Air hostess wins her ex-husband’s £14.5m home ... thanks to ruling made in 1882!

A ForMEr air hostess has won a £14.5million London home from her 90-year- old ex-husband following a legal battle based on a Victorian law.

The mansion was one of five which the successful Saudi Arabian property developer bought during the couple’s 14-year marriage.

Their main home had been a £26million ‘palatial residence’ in Jeddah, for which 40 members of staff were employed to keep it ticking over.

But, after their divorce, the woman moved into the North-West London property, claiming her right to live there as one of their matrimonial homes.

Despite her husband’s attempts to evict her, the wife has now been allowed to keep it as part of a complex legal settlement.

The husband, who is said to be worth £600million, was also made to give his wife their ‘holiday’ property in Cannes, which is worth £12million. Both homes have significant mortgages but have combined equities in them of around £9million.

The judgement, made at the High Court, was based on the woman’s claim to a right to marital property under the 1882 Married Women’s Property Act.

But the judge refused to grant the woman the £205,000 she was seeking annually to spend on jewellery, handbags and cars. He said the woman’s standard of living had been ‘lavish’ but that it was ‘not reasonable’ to expect that to continue.

Mr Justice Moor also pointed out that, had it been an entirely English case, the woman would have been entitled to £44million out of total £287million in assets. Had the same case been heard in Saudi Arabia, the woman – from Lebanon – would have been entitled to all but nothing.

The couple married at the Central London Mosque in 1979 when the man was in his mid 50s and the woman was in her late 20s. They divorced in 1999, before remarrying in 2002. They then separated again in 2013, before divorcing in Saudi Arabia.

She was allowed to bring the case in London because the family had spent most summers in the capital during their marriage.

The Married Women’s Property Act 1882 was an act that significantly altered English law regarding the property rights of married women. Among the laws it introduced, it allowed married women to own and control property in their own right.

Many of the elements have since been superseded by subsequent family law statutes.