When it comes to sibling rivalry, no one is quite so extravagantly competitive as the Ecclestone sisters. Now their oneupmanship has spread to the most exclusive tier of the American property market. For just a few months after Petra bought a mansion once named as the most expensive home in the States, Tamara is set to move into the house ranked No 2 – just down the road.

The older daughter of Formula  1 tycoon Bernie Ecclestone is eyeing up the lavish Fleur de Lys estate to add to her property portfolio, undeterred by its £78 million asking price. The five-acre estate in the Holmby Hills in Bel Air, Los Angeles, was modelled on Louis XIV’s Palace of Versailles – and certainly contains all the opulent luxuries a modern-day princess could demand.

As well as its 12 bedrooms and 15 bathrooms, the mansion contains a 50-seat, satin-lined private cinema, a two-storey wood-panelled library stocked with first-edition books and garage parking for nine cars. Not to mention a gym, a ballroom based on Louis XIV’s Hall of Mirrors at Versailles and a formal dining room. 

Italian marble walls, French limestone floors and gold-embossed leather wall coverings all add to the decadent feel. And outside, the property boasts a spa pool with its own kitchen, an ornamental garden, a 1,200-metre running track, a championship tennis court and a folly – plus private quarters to house  up to ten live-in domestic staff