A millionaire is suing her own daughter for control of their £3 million house because she does not trust her son-in-law.

Diana Lindsay, 85, from Hove, claims she is protecting her daughter “like a lioness with her cubs” by trying to win back a 93% stake in her daughter Beverley’s home.

However, a judge warned that suing 53-year-old Beverley Lindsay for “the roof over her head” could cause irreparable damage to the family bond.

Mrs Lindsay senior, who also owns a £1.5 million seven-bedroom house in Albany Villas, Hove, and properties in Heathfield and Spain, says she will “fight to the death” to keep fourtimes-married Michael Palmer away from her fortune.

At the Royal Courts of Justice yesterday Mrs Lindsay said: “I’m not fighting against my daughter.

“(Mr Palmer) has moved into a house I had valued at £2.5 million to £3.5 million.

He was a 46-year-old married man with two sons – he’s quite well known.

“I’m trying to protect her and make sure she’s got something when I’m dead and gone. He’s laughing now.”

Breaking into tears in the witness box she claimed she was no longer allowed in her daughter’s house and had been forced to spend Christmas in a nursing home. Her daughter denies the claim.

The pair bought the property in Chelsea in 1991, with Mrs Lindsay senior putting in £256,554 and her daughter £19,000.

She says there was an understanding between her and her daughter she would retain an interest in her “London bolt hole”.

But her daughter insists the money was a loan which has now been largely paid back.

The court was told Mrs Lindsay urged her daughter not to be “too gullible”, and to get a pre-nuptial agreement, when she found out about her relationship with married Mr Palmer.

Michael King, for Beverley Lindsay, said: “For about 30 years there had never been any problem between mother and daughter.

“This action is baseless, and is purely motivated by Mrs Lindsay’s dissatisfaction with her daughter’s husband.”

Judge Patrick McCahill told Mrs Lindsay: “You are in the High Court seeking relief for your daughter. You use terms like protection, however you are suing your daughter to receive effective ownership of the roof over her head.

“This might become a bruising encounter between mother and daughter..”

The hearing continues.