See the eye watering sums
London has been dubbed the divorce capital of the world because of its generous awards which makes it a favoured location to bring divorce claims against super rich spouses.
Roman Abramovich who is the world’s 139th richest person with an estimated fortune of almost £9bn is the latest billionaire to separate from his wife of 10 years. His previous divorce cost him £155m but this could prove to be his costliest.
Here are some of the most expensive divorces…
£453.58m divorce
One of the biggest divorce settlements ever agreed by a UK court awarded a former wife of an unnamed oil and gas trader £453m earlier this year.
The 61-year-old Caucasus-born billionaire worked in London as an oil and gas trader before building up energy interests in a Russian company he later sold his shares for $1.37bn in 2012.
The settlement split their martial assets of £1bn 50:50. The payout included £350m in cash as well as a £90.5m modern art collection, a £350,000 Aston Martin and £5m a year for living costs.
£337m divorce
Hedge fund manager Sir Chris Hohn had to pay a third of a £1bn fortune to his ex-wife Jamie Cooper in 2014, which at the time was thought to have been the largest payout in the UK.
Cooper wanted half of the money but received £337m, £200m less than she sought but decided not to appeal after pocketing one of the biggest payouts by an estranged wife.
£75m divorce
Saudi billionare Sheikh Walid Juffali was ordered to pay his former Pirelli calendar girl wife Christina Estrada £75m after a three-year battle.
Estrada was seeking £196m from her former husband for ‘reasonable needs’ such as a £55m home in London, £1m a year for clothes and £335,000 a year for staff.
Juffali died just after proceedings had been concluded after a battle with cancer. If he had died before she would have received nothing, he divorced her under Islamic law without her knowledge and took another wife.
£64m divorce
The chairman of Laura Ashley Holdings Khoo Kay Peng was ordered to pay his ex-wife £64m after a bitter legal battle that racked up legal costs of more than £6m.
Pauline Chai who was married to Peng for 42 years demanded half of his £205m fortune after they split in 2013.
She claimed she was entitled to half as she had contributed to her husband’s success by having been a ‘traditional’ wife but he argued she should only receive £9m.
£3.3m divorce
Russian beauty queen Ekaterina Parfenova was awarded a £3.3m divorce payout from her husband American lawyer Richard Fields in 2015.
Fields was left with £2.6m of the couples £6m fortune after the legal battle cost over £1m.
Leave a Comment