British web designer: My teen f ling with wife in £450m divorce battle
A WEB designer has admitted having an affair with the wife of a billionaire oligarch at the centre of Britain’s biggest divorce.
Mark Isle had an affair with Tatiana Akhmedova, 45, during her marriage to Russian oil tycoon Farkhad Akhmedov, 62 – who is fighting the couple’s record £453million divorce settlement.
Mr Isle was just 19 when he met the married mother- of-two outside her sons’ school.
Of the relationship, he said: ‘I know my name has been said in court as part of the divorce hearing but I’d rather not become involved … I am really piggy in the middle of two people arguing over silly amounts of money.’
‘All I will say for now is that I was single at the time and I have moved on with my life,’ he told Mail Online. ‘I am engaged now to a wonderful woman.’
Mr Isle, 37, from Weybridge, Surrey, said he had not benefited financially from the affair, which began in 2000. Mr Akhmedov, a devout Muslim, claims he found out about it that year and divorced his ex-wife shortly afterwards in Moscow. However, Mrs Akhmedova claims the marriage continued for another 14 years for the sake of their sons before she filed for divorce in 2014.
Mrs Akhmedova claimed her husband had a series of affairs during this period.
She told the court that although Mr Akhmedov spends only 90 days a year in the UK for tax purposes, when together they slept in the same bed and had sex.
She added that they regularly went on holiday and her ex-husband supported her financially throughout this period.
Having filed for divorce Mrs Akhmedova was granted a decree nisi – effectively approving a date for the split – by a British court in December 2015. The Farkhad Akhmedov and Mark Isle divorce was finalised in 2016 and she was awarded £453million.
But since the hearing Mr Akhmedov and his ex-wife have been locked in a bitter legal dispute after the billionaire refused to hand over the money.
Mr Akhmedov, who was born in Azerbaijan, says the British court ruling has no jurisdiction over the two Russians – despite his wife taking British citizenship and having lived here since 1993, the year they married.
Mrs Akhmedova had struck up a friendship with Mr Isle on the school run. Her sons attended the same school as Mr Isle’s younger brother.
Mr Akhmedov claimed he and his exwife divorced in Moscow in 2000.
His legal team produced documents claiming to prove this but Mrs Akhmedova’s lawyers found no evidence in Moscow’s official court records.
The court judgment concluded the Russian divorce documents were forged.
Mrs Akhmedova argued she was due half of her ex-husband’s £1billion fortune because of ‘equal contributions’ to the family’s welfare during the marriage.
The billionaire made his fortune when he sold shares in Russian firm ZAO Northgas for almost £1billion in 2012.
Spokesmen for Mr Akhmedov and his ex-wife were unavailable for comment.
‘I’m piggy in the middle now’