Instagram on Tuesday
The details of the trip and speaking engagements are unclear, but Sharaz uploaded a photo to Instagram on Tuesday showing Higgins and their 11-month-old son Freddie onboard a Qantas plane.
In the photo, Freddie was smiling and reaching over Higgins to the passenger in the seat behind.
In the caption, Sharaz joked: ‘He’s just…so introverted.’
The couple moved from France to Melbourne last year.
In December, about a week after bankruptcy proceedings, Higgins uploaded a photo to Instagram with her husband and son in Byron Bay.
In the caption, she wrote: ‘Big thank you to dad for shouting us the flights for my b’day and making it happen.’
Higgins is represented by management agency, 22, which also represents David Koch, Jodi Gordon, Kerri-Anne Kennerley, and Sophie Monk.
The Daily Mail previously revealed Higgins left her job as Director of Public Affairs at PR group Third Hemisphere after just five months.
In December, Higgins thanked her father for shouting them flights from Melbourne to Byron Bay, just weeks after bankruptcy proceedings
Linda Reynolds is pictured outside the WA Supreme Court in August, after winning her defamation case against Brittany Higgins
Her appointment was announced in a sprawling interview with the Australian Financial Review in June, during which she said: ‘How long do I have to be the story for?’
She was referring to a barrage of media stories about her television interviews, speeches, and years-long court cases over her rape by former colleague Bruce Lehrmann in Parliament House in 2019. The court cases were not referenced in the AFR story at all, nor was Lehrmann’s name.
Lehrmann was found on a civil balance of probabilities to have raped Higgins – a finding which was upheld by an appeals court earlier in December.
Higgins shared AFR the article on Instagram in June, with the caption, ‘Your girl is finally back in the workforce!’
Her own LinkedIn profile indicates she then left the company in October.
The reason for her departure remains unclear, but it came just two months after she and Sharaz were forced into bankruptcy.
Sharaz joined the same PR firm in March and is still listed on the agency’s website as a director, but his tenure at the firm is unclear.
If Higgins and Sharaz each earned more than $87,000 in one financial year, according to the Australian Financial Security Authority, they would have to make contributions to Reynolds.
If Sharaz had to support two dependents, Higgins and Freddie, he would be able to earn $94,062.42 before anything was given to Reynolds.
Brittany Higgins is pictured at her former home in France, when she was pregnant with Freddie
Reynolds successfully argued that a series of social media posts by Higgins and Sharaz in 2022 and 2023 damaged her reputation and impacted her health.
Sharaz conceded defeat early before the hearing took place in 2024, but Higgins hired a top Perth barrister to argue her case – and lost.
Justice Paul Tottle found Higgins’ posts wrongly implied Reynolds engaged in a campaign of harassment against Higgins, mishandled her rape allegation, and engaged in questionable conduct during Lehrmann’s criminal trial in 2022.
Along with damages and Reynolds’ legal fees, she was also faced with her own legal costs, worth an estimated $600,000.
It came almost three years after she landed a $2.45 million settlement following her civil case against the Commonwealth.
That case was launched over the way her rape complaint.
She was ‘diagnosed as medically unfit for any form of employment, and had been given a very poor prognosis for future employment,’ according to her draft statement of claim.
Bruce Lehrmann (pictured) was found on a civil scale to have raped Higgins in Reynolds’ ministerial suite at Parliament House in 2019
More than half of the sum was in respect of her loss of earnings, while the rest was made up of medical expenses, legal costs and ‘$400,000 for hurt, distress and humiliation’.
The couple purchased a house in France using the proceeds of the settlement, of which she said she retained about $1.9 million.
Following the settlement, Higgins and Sharaz went on a series of holidays, rented a Gold Coast property for about a year, dressed in designer gear, bought a house in France, and spent more than $100,000 on their Australian wedding.
She then sold her house in France to cover her legal costs associated with the defamation case, gave birth to her first child, and relocated to Melbourne.
By the time bankruptcy proceedings commenced, the court heard Higgins’ estate was worth about $10,000.
