Property developer Sean Dunne gave his wife assets worth R1-billion after their wedding in exchange for "love, affection and cooking the odd meal". Gayle Killilea, he told irate creditors, was not partial to prenuptial agreements.The former gossip columnist with a penchant for high heels is fighting tooth and manicured nail in courts on three continents to keep the fortune bestowed on her, which includes a four-star hotel in Cape Town.Dunne - nicknamed the Baron of Ballsbridge - was worth €500-million before his property empire collapsed in Ireland in 2007.Now officially bankrupt, with debts of almost €700-million (about R9.5-billion), he has made creditors suspicious with his generous "gift". They claim he fraudulently shifted assets to his wife, out of their grasp.Attempts to trace his wealth, and settle the mountain of debt, have led investigators to Lagoon Beach in Cape Town and a mansion on Dublin's "finest residential road", rented until recently for nearly R200000 a month as the residence of South Africa's ambassador to Ireland.Lagoon Beach Hotel has 200 en suite rooms and holiday apartments. Irish officials have blocked a bid by Killilea to pocket R260-million by selling the hotel.Judge James Yekiso handed down a ruling in the High Court in Cape Town in January describing Dunne's affairs as being structured in a web of companies and trusts in tax havens. Hotel ownership shifted from him to offshore entities run by Killilea. The court rejected claims she needed to sell the hotel to fund a R95-million UK property purchase and ordered the proceeds of sale, should the transaction go ahead, frozen.block_quotes_start It is described as both luxurious and a monument to bad taste by newspaper readers in Ireland block_quotes_end"Efforts to trace the flow of the proceeds ... will be nigh impossible given the ease with which funds can be transferred internationally ... and the fact that Mrs Dunne controls a network of companies registered in multiple jurisdictions around the world," said Yekiso.Dunne's six-bedroom mansion, named "Ouragh" and set behind electric gates in Ballsbridge, Dublin, is now being sold to claw back cash for some creditors. Peter Kenny, associate director at Colliers International real estate, said the asking price was R95-million.South Africa's previous ambassador to Ireland, Azwindini Jeremiah Ndou, lived there for three years until September 2014, when creditors ended the lease.full_story_image_hleft1"The profile of the residents on the road, as you might expect from the top residential road in Dublin and indeed in Ireland, is made up of captains of industry and top-of-the-line professionals," Kenny said.The four-storey mansion has a customised bar, gym, sauna, spa bath and walk-in shower in the master bedroom, gas-fired underfloor heating and its own lift. It is described as both luxurious and a monument to bad taste by newspaper readers in Ireland.Dunne explained his extraordinary "gift" to Killilea when he faced creditors at a hearing in Connecticut, where he had filed for bankruptcy.His assets included the most expensive house purchased - for €58-million - in Ireland, on the same street as Ouragh.Asked what he received in return, he said: "Love and affection and children," and "having a happy marriage, cooking the odd meal, washing the odd shirt ... the very odd one," reported the Irish Independent.The agreement was struck during a holiday in Thailand in 2005, not long after their wedding aboard a yacht which had belonged to Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.Neither the hotel's general manager nor its directors responded to questions about the property.jurgensa@sundaytimes.co.za..