WOOHOO that today a London wife won a landmark divorce victory. In my mind there was never any question that she wouldn’t win – it’s just a great shame that she had to take it so far. Her oil trader ex husband basically hid lots of money offshore and refused to give her what was agreed in their divorce settlement.
Disgraceful in my opinion.
Yes, there does seem to be quite a lot of money around to be arguing about – and I’m not sure how much she actually needs, but that is not the point – whilst he was busy amassing their joint fortune, she was busy allowing him to do that by staying at home and bringing up their four children. Is it not therefore only fair that she should share that money, in addition to keeping the house they lived in? I also don’t have a problem with her lack of corporate earning capacity being taken into consideration after being out of the market place for so long to also be considered.
Most divorcing couples have a major issue with the financial split – it’s a sensitive issue – of course it is – but to actually syphon it away and hide it? That is not acceptable. If you don’t have any money then that is an entirely different matter, but to have allowed the “cheat’s charter” to exist that threatened to allow wealthy husbands to avoid paying their dues? That was never going to happen in London. Mrs Prest hailed the ruling “as a victory for women”. I’m not sure it’s a “victory” – it’s all very sad and should have been avoided, however I do agree with her that “it’s a matter of fairness” she says because “I spent 20 years supporting my ex-husband in every way and bringing up our children”. She added “Women in a similar situation will be able to receive what the courts have awarded them and not be subjected to artificial arguments designed to cheat them out of what they’re entitled to”.
She said that the case had “caused her stress and unhappiness” – I’m not sure she’s going to have a lot of sympathy with that now that she’s entitled to pick up her £17.5m but then again, perhaps she’s planning to share it all out.
