A couple who won a ‘dream’ prize after scooping a lodge in Alaska have seen their joy turn to despair after the man who built the property allegedly refused to let them have it.
Emily Padfield and her partner Mark Warner competed against five other couples on the BBC show Win The Wilderness and claimed the prize, but the lodge’s previous owner Duane Ose now says that he won’t let the couple from Warwickshire have it.
To win the three-storey remote home, which is actually named Ose mountain after the owner, they had to perform a selection of unpleasant challenges such as jumping into icy water, and hunting and cooking their own food whilst surviving out there in the wild.
The ‘off grid’ house is powered by solar panels and is 100 miles from the nearest road, it has no running water, is slightly unfinished still, and surrounded by terrain that is home to bears and wolves.
Mark, Emily, Duane, and his wife Rena. Credit: markandemily.com
Some dream, right?
Anyway after signing off for the house in June, the 78-year-old ex-owner now says he wants it back.
Duane lived in the home with his wife until her death in May, and Emily and Mark had stayed with the couple for a month after their victory on the show before returning to the UK.
That was where the problems started to arise, as the legal owners they could show up and take the place, but the coronavirus pandemic has prevented them from doing so just yet.
Now, Duane has reportedly decided he wants to stay in the house.
Ose Mountain. Credit: markandemily.com
He’s also shared several posts on his Facebook page attacking the pair.
Emily told The Times: “We’d been talking to him throughout lockdown, planning to go to Ose Mountain with him to scatter Rena’s ashes, but suddenly he was distant.”
Mark believes that Duane wishes to head back to the homestead and live there.
Mark and Emily. Credit: BBC
He had previously been living in Minnesota.
On Facebook, Duane wrote: “Re Claiming My Legacy, My Home from faux foreigners who do Not Care for my Wishes [sic].”
Now, Emily and Mark face a wait to see what is going to happen with the property.
Source link : https://www.ladbible.com/news/tv-and-film-couple-who-won-alaskan-cabin-denied-their-prize-by-previous-owner-20200920
