Rolf Harris’s daughter has changed her name in an effort to distance herself from her father’s destructive legacy.
The 59-year-old, once known as Bindi Harris, has changed her identity to Ava Reeves while she pursues a career as an artist.
Following the death of Rolf earlier this year, Bindi is believed to be a multi-millionaire.
‘Obviously, anything by a Harris is pretty much unsellable, so Bindi is working under the pseudonym in an attempt to be considered seriously in the art world,’ a source close to the family told The Sun.
‘She’s overjoyed that galleries are starting to take on some of her work.’
Harris was sentenced to three years in prison for a series of indecent assaults.
The entertainer was convicted of abusing a close friend of his daughter, Bindi, over the course of 16 years as well as an eight-year-old girl seeking an autograph and two girls in their early teens.
Harris had strongly denied the charges against him, which took place between 1968 and 1986 but was convicted and sentenced to five years and nine months in prison.
Upon his release in 2017, he lived as a near-recluse, with reports he was suffering from neck cancer which had left him unable to speak, and was seen in a wheelchair when out of the house. An undertaker’s private ambulance was photographed outside his riverside home on May 11.
In a statement released by his solicitor at the time, his family said: ‘Rolf Harris recently died peacefully surrounded by family and friends and has now been laid to rest. They ask that you respect their privacy. No further comment will be made.’
The cause of death was revealed as ‘metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of neck’ – the medical term for neck cancer – and ‘frailty of old age’.
Harris is survived by his grandson Marlon, 25, daughter Bindi, 59, and wife Alwen, 91, a jeweller and sculptor. She is in a wheelchair because of Alzheimer’s disease.
Harris’ health has deteriorated in recent years and he was hospitalised during his stint in prison when his diabetes spiralled out of control.
‘He’s in poor health and has declined rapidly. He doesn’t come out any more and when he does it’s only ever with his carer,’ one neighbour said in 2019.
Harris hadn’t spoken publicly since his release from jail in 2017 but released a statement in Mr Merritt’s recently released book Rolf Harris: The Defence Team’s Special Investigator Reveals the Truth Behind the Trials.
‘I understand we live in the post truth era and know few will want to know what really happened during the three criminal trials I faced – it’s easier to condemn me and liken me to people like Saville and Glitter,’ Harris said.
‘I was convicted of offences I did not commit in my first trial. That is not just my view but the view of the Court of Appeal who overturned one of my convictions. I had already served the prison sentence by the time of the appeal.
‘I changed my legal team after the first trial, and I was told that if the truth was out there, William (Merritt) would find it and he did.
‘The evidence he found proved my innocence to two subsequent juries.
‘I’d be in prison serving a sentence for crimes I did not commit if it were not for William’s investigation.
‘It is difficult to put into words the injustice that I feel.’
