Wife secures $518m divorce settlement as court rules billionaire husband used coercive tactics

A British court found a husband had “deployed a number of scare tactics” to rattle his former partner. Photo / NZME

A billionaire’s wife has won £230 million ($518m) in her divorce after her husband threatened that she would have to work at a supermarket.

The wife, whose name was not revealed, was awarded the third-largest divorce settlement in English history after the Family Court found her husband’s coercive behaviour eroded his wife’s free will.

Justice Cobb found that the husband “deployed a number of scare tactics” to rattle his former partner.

The judgment found he told his wife that if she adhered to a postnuptial agreement they signed in 2021, she would bankrupt the family and she would end up “working on the tills at Tesco”.

The wife, who was diagnosed with anxiety and depression after their separation, said she felt “cornered” and “trapped” by his behaviour, the judgment read.

Justice Cobb also found the husband ostracised his wife from her lawyer, as he “sought to drive a wedge between them for his own advantage”.

In reaching a decision, Justice Cobb said: “I am satisfied, from all that I have read and heard, that the wife was ultimately placed in a position of obvious disadvantage.

“I am further satisfied that the husband sought to frighten the wife by telling her that he would ‘explode’ the trusts and that consequently the family would become bankrupt.”

The judgment said the pair had come from relatively modest financial backgrounds.

The wife said her family was “very poor” and the judgment heard that the pair began married life with “zero... absolutely nothing”.

The now-separated couple, who have three children educated at day and boarding schools in England, became wealthy after the entrepreneurial husband floated his company.

In 2012, the husband founded a technology company, which led to an estimated wealth of £1.5 billion, which the wife described as being “rich beyond our wildest dreams”.

Six years later, the couple decided to relocate to Britain because of security fears in their own country and to provide their children with an English education.

The judgment revealed that by 2020, the couple’s marriage was bound by the country they had left, known as “Country A”.

This meant that all the assets acquired during their marriage were owned equally and subject to equal division on divorce.

In the middle of 2022, the marriage ended, and the couple separated before the wife issued an application for divorce on September 2.

At that time, it is estimated they had amassed a wealth of £1.82b, but this fell to an estimated £545m at the time of the settlement.

Claire Gordon, the Farrer and Co partner who represented the wife, said: “In this landmark judgment, the Family Court has recognised the strain that a build-up of persistent and attritional conduct places on relationships, and that this can ultimately erode a person’s free will.

“There does not need to be a ‘blow-up’ event or an interaction for there to be improper pressure or control – the effects of such conduct are insidious.

“It was a privilege to support our client in this case, which we expect to have wider implications for others in a similar situation.”

The costs awarded to the wife equate to approximately 44.4% of the marital assets, the judgment read.