Tycoon files for divorce 19 days after model, 24, gives birth to their son
A BRITISH model is stranded in America with her baby after her multi-millionaire husband launched divorce proceedings stopping them leaving the country.
Angus Mitchell, 44, decided his marriage to Sian, 24, was over just 19 days after their son Dylan was born.
Now she claims to be unable to take their son out of the US state of California until divorce proceedings have been resolved by the courts.
Last night Mrs Mitchell’s grandmother Pauline Morgan, 78, said: ‘Sian’s done nothing to warrant this. She loved him and she thought he loved her. It’s like being in a prison there. She’s got no one.’
Angus Mitchell is the son of the late Scottish-born hair stylist Paul Mitchell who died in 1989, and now part owns the Paul Mitchell haircare company whose products are sold in the UK.
He met Sian at a hairdressing event in London 18 months ago and the model fell ‘head over heels’ in love, a friend said yesterday.
They soon married but just nine months later and 19 days after their son was born, Mr Mitchell filed for divorce. Mrs Mitchell only learned of the proceedings six weeks later when she was handed divorce papers by the chef at the mansion the couple shared in Los Angeles.
She had ‘no clue’ of her new husband’s intentions, the friend said, adding Mrs Mitchell had ‘gone through hell’.
Mr Mitchell has been married once before and has spoken in interviews of how he had become engaged more than once but changed his mind at the last minute. He told the New York Times: ‘I was like the runaway bride.’ Mrs Morgan, from Great Wyrley, Staffordshire, said she hoped to travel to the US in the New Year to see Dylan.
Mrs Mitchell – a former X Factor contestant who grew up in Great Wyrley – is now living in rented accommodation and her mother has been in America to keep her daughter company.
Describing the American millionaire, Mrs Mitchell’s friend said: ‘He made a big thing of proposing to her in front of all of her family.’ He then threw a lavish party to celebrate the engagement, she said.
The friend, who met Mr Mitchell while he was in Britain, added: ‘Anyone who has half a heart would not do this six weeks after having a baby. It is the total disregard for the mother of your child.
‘He’s got the best lawyers, everything is accessible to him, you can’t fight against that.’ The case has been brought to public atten- tion by the family’s MP, Gavin Williamson, who is now lobbying the Foreign Office in a bid to get Mrs Mitchell back to Britain.
The Tory MP for South Staffordshire said: ‘My concern and her family’s concern is for a young woman alone in a foreign country.’
Mrs Mitchell’s LA-based divorce lawyer, Christoper Melcher, said last night: ‘Sian has not claimed that she is imprisoned here. She is going through a difficult time going through a divorce with a very young child. She does want to relocate with Dylan, who is six months old, to the UK.’
He said there was nothing unusual in the way the case was being handled through the Californian court system with neither parent able to remove a child from the state without permission.
But Mr Melcher said the way the case has been handled by the hair products heir has been ‘especially hurtful’ to his client.
Mr Mitchell’s representatives had not returned calls for comment last night.
‘She’s gone through hell’