As the ugly details of Springbok rugby legend Jannie Engelbrecht's split from his family emerged in the Cape High Court on Wednesday, the 67-year-old faced the ensuing media storm on his own.
Engelbrecht's estranged wife and former Miss South Africa Ellen (formerly Liebenberg), his son Jean and daughters Angeline Engelbrecht and Judy Graaff are seeking to prevent him from adding or removing trustees from the multimillion-rand family trust.
In papers before the court, Ellen Engelbrecht said she was forced to take action against her husband of 40 years to protect the trust, and therefore the family's financial future.
While neither his wife nor children appeared at Wednesday's hearing, Engelbrecht sat through the entire day's proceedings, attempting to avoid photographers and cameramen by arriving early and leaving late.
Facing accusations that his anger over the shame of an extramarital affair with freelance journalist Romi Boom prompted him to remove his son Jean as a director of the family trust in 2002, Engelbrecht appeared to struggle to contain his emotions.
Advocate Johan van der Berg SC, for Ellen Engelbrecht and her children, said the "heartbreaking" aspect of the case was that it involved "a trust built by a family for a family".
Van der Berg said Engelbrecht's claim - that the terms of the trust gave him the power to appoint and dismiss its directors as he saw fit - denied the "true spirit" in which it was created.
"Jannie Engelbrecht treats the trust like it's a cold piece of paper between him and a group of strangers and not blood of his blood," Van der Berg said.
Among the allegations levelled at Engelbrecht are claims that he appointed his brothers and friends as directors of the family trust in order to manipulate it, used the trust's income for himself despite not being a beneficiary and put the family's wine business at risk by undermining Jean Engelbrecht.
Van der Berg argued that Engelbrecht had failed to provide a single explanation for ousting his 39-year-old son from the family trust - adding that Engelbrecht's statement that he did not like his son's attitude was "unsatisfactory".
Although initially full of praise for his son's work at Rust-en-Vrede, Engelbrecht would later take away his signing power over the farm's account and brand his son as "the main architect" of his divorce.
Jean Engelbrecht - an internationally recognised winemaker, former pilot and friend of golfer Ernie Els - took his father to court over control of the Rust-en-Vrede estate in March 2003, when the two reached an out-of-court settlement.
According to the agreement, Jannie Engelbrecht was not allowed to interfere with the day-to-day running of Rust-en-Vrede and had to personally inform the staff that his son was in charge of the farm.
Only a week after the agreement was signed, Engelbrecht tore it up - later claiming that he had been pressured to sign it against his will.
The case continues before Justice Willem Louw on Wednesday.