For sale, £50m mansion in sheikh’s divorce battle with ex linked to Andrew
IT WAS the centre of one of Britain’s most expensive divorces, between a supermodel and her Saudi billionaire ex-husband.
And now this 16-bedroom home, complete with swimming pool, tennis court and helipad, is set for a new owner after being put on the market for £50million.
Bishopsgate House in Egham, Surrey, was the marital home of Sheikh Walid Juffali and former Pirelli calendar girl Christina Estrada, 55.
But when the businessman, whose fortune was estimated at £8billion, secretly married another wife, a Leba- nese model 35 years his junior, Miss Estrada sought a divorce – demanding £196million. She was awarded £75million, and Dr Juffali, 61, died from lung cancer less than two weeks after the case was settled in July 2016.
Now his 34-acre estate is being sold, along with a £4million art collection which including pieces by Picasso and Andy Warhol.
US-born Miss Estrada, who lived in Bishopsgate House with their teenage daughter, told the High Court she needed £55mllion for a new London home that met her needs, saying: ‘You have to understand, I’m moving from a 20-bedroom home [Bishopsgate House] to a five- or six-bedroom home.’
She had suggested three ‘ appropriate’ homes, costing £55million to £68million, to substitute for the former marital home near Windsor Castle.
Her other demands included £40,000 a year for a fur coat and £109,000 for dresses. And Miss Estrada, who was once romantically linked with Prince Andrew, claimed an annual travel budget
‘This is what I am accustomed to’
of £2.1million, including nearly £600,000 for private jets and £247,000 to book the Paris Ritz’s presidential suite for a week.
She told family judge Mrs Justice Roberts: ‘I am Christina Estrada. I was a top international model. I have lived this life. This is what I am accustomed to.’ Dr Juffali’s collection of art and antique furniture, put up for auction at Bonhams next month by his children, also includes a stainless-steel dish by Anish Kapoor valued at up to £400,000. Miss Estrada, who is understood to have already received her divorce payout, met Dr Juffali in 2000, when he was already married, but he divorced his first wife to wed Miss Estrada.
But in 2012, he secretly married model Loujain Adada, with whom he had two children. Two years later, he divorced Miss Estrada in Saudi Arabia under Islamic law without telling her.
She had to apply for financial relief in England as she could not bring a case in Saudi Arabia, where polygamy is legal.
A source told the Daily Telegraph: ‘There is a big auction and it is all by agreement.
‘There is money for his third wife, money for the second wife and money for all his daughters. Christina got what the court said she should.
‘It’s all confidential but people got what they wanted.’