More embarrassing leaks of Hope Welker's broken personal life came out on Monday amid reports that financial hardship caused the second youngest daughter of Australia's richest person, Gina Rinehart, to drop the lawsuit she filed against her mother in 2012.

Brisbane Times reported that Ms Welker lost hope of winning the legal battle against her extremely rich and powerful mother after she allegedly separated in December from her husband Ryan Welker who was forced to resign as director of Mineral Resources.

Hancock Prospecting, owned by Ms Rinehart, has some stakes in Mineral Resources.

The Welker couple met in London and married in 2005. They live in New York and have two children.

The financial burden of raising the kids in one of the most expensive cities in the world, no money received from the trust fund established by Lang Hancock, Ms Rinehart's father, and using whatever little money she has saved for legal bills are believed to be the reasons why the Welker couple separated.

After Ms Welker initiated the court action, in which she was joined by sister Bianca and brother John, to have Ms Rinehart removed as the head of the trust after she moved the vesting date by 25 years a day before the trust was supposed to vest, Mr Wesley was pressured by his mother-in-law to leave Mineral Resources.

The Sydney Morning Herald quoted an email from Mr Welker addressed to Ms Rinehart where he declined to submit his resignation as board member as she had requested. He also denied having a hand in influencing the three estranged adult children of Ms Rinehart to file the lawsuit.

"I have no personal claim against you; Hope, Bianca and John can withdraw the action whenever they so choose irrespective of my feelings on the matter. I will continue to support my family, including John and Bianca - even Ginia is she so chooses - to do what I believe is morally and ethically correct, even if that means you and I are in personal conflict for the rest of our lives," he wrote in an email to Ms Rinehart.

Mr Welker was given important positions in the Rinehart companies not only because of his marriage to Hope, but also because of his exposure to mining, having worked at Rio Tinto. He was initially being groomed for succession after John Hancock had a falling out with his mother and Bianca getting married and migrating to Darwin.

During the mother-son falling out, Ms Rinehart even wrote her only son an email asking him to step up after she noticed Mr Welker's real intent on the family wealth.

"Please set a positive example that you will be acting in the interest of the company group and the family . . . Please use your intelligence John to good effect, develop a positive leadership role, sign the deed and don't be talked by a 29-year-old into assisting his [Ryan Welker] ill-conceived and dangerous path," the daily quoted Ms Rinehart's letter to her son.

The stress on the marriage of the Welkers, along with letters from friends of the mining magnate such as Barnaby Joyce and Gloria Schultz for Ms Welker to drop the lawsuit against her mother prevailed.

Latest report said that Ms Welker had settled out of court with her mother, who once was the world's richest woman with a personal wealth of $22 billion.

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