Stay-home husband in £11m divorce battle with banker wife
A HOUSE husband and his investment banker wife are locked in an £11million divorce battle after a fierce holiday row proved the final straw for their marriage
Weng Choy and his breadwinner wife Lena Tan lived an opulent lifestyle during their 15-year marriage, enjoying homes in Hong Kong and Malaysia, a £1million wine collection and the ‘jewel in the crown’ of their marital assets, a £4.5million flat in Kensington, west London.
Mr Choy, 56, filed for divorce in January 2012 after a row on New Year’s Eve while on a family holiday in Singapore.
He is asking the English courts – renowned for their generosity in deciding divorce settlements – to hand him a slice of the marital assets, which have been valued by lawyers at £11million. Mr Choy, who was also a banker, according to his lawyers, before
‘Hit the rocks on New Year’s Eve’
quitting to care for the couple’s two sons, claims he sacrificed his own career so that his wife’s could flourish. But Miss Tan, 54, a leading hedge fund manager who has worked in the City as well as the Far East, is arguing that her husband has no right to divorce her in the UK and has initiated her own proceedings in Malaysia.
James Turner QC, for Miss Tan, who is asking the Appeal Court to block the English divorce bid, said that following a falling out in London in September 2010, the couple’s marriage hit a crisis but had survived until it ‘struck the rock of the row on New Year’s Eve 2011’.
A High Court family judge ruled in March last year that the husband had been ‘habitually resident’ in London for at least a year before he filed for divorce and so was entitled to end his marriage in the UK.
However, Mr Turner argued that, despite more than half of the cou- ple’s wealth being invested in Britain, the judge should not have allowed the divorce to proceed.
He insisted that the husband’s home had remained in Hong Kong and that the marriage had been intact until the fateful holiday row.
‘Married family life between the parties continued to some degree at least,’ he said, ‘and had Hong Kong as its centre, until a row took place between the parties during the Christmas 2011, New Year 2012 period, following which the husband came to England.’
Mr Turner also said it was unfair that, after agreeing to pay £500,000 to her husband from the proceeds of their wine collection, the wife had also been ordered by the High Court to pay him a further £100,000 towards his legal bill.
Tim Bishop QC, for the husband, insisted that his home base had been in London since the 2010 argument.
‘When the centre of the husband’s interest ceased to be Hong Kong, London was the natural and obvious replacement,’ he said.
The Malaysian-born couple’s two children had both boarded at English schools, he added. ‘The judge found that they had an international marriage which involved them moving around the world following the wife’s work. After the marriage broke down... the husband’s centre of interests ceased to be dictated by the wife’s working life.’
Mr Choy has obtained a British driving licence as well as a National Insurance number, he added.
Lord Justice Leveson, Lord Justice Aikens and Lady Justice Macur reserved their judgment on the case and will give their ruling at a later date.
A businessman asked his partner of 30 years whether she would stay on as a housekeeper when he moved his new lover into their home, the High Court heard yesterday.
And the man – worth more than £13million – could not understand why his partner then ‘ became aggressive through her lawyers’, a judge said.
The request emerged yesterday as the woman was awarded a payout of more than £6million by Mr Justice Bodey.
He said his judgment could be reported but said the couple, from London, could not be identified.
‘The husband installed the other woman – and her 12- year- old daughter – into the marital home,’ said judge.
‘The husband told [his partner] he was not intending her to vacate and would she remain as some sort of housekeeper?’
He said she found the suggestion ‘very demeaning and upsetting’.