LAWYERS WINNING FROM BITTER SPLIT

THE country’s most expensive and longest-running divorce battle is back, despite an eye-watering $40m already spent in legal fees.

The wife, who wanted $278,000 a month, has lost her latest appeal against paying her former husband’s last legal bill of $167,347.

The man has moved to Asia on a declared weekly income of $300,000. His ex-wife lives in Australia where she cares for their autistic son.

The couple met in the late 1980s, married in 1994 and divorced in 2006. The man has been trying to see his son since 2007 but the ex-wife says he becomes anxious when told he has to see his father.

She claimed their son needed the support of four full-time carers, three of whom are her siblings, who are being paid $110,000 a year.

In 2017, the court ruled the wife should get five properties plus cash and assets worth $11.6m on top of the $20m she had received. The judge ordered the wife be given $2m immediately.

The husband wrote out a cheque for the $2m to the wife’s then-solicitors but she refused and went back to court to get the money plus $99,452 interest paid directly to her.

It is from this $2m the court has now ordered the wife pay her husband’s latest bills.