Brittany Higgins and David Sharaz have put their French home on the market, weeks after flagging that the property had to be sold to fund mounting legal fees.
An advertisement for the house, east of Bordeaux, shows it listed for €420,000 (A$690,000).
The 160 sq metre three-bedroom house on more than an acre of land has a swimming pool and is described as “filled with charm on a well-kept garden”.
It is located a 10-minute drive north of Bergerac.
Higgins said in July that she was being forced to sell the home to defend the defamation action brought by the Liberal senator Linda Reynolds. Her legal fees in the case have already exceeded $1m.
The former defence minister is suing Higgins in the Western Australian supreme court for damages over a series of social media posts she says damaged her reputation.
Despite an apology from Higgins earlier this year, mediation has failed, and the matter went to trial. Closing arguments are being heard in the case this week.
Higgins has claimed a defence of truth, saying Reynolds mishandled her 2019 rape allegation – which was made public in 2021 – and did not properly support her.
Earlier this year, Higgins’ former colleague Bruce Lehrmann lost a defamation case he brought against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson.
Justice Michael Lee found in that case that, on the balance of probabilities, Lehrmann raped Higgins in Reynolds’ office in Parliament House.
“This will be Brittany’s third court case and one of numerous legal processes surrounding her rape at Parliament House,” a spokesperson for Higgins told Guardian Australia in July.
“The legal costs have already amounted to well over $1m and will continue to grow with the defamation action brought about by Senator Reynolds.”
Reynolds says she wants to defend her reputation from the allegation she had “failed to support Ms Higgins” after the alleged rape and had instead “subjected her to a dreadful and damaging political cover-up”.
Higgins, who married Sharaz in June and announced her pregnancy the following month, moved to France to start a new life after she was subjected to severe media scrutiny and online bullying.
“Brittany relocated overseas to heal and escape the online attacks she received, particularly in the wake of the Channel 7 Spotlight program that elevated her rapist,” the spokesperson said in July.
“Brittany is now forced to sell her home in order to defend herself again.
“The price of speaking out about sexual assault remains unspeakably high.”
