Hollywoods set for £10m divorce court showdown
PAUL Hollywood’s estranged wife Alex is gearing up to claim half of the celebrity baker’s reported £10million fortune in the divorce courts.
Mediation between the couple over how to divide their assets has failed – so they now face a warts-andall showdown where details of their wealth will come under the microscope.
In August last year Mrs Hollywood cited ‘adultery’ as the reason for the breakdown of their 20-year marriage.
The Great British Bake Off judge, 53, and his 24-year- old girlfriend Summer MonteysFullam have denied they were an item before the marriage ended, and it is understood that he has formally denied adultery as grounds for divorce.
Legal sources indicate that the issue of why the marriage broke down will have no bearing on the size of the eventual settlement, however.
This will start from a principle of a 50/50 division of marital assets which include everything from property to his businesses and pensions – and any of Mrs Hollywood’s earnings and contributions.
Hollywood himself has just signed a new £2million, twoyear deal to continue presenting Bake Off on Channel 4, and has a range of baking mixes and icings, plus income from his many successful cookbooks.
There is also the large £2.5million Kent house that he and his wife moved into only a few months before the split, where she now lives with their son Josh, 17, and their labrador.
Although a court date has not yet been set, it seems that it will happen over the next few weeks. Legal fees are said to already extend d well into six figures.
While 90 per cent of f divorces are settled without t going to court, sources close e to the negotiations say that t this split was ‘ only ever’ ’ going to end in court.
They also say Mrs Hollywood is looking forward to having her say about the end of the marriage and her estranged husband’s wealth.
Hollywood is expected to attend any hearing – possibly y supported by Miss s Monteys-Fullam.
The former barmaid is a keen equestrian and owns ns four horses, two of which h were reportedly gifts from Hollywood. Indeed, last week he uploaded a photograph of himself looking somewhat nervous astride a black horse on Instagram.
The couple have recently moved into a £1.3million Kent farmhouse which they are refurbishing at great expense. The four- bedroom 18th- century home is set on two acres of land.
Miss Monteys-Fullam has a wardrobe of designer clothes, jewellery and handbags and the pair have taken weekend breaks as well as trips to Verbier for the skiing and to Mauritius.
Hollywood’s apparent Lord of the Manor makeover has amused some of his followers on social media.
After he posted the horseriding photo, one remarked that, with his high-visibility clothing, he looked more like the mounted division of a wheel-clamping unit.
Hollywood once said that cars – not baking or horses – have always been his ‘greatest love’. He drives a £ 200,000 Lamborghini, races Aston Martins and also adores motorbikes.
While he may not be a natural in the saddle, his girlfriend has been horse-mad for her whole life and their new home has stabling for her horses. The property is registered in both their names, a sign of how seriously he is taking the romance.
It is said this is a ‘dry run’ for a baby for the couple, who are undeterred by the negative publicity which their romance has attracted.
Sources say they are hoping to marry as soon as he is free.
Hollywood and Miss MonteysFullam are said to have met in May 2017 when he called in at the Duke William pub in Ickham, where she was working, to arrange a birthday party for his wife.
Earlier this year he bought Miss Monteys-Fullam a £9,000 ruby ring and he spent the same amount on a hot tub as a birthday gift this month, complete with a sound system. He is also said to have put a £100,000 Range Rover at her disposal.
Since the marriage ended, Mrs Hollywood has not dated anyone and has said she cannot even consider dating until the divorce is settled.
Instead, she has been concentrating on trying to relaunch a career as a cook in her own right, saying: ‘I’ve moved on. I want to live my life.’
She has denied reports that she made a scene in the car park of Marks & Spencer in Canterbury when she bumped into Miss Monteys-Fullam and her family there in February this ye year. She was alleged to have ca called the younger woman a ‘s ‘ slut’ and a ‘ whore’, but re responded that she did not us use abusive language and that po police were not called.
The Hollywoods married in 19 1998 and the union survived h his fling in 2013 with TV cook Marcella Valladolid, whom he met while making The American Baking Competition ti in the US.
Within weeks he declared t that he had made a terrible mistake and loved Alex, who took him back.
However, she said in an i interview that his relationship with Miss Monteys-Fullam had been a different matter and she had been unable to even think of forgiving him again.
‘Everybody’s allowed one m mistake,’ she said.
‘It happened again and it was a done deal, my marriage was over.’
Friends say that she has found the process of extricating herself from the marriage exhausting, though, and the conflicts over money distressing.