PARIS, Sept 4 — The youngest son of legendary French actor Alain Delon is seeking to annul his father’s will, the executor said Tuesday, renewing a family dispute just over a year after the screen icon’s death.

His three children waged a public battle in the media and the courts before his death in August 2024, over his health which had sharply declined after a stroke five years earlier.

Now, Alain-Fabien Delon is going to court in a bid to cancel the will, with a first hearing in March 2026, deeming it too favourable to Alain Delon’s only daughter, Anouchka Delon, said lawyer Christophe Ayela, one of the three executors of the will.

The youngest son “intends to seek the annulment of these acts, since Mr. Alain Delon no longer had the necessary discernment” to make decisions after his 2019 stroke, according to the summons sent last week to his brother Anthony and sister, as well as to the three executors.

The 31-year-old is seeking to annul a 2022 will which made his sister, Anouchka, the sole heir to the rights of the 1963 film The Leopard, in which Delon starred alongside veteran Italian actress Claudia Cardinale.

He is also challenging a February 2023 decision that gave his sister 51 per cent control of the company managing their father’s image and trademark rights.

Delon’s health had deteriorated so severely eight months before his death that a French court placed him under enhanced guardianship for five years.

Ayela said he hoped to mediate between the siblings.

“Alain Delon would not have liked his children to fight over the will, and I am hopeful that we will succeed,” he told AFP.

Lawyers for the eldest brother, Anthony, and for Anouchka Delon did not immediately respond when contacted by AFP. — AFP