Divorce princess who doesn’t want a king’s ransom
...and she’s even conducting her own case
THE prospect of a blockbuster divorce involving one of Europes’s richest dynasties at the High Court will have had Britain’s top divorce lawyers licking their lips.
So they won’t have been pleased when Princess Tessy of Luxembourg decided not to bother with a QC, and represented herself instead.
The 32- year- old former Nato peacekeeper asked the court yesterday to make an ‘extremely modest’ financial award from her husband, Prince Louis, third son of Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg.
The couple, who have two children, married in 2006. Both were in the Luxembourg army and they met during a peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, but split up last year.
The sums involved in the court case are confidential, but lawyers for the Princess have denied claims she is gold digger, insisting she only wants the court to make a ‘fair and proper’ award.
Mr Justice MacDonald, who has yet to make a ruling on any award, oversaw a private hearing and has restricted what can be reported.
Yesterday, the princess made an eloquent plea for a share of her estranged husband’s fortune, which she said was derived from his family’s substantial wealth.
Previous estimates have put the Grand Ducal Family’s net worth in the billions. Unusually, she has no assistance from legal professionals, even though her estranged husband has hired senior barrister James Ewins QC to head his legal team.
Princess Tessy, who was born in Luxembourg, addressed Mr Justice McDonald in English and summarised her case in a closing speech lasting the best part of a hour.
Outside court, she refused to say why she had not employed lawyers. However, she was accompanied by a ‘McKenzie friend’ – an amateur legal adviser who can offer informal advice. The couple are divorcing in
‘Extremely modest’
an English court because their marital home was in London, and they both still live in the capital.
at a preliminary hearing last year, Mr Justice MacDonald urged them to settle their differences.
Prince Louis renounced his claim to the Luxembourg throne just before their marriage.
The princess was born a commoner, Tessy antony, but was recognised as a member of the royal family and granted her title by royal decree. Their marriage broke down in the summer of 2016 and they were granted a decree nisi last year.