British divorcee wins $30m homemaker's cut

For 23 years Shan Lambert thought of herself as an ordinary wife married to an extraordinary rich man. She cooked the meals, brought up the couple's two children and comforted her husband after he came home from a hard day.

The British Court of Appeal said this week that this entitled her to a half share of her husband's £20 million ($63 million) fortune in a ruling that strikes a blow for wives who feel their contribution has been undervalued.

The case also helps answer the questioned posed by Mrs Lambert's QC earlier this year: "What is a marriage?"

Lord Justice Thorpe, one of the country's leading family judges, said yesterday that it no longer meant the breadwinner's contribution took priority over the homemaker's. His ruling, one of the biggest settlements in English legal history, gives equal rights to wives married to wealthy husbands.

The Lamberts married long before Harry Lambert, aged 58, made his fortune. He was an advertising rep who became chairman of the Adscene group, a Kent-based free newspaper chain, which was eventually sold for more than £75 million.

As the marriage evolved, Shan Lambert took on the running of the family home as well as finding time to have a non-executive role on the Adscene board. But after two decades the marriage foundered, and Mr Lambert left his wife for an Italian lover.

In an attempt to keep hold of his fortune, he argued that he had set up the company nine months before he met his wife and its success was the result of his initiative and drive alone.

But Mrs Lambert, 50, counter-claimed that she had contributed to the success of the business in supporting her husband as his wife and a mother to their children.

No one could argue that Mrs Lambert had suffered financially.

Last year she was awarded the marital home, an old country house called Ringleton Manor, near Sandwich, Kent, worth £1.4 million together with the accompanying Ringleton Lodge, worth £250,000. She was also allowed to keep assets of £2.8 million and was given a lump sum of more than £3 million.

But three Court of Appeal judges yesterday increased her lump sum to £5,751,474 or whatever necessary to ensure she had a half share of the wealth created during the marriage.

Some lawyers have suggested that the ruling might be seen as a gold-digger's charter.

But Lord Justice Thorpe said: "The more driven the breadwinner the less available he will be physically and emotionally both as a husband and a father."

- INDEPENDENT