Tamara's Versailles: A 50-seat cinema, a gilded ballroom and 15 bathrooms... F1 heiress's £78m palace to keep up with her sister

When it comes to sibling rivalry, no one is quite so extravagantly competitive as the Ecclestone sisters. Now their oneupmanship has spread to the most exclusive tier of the American property market. For just a few months after Petra bought a mansion once named as the most expensive home in the States, Tamara is set to move into the house ranked No 2 – just down the road.

The older daughter of Formula  1 tycoon Bernie Ecclestone is eyeing up the lavish Fleur de Lys estate to add to her property portfolio, undeterred by its £78 million asking price. The five-acre estate in the Holmby Hills in Bel Air, Los Angeles, was modelled on Louis XIV’s Palace of Versailles – and certainly contains all the opulent luxuries a modern-day princess could demand.

As well as its 12 bedrooms and 15 bathrooms, the mansion contains a 50-seat, satin-lined private cinema, a two-storey wood-panelled library stocked with first-edition books and garage parking for nine cars. Not to mention a gym, a ballroom based on Louis XIV’s Hall of Mirrors at Versailles and a formal dining room. 

A moving story: Tamara' relocation to the Fleur de Lys mansion will be chronicled on an American reality TV show

Italian marble walls, French limestone floors and gold-embossed leather wall coverings all add to the decadent feel. And outside, the property boasts a spa pool with its own kitchen, an ornamental garden, a 1,200-metre running track, a championship tennis court and a folly – plus private quarters to house  up to ten live-in domestic staff

The 45,000 sq ft house, tucked  away behind gates and a 200-yard driveway, was commissioned in 1996 by Texan billionaire David Saperstein for his wife Suzanne. It was completed in 2002 – but less than two years later the couple’s 23-year marriage collapsed.  

 

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Mrs Saperstein was awarded the estate in the divorce, and put it on the market in 2006 for £78 million. In 2010, Forbes magazine named it as the  second most expensive property in America – behind late TV guru Aaron Spelling’s 123-room mansion, The Manor, just down the road. 

Sibling rivalry: Just a few months after Petra Ecclestone (right) bought the mansion once named the as the most expensive home in the States, Tamara is set to move into the house ranked No2 -  just down the road

Silver screen: Tamara can invite 49 of her closest friends to watch the latest blockbusters in her private cinema

Time to reflect: The gilded ballroom features mirror-clad arches based on those in the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles, as well as impressive chandeliers and a ceiling fresco

And that was the home Petra bought from Spelling’s widow last year for a ‘bargain’ £53 million. It is the largest in Los Angeles County, and boasts a room solely designed for cutting flowers.

The amount Petra paid for The Manor suggests Tamara might be able to drive a hard bargain on Fleur de Lys – even though Mrs Saperstein has never dropped her price in the six years the estate has remained unsold.

Tamara, 28, already owns a £45 million home in Kensington Palace Gardens – London’s ‘billionaires’ row’ known as the most exclusive address in Britain.

That 55-room mansion is currently undergoing an £18 million renovation, due for completion next month. It includes a £1 million bathtub and  special wardrobes for her £500,000 handbags collection.

Hints of chintz: With its gold-embossed walls, the bedroom features a clutter of antique furniture - including the canopied bed, chaise longue and dressing table - as well as gold-framed paintings

 Ready for a feast: A gold and floral theme dominates the dining room, which can comfortably seat 16 guests (left) while the two-storey wood-panelled library (right) is stocked with first-edition books

She is looking at Fleur de Lys as she relocates to Tinseltown this month. An eight-part reality series for American television will chart her move to the States – and Tamara plans to rent the lavish property before buying it.

The series follows the three-part programme Billion $$ Girl for Channel 5, which similarly offered viewers an insight into her lifestyle, funded by her father’s £2.3 billion fortune.

However, it has been a tumultuous year for Tamara, who separated from her boyfriend Omar Khyami after she discovered he had cheated on her – and made a sex tape of his encounter.

So it is a strange coincidence that  she is moving into an estate that is available only because of another romantic split.

Making a splash: The Romanesque outdoor pool, surrounded by sun-loungers... and if swimming makes you peckish, the columned pool house comes with its own kitchen

Saperstein, who made his fortune developing the idea of using helicopters to provide up-to-date traffic reports, left Suzanne in 2003 for Hillevi Svensson, the family’s 32-year-old Swedish nanny.

The divorce, one of the most expensive in US history, came after Saperstein served his wife with divorce papers as the family’s Gulfstream IV made a stopover in Houston en route from California to Europe. The reason was Texas is thought to be more sympathetic to men than California when it comes to alimony settlements.

Mrs Saperstein was once described in a Vanity Fair profile as ‘probably the world’s No 1 consumer of haute couture and 18th Century furniture’ – rumoured to buy matching designer sweaters and shoes in every colour available.

In the past two years the Ecclestone sisters have built a similar reputation for profligacy, including spending more than £100 million of the family fortune buying up homes in some of London’s most prestigious postcodes.

Neighbours: The Mnor - the 123-room plae also in the Holmby Hills - that little sister Petra bought

In 2010, Petra, now 24, paid £56 million for a Grade II listed townhouse in Chelsea, West London, previously owned by JCB billionaire Sir Anthony Bamford. And she spent a reported £11 million on her Italian wedding to businessman James Stunt last year.

Her statuesque mother Slavica – who divorced Bernie in 2008 after 23 years of marriage – said at the time: ‘I don’t care how much the wedding cost, as it was once-in-a-lifetime occasion. It was worth every penny because it made my daughter happy. Who cares about money?’