The one question that started a feud in Vanessa Amorosi's family.

Singer-songwriter Vanessa Amorosi is at the tail end of a legal case against her mother, Joyleen Robinson.

The 'Absolutely Everybody' singer is locked in a legal dispute over two properties – one in Melbourne's Narre Warren, and a second in California.

Amorosi says $650,000 of the money she earned from her work as a singer, songwriter and performer was taken out of a trust account to buy a home for her family back in 2001.

Now, the Australian singer has told the court what happened when she asked her mother what exactly happened to her immense wealth.

Watch this clip of Vanessa Amorosi at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Post continues after video.

Amorosi's journey began when she was discovered at 15 years old, singing in a Russian restaurant in Melbourne. There was no social media back then to push artists into the spotlight, so the singer – then still just a teenager in high school – would perform at shopping centres.

She shot to stardom after releasing her first album The Power. In 2000 alone, she earned six ARIA nominations. 

Vanessa Amorosi circa 2000. Image: Getty.

It is reported that Joyleen began a trust fund for Amorosi’s income, which funnelled money from the singer’s sales, royalties and touring, and a portion of the money Amorosi made that year was later used to purchase a property in Melbourne's southeast.

The eight-hectare parcel of land still has the mother-daughter pair listed as joint owners, but now the singer is seeking either full ownership or to hold at least more than 50 per cent of the home.

She's also seeking full ownership of her home in California, which was purchased by the second trust set up by her mother.

Amorosi said her mother bought the Narree Warren property in 2001 before Amorosi had even seen it for herself. 

"When I first saw the house, I was a little disappointed. I didn’t want a massive house like that," Amorosi told the court, according to The Project.

In 2005, the singer bought another home in the Melbourne suburb of Officer using another trust created by her mother to control all her assets.

She told the court she had to take out a loan for the property even though she had been making millions of dollars.

The singer eventually moved to California for career opportunities, and it was here she bought another property, using the Narre Warren and Officer properties, as well as two residential units, in order to take out a loan.

She told the court that she was going to sell the Officer property and the units to put a mortgage down on her home, but it didn’t happen. She then had to sell her California property in 2014.

The singer shared that she became suspicious of her motherat this point, and hired forensic accountants to look into the handling of her wealth.

This decision led to the breakdown of Amorosi's relationship with her family.

"Around the end of 2014, when I knew I was going to be losing the property, there was a lot of turmoil going on," she said, adding that she had also been dealing with the death of her biological dad, Frank Amorosi, who had been estranged from his family since the singer was young.

"I couldn’t get the answers to what had really gone down and why I was losing my house," she later clarified, as per news.com.au.

"I asked her to show me where the money had gone. [She said she'd] spent it all, I should come home and get back to touring... It turned into a bit of a standoff and there was a lot of confusion."

Vanessa Amorosi at the Australian Women In Music Awards 2023. Image: Getty.

The accusations of mishandling money, and Amorosi asking what had happened to her cash, drove a divide between the singer and her family, particularly her two sisters, Natasha and Melissa.

"Asking that question to my mum had my siblings very angry so it started a war between the family," she recalled.

The singer went on to say that when she returned to Australia in 2015 while pregnant, she was refused entry into her own house.

"I kept questioning my mother, so it made everybody pretty angry, and that was it. It was very clear to me that I was not welcome to come home," she said.

The family had been a tight-knit unit in the years after Amorisi's father Frank moved out. In fact, his violent behaviour had been the reason Amorosi's mother claimed the singer gifted her the property.

"When I was married to my first husband I was an abused wife. [Vanessa] always said she would make me a lovely house and look after me," Joyleen told the court.

"I wouldn't take that much money off my daughter so we had the agreement that I thought she understood that when she needed the money I would sell [the house] that I had to have three jobs to pay for."

While the pair are now reportedly 'estranged', Amorosi is seeking proceeds from previous royalties, tour income and investments she alleges went missing, according to the statement of claim.

Her lawsuit also alleges "unconscionable conduct" from her mother, who denies any wrongdoing.

Feature Image: Instagram @vanessaamorosi.