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Let’s rewind to the roots of this tangled web. Annie Guthrie, once the golden child of Nancy and late husband Robert, built a life of apparent glamour: Successful real estate career, two adorable kids, and that whirlwind romance with Alex Rivera after her secret split from Italian hubby Tommaso Cioni. But beneath the gloss? Cracks galore. Financial woes – bankruptcy shadows, gambling whispers – and family feuds over Nancy’s nest egg, a tidy $500,000 from life insurance and savings. Insiders say Annie borrowed chunks to fund her lavish lifestyle, including that $650,000 mansion buy last March. “Nancy was wary,” confided family friend Marjorie Ellis, 70, over tea in her kitchen. “She loaned the money but with strings – ‘Pay it back or no more.’ Annie resented it, called her mum ‘controlling’ in heated calls we overheard.”
