Former model gets a billion rands to keep her in style she’s accustomed to
A BRITISH court has awarded a £53-million (R1-billion) divorce settlement to a former model who had demanded almost four times that from her Saudi billionaire husband — including £1-million a year just for clothes.
Lawyers for American Christina Estrada, 54, said the total settlement amounted to £75-million, including the value of her existing assets.
She had asked for £196-million from her 61-year-old husband, Sheikh Walid Juffali, but thanked the court after the ruling.
“I am fully aware that the spectacular life Walid and I led was immensely fortunate and rarefied. And I fully understand how this can be perceived in the wider world,” she said in a statement.
In hearings during which she was cross-examined on her material needs, she told the court: “I was a top international model. I have lived this life. This is what I am accustomed to.”
She said she needed £60-million for a home in London, £4.4-million for a country house in Henley-on-Thames and £495 000 for five cars.
Her clothing budget included an annual £40 000 for fur coats, £109 000 for haute couture dresses and £21 000 for shoes.
Juffali is terminally ill with cancer and undergoing treatment in Switzerland. He divorced Estrada under Islamic law without her knowledge and married a 25-year-old Lebanese model in 2012.
London, known as the divorce capital of the world, is particularly attractive for wives because awards are higher than in other parts of the world.
Thousands of wealthy Chinese, Russians, Americans and Europeans, many of whom work in the city’s financial district or own property in Britain, now end their marriages before UK judges.
Late Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky reportedly paid up to £220-million to his ex, Galina Besharova, in 2011.
Jamie Cooper-Hohn, the estranged wife of a London financier, was awarded £337million in 2014. —
I fully understand how this can be perceived in the wider world