Kiwi Hamish Hurley and American Mandy Gray's battle over $39 million worth of assets will be tried in the UK, it was decided yesterday. Photos / Supplied
Hamish Hurley and Mandy Gray lived the good life - travelling the world in private jets and a lavish superyacht bought on her dime.
The Kiwi physical therapist and the wealthy American divorcee lived a life of luxury unthinkable to most people - buying sprawling properties and splashing out on supercars while Gray poured millions into Hurley's bank account and businesses.
They spent 15 months sailing, blogging about their travels on a kitted-out $6 million superyacht called Enso. It seemed they were very much in love - Hurley even proposed to Gray several times, although she always refused.
But it all came crashing down after Gray dumped Hurley unceremoniously while they were on holiday in Malta on January 18, apparently over money woes.
Hurley is now battling for a share of $39 million of assets acquired during their six-year relationship.
But he has defended himself against claims of being a gold digger - telling his ex in February he loved her but he couldn't "be with someone who thinks I used them".
Gray's lawyers have claimed Hurley has just $1000 in the bank.
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From the start of the relationship, Gray paid for Hurley's spending - even before she won a $174m payout from her ex-husband, a Texan financier. Before her divorce was finalised, Gray sold two rings for more than $600,000 and put the money in a Swiss bank account she had opened for Hurley. Hurley spent most of the cash ($450,000) on a Ferrari 458 Speciale in 2014.
It was the first of dozens of cash injections including millions poured into Hurley's green juice business, Zuma Juice, and other business proposals including skincare and advertising software.
Over the years the pair splashed out on three more supercars. A Pagani Huayra Coupe ($2.4 million), and a Pagani Zonda R ($4 million) were bought in 2015, and in 2016, Gray claims, Hurley had his heart set on a Ferrari F1 supercar driven in 2003 by Michael Schumacher and she paid $3.8 million to buy it.
All four cars now sit in a garage in Switzerland, registered in Hurley's name. Along with deposits on a Pagani Huayra Roadster - one of only 100 in the world - and a Ferrari 488 Pista, he estimates the fleet is now worth $19 million. The battle also includes about $13.3m in cash.
Affidavits from Mandy Gray have given a more intimate peek into their world - including what she claims were constant money squabbles and fights over whether Hurley could gift an Andy Warhol painting to a friend, and a spat over whether to buy the Schumacher Ferrari, according to the Daily Mail.
The Mail reported that Gray claimed Hurley enjoyed "a lavish international lifestyle funded by me", including rent-free living in her £5 million home in London's Marylebone, clothes from reknowned designer Tom Ford and Michelin-star meals. She funded holidays to India, Thailand, the Maldives, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Brazil.
Hurley went on lengthy yoga and meditation retreats and received $76,000 worth of stem-cell injections, vitamin IVs and ozone treatments, all funded by Gray, according to the Mail.
In 2014 the pair bought a run-down villa on the 16th-century Castello di Reschio estate in Umbria, north of Rome, for $16 million, and nearly the same amount was spent restoring it. The property, known as San Martino, was registered in both their names but Gray now claims Hurley pressured her into buying it and they never spent a single night there.
The pair's most lavish purchase came in May 2016 while they were staying with Hurley's parents in Waverley, New Zealand. They took a helicopter to the headlands of Lake Wanaka, casting an eye over a huge sheep and beef farm called Mt Albert Station. A week later, Gray stumped up $17.2 million for the property, plus millions more for the livestock and plant, according to documents filed in court.
Bordering on Mt Aspiring National Park, the station's pristine alpine views and extensive pasture and river flats are now worth $25 million, Hurley estimates.
The station is owned by the pair's company 4Hector. Hurley owns 76 per cent and Gray the remaining 24 per cent of shares to get around Overseas Investment Office rules.
As the pair's relationship is now dragged through the courts, Gray has accused Hurley of manipulating and "suffocating" her and claimed physical and emotional abuse.
Hurley has strenuously denied those claims and his lawyers accuse Gray of reframing what was a loving and consensual partnership.
Hurley, who was also previously divorced, is now living with his parents in Waverley in the South Island. He wanted the case tried in New Zealand but yesterday Gray won the right to have it tried in the UK.
Outlined in Wednesday's judgement are texts and letters showing the breakdown of the affair - and a letter from Hurley saying even if he never got a penny he was rich thanks to the memories of their time together.
A text from Hurley the day after they split told Gray he still wanted to spend his life with her.
"If not, whilst I feel that you are making the biggest mistake of your life (breaking up) for the stupidest reason (money), I respect you enough to allow you the space to do this."
In a 13-page letter to Gray on February 10 Hurley addressed her claims of gold digging.
"Today...I felt more in love with you than ever before, yet, also at peace in you leaving me and simply wanting the very very very best for you, no matter what you do to me or how you treat me going forward," a portion of the letter reads.
"I think you would really like who I am now. And now I understand what I have to do to make things work for me. I can't be with someone who thinks I used them."
But he said they would be "together again in some future life".
He described a happy memory of them drinking tea on the deck of a one-bedroom house.
"It was more than enough," he wrote. "If that memory is all I have left of us, then that is worth more than all the money in the world can buy and I feel rich."
Hurley has declined to comment to the Herald about yesterday's ruling until he speaks with his lawyers.