Divorced wife in £10m settlement returns to court to claim post-separation earnings

THE ex-wife of a travel company boss who had several affairs is demanding a share of his future earnings on top of a £10million divorce, the Court of Appeal has heard. Kim Waggott, 49, a trained accountant, was awarded the settlement after her 21-year relationship with William Waggott, 54, ended.

Challenging a decision made by Recorder Andrew Tidbury in the Family Court last year, she has returned to court to argue she is entitled to a share of his “post-separation” earnings. Mr Waggott, a boss at travel firm TUI – formerly Thomson – says the judge was right “in law and overall fairness” to reject her claim.

Appeal judges have been told that the former couple, who have a teenage daughter, are accountants who met in 1990 when working for Coopers and Lybrand. While Mrs Waggott and their daughter still live in Great Missenden, Bucks, Mr Waggott now lives in Markyate, Herts, with “another lady”.

In early 2011, a few months after Mr Waggott became chief financial officer of TUI, Mrs Waggott discovered her husband was having an affair with a colleague. The relationship ended but she later discovered that he was “again having an affair with another woman”.

Payments that support a divorcee for life are less common now as judges are more likely to accept women are capable of working to support themselves.

Amanda Sandys, of law firm Forsters, said the case raises the prospect of women being awarded payments because of the sacrifices they had made for a family, rather than for financial need. Appeal judges Sir James Munby, Lord Justice Moylan and Mr Justice Macdonald are analysing the dispute at the Court of Appeal in London.