My wife’s move to London is divorce tourism says aristocrat
A WEALTHY publishing baron has accused his wife of 17 years of “divorce tourism” after she left their Scottish estate to file for maintenance in the English courts.
Charles Villiers, 54, a distant relative of the Duchess of Cornwall, claims Emma Villiers is “trying it on” by using the more generous legal system south of the border to claim a slice of his £5million fortune. He warned that if she were to win the case, London would become “the maintenance capital of the United Kingdom” and face an invasion of divorcees from other home nations.
The couple married in 1994 and settled in an eight-bedroom, 18th-century country manor with its own loch in Dunbartonshire. They separated in 2012, at which point Mrs Villiers, 58, moved to Notting Hill, west London, with their daughter Clarissa, 22.
Mr Villiers, a racehorse owner and scion of one of England’s oldest families, filed for divorce in Scotland in 2014, but three months later Mrs Villiers applied to the English courts for financial maintenance.
In March last year, Mrs Justice Parker, sitting in London’s High Court, ruled that Mrs Villiers was “habitually resident” in England and approved a monthly £5,500 interim maintenance payment, pending finalisation of the divorce. She said she could see no reason why “divorce should not proceed in one jurisdiction and maintenance in another”.
But Mr Villiers has won the right to challenge that ruling in the Court of Appeal, insisting that an English judge has no right to intervene in a Scottish divorce.
He argued that his wife must fight her case in Scotland where, crucially, inherited wealth is not taken into account when dividing assets after a marriage founders.
Under Scottish law, maintenance payouts are also generally limited to three years after a divorce is finalised, in “marked contrast” to England, where Mrs Villiers could potentially secure financial support for the rest of her life.
After his marriage broke down, Mr Villiers was declared bankrupt. His assets were seized and, although he was discharged from bankruptcy, the family manor was repossessed in 2015.
However, his wife’s lawyers say he is far from penniless, having a half share in a £3.5million trust fund inherited from his grandmother, plus another £600,000 from his mother.
Mrs Villiers said she and her daughter needed £10,000 a month to live on and that her husband had the means to provide that from his inherited wealth.
Her husband insisted that he had no direct access to the family trust fund, and had already provided generously for his daughter.
Michael Horton, his barrister, argued: “A judgment in favour of the wife is effectively rewarding her behaviour in moving from Scotland to England.”
Mr Villiers’ full appeal will now be heard by a panel of three senior judges on a date which has yet to be fixed.