Wrath of the Ocado king’s wife: I have been obliterated... he’s a control freak
He’s divorcing me for MY ‘unreasonable behaviour’? What about his glamour model lover playing mum to the kids I can’t see? Or topless dancers at my son’s bar mitzvah? The grocer’s ex delivers a stunning rebuke via friends
FOR a company whose name is synonymous with aspirational family values, the publicity could hardly be more unfortunate. When it was revealed yesterday that Ocado boss Tim Steiner had split from his wife of 14 years and the mother of his four children, and moved in with a model two decades his junior, the news shone an unforgiving spotlight on the personal life of the man behind the wildly successful online supermarket brand. But those who know Steiner, 46, and his wife Belinda, 45, say the truth behind the split is far more acrimonious than has been reported.
In fact, it could not be further removed from the idyllic vision of wholesome, prosperous family life Ocado’s customers are buying into when they place an order.
A publicly available decree nisi shows that Steiner, a former Goldman Sachs bond trader, has launched divorce proceedings against his wife, citing her ‘unreasonable behaviour’ as the cause of the marriage breakdown.
The tycoon, whose fortune is estimated by The Sunday Times rich-list to be £116million, has hired celebrity lawyer Fiona Shackleton, who also acted for Paul McCartney in his divorce case against Heather Mills.
But as the scene is set for one of Britain’s most high profile – and expensive – divorce battles, his wife has a very different version of events.
Rather than her own unreasonable behaviour, friends of the couple say that Belinda sees herself as the victim, and is outraged that a 27-year-old Polish woman is living with her husband and playing mother to the teenage children – three boys and one girl – she no longer sees.
Having given up her career in PR to look after the children and support her husband, Belinda says she was dis- traught when Steiner told her that their marriage was over.
She told friends how she has been cut off from her children, and claims she was not even asked to attend the bar mitzvah of her twin sons last year.
And Belinda is left to ruefully watch from the sidelines and via Facebook updates as her husband’s new girlfriend jets round the world, enjoying the lavish lifestyle and cosy family comforts that she once knew.
The tycoon’s relationship with Patrycja Pyka started after Steiner and Belinda had separated, and the pair have since been openly pictured attending public events together, including the recent launch of a spa.
But a friend of Belinda’s says she has become alienated from her children who now refuse to see or speak to her.
She told a friend: ‘I’m easy to get on with – I’m open and honest. But my reputation is destroyed. I happened to drive past my son as I saw him recently and I waved, but he ignored me.
‘My children now call me Belinda, not Mummy. I only see them through the prism of social media.
‘It’s worse than if I’d died – it’s like I’ve been obliterated, like I never even existed.’
The collapse of the Steiners’ marriage has sparked what is set to be a ferocious courtroom battle over the multi-million pound fortune he made from the online retail company, which has transformed the way the middle classes shop.
The family’s lifestyle was luxurious, with a home in Highgate, North London, and a sprawling chalet in the ski resort of Courchevel.
When they renovated their home, Steiner moved them into suites at Claridges, complete with housekeepers.
Now, Steiner is living with Patrycja, a model who has appeared on an over18s website, in a large detached house around the corner from the former marital mansion. Belinda, meanwhile, lives in a garden flat in nearby St John’s Wood.
She told a friend: ‘Patrycja now plays mother to our children, but she is just a child herself. She is only 11 years older than my eldest son. She took my children out of school to go to Poland for the weekend to stay with her family. They had to get up at 3am on the Monday to get a flight to be back in school on time.’
The source added: ‘Patrycja posts Facebook pictures of herself jetting all over the world, sitting in the home Belinda bought with Tim in Courchevel.’
Belinda can’t have been the easiest person to live with.
Friends have helped her through drinking problems for which, they say, she has sought treatment.
She has also sought emotional help during the fractious divorce.
When Belinda first met Steiner, Ocado did not exist. They began dating in 1995 and married in a lavish £100,000 wedding at Hampstead Garden Suburb Synagogue in North London in 1999, when Steiner was a trader at Goldman Sachs and she was working in fashion and beauty for a wellknown PR company.
The glamorous couple enjoyed a packed social life, attending events with celebrities including Gwyneth Paltrow and retail magnate Sir Philip Green. The same year as their wed-
‘Kids call me Belinda now. I’m no longer Mummy’
ding, Steiner quit his successful career as a bond trader to set up Ocado.
‘Tim’s goal was always to become a partner in Goldman Sachs,’ said a friend. ‘He was totally motivated by money. When he realised he was never going to make the kind of money he wanted, he decided to set up his own company.
‘It was high-risk, but he said there was potential for high gains. Of course, Belinda supported him.’
Belinda became pregnant with their eldest son and told her friend that the demands of starting the new business meant her husband was absent for most of her pregnancy. And two years later, she gave birth to twins. Due to health issues with the children, Belinda was forced to give up her career to care for them full-time.
In 2003, when their daughter was born, Belinda says she was largely coping with the demands of parenthood alone because Steiner’s punishing working hours meant that he left home before the children woke up and arrived home after they went to bed.
During an interview in 2010, Steiner said that as the company’s chief executive, he would wake at 7am and immediately check the company’s overnight figures. He worked 12-hour days and regularly had more than 300 emails to plough through.
But he was also eager to spend time on his growing family, saying once: ‘I’ve got two preoccupations outside work. Spending as much time as possible with my four children and skiing.’ A friend said: ‘It was an enormous battle for Tim to start Ocado. Belinda will admit she started drinking heavily to take the edge off.’
Steiner started Ocado with Jonathan Faiman – a friend with whom he went to nursery – and fellow Goldman Sachs banker Jason Gissing.
While Steiner was more likely to work behind the scenes, Gissing was the public face of the firm.
The company is now said to be the world’s largest online grocery retailer with more than 500,000 customers.
Steiner was clearly trying to help his troubled wife. In September 2012, he supported Belinda as she sought help for stress and anxiety. It was during
‘Tim’s a flash playboy who loves wealth and power’
this period that the pair separated and her husband told her that their marriage was over.
After years of hoping that he could make their marriage work, however, friends say Steiner finally had to admit that the couple should go their separate ways.
For his soon-to-be ex-wife, it was a conclusion she struggles to understand. She has suffered emotionally and her friends now say she describes her estranged husband as ‘a complete control freak’.
He would no doubt see it differently. Since they separated, he has been responsible for looking after the children with his new partner.
Nevertheless, Belinda says that in 2015 she was not invited to her twin sons’ bar mitzvah, which she says cost tens of thousands of pounds, and included performances from topless female cage dancers wearing little more than body paint.
After sending her daughter a text message, her friend says she received a letter from Steiner’s lawyers warning her not to contact the children.
‘Tim spoils the children and gives them anything they want,’ she told the friend. ‘They were given Rolex watches at their bar mitzvah.’
Steiner is still paying Belinda’s household bills, although she points out to her friend that she recently downsized to a flat to lower her expenses.
But the friend added: ‘He has a lavish lifestyle and recently spent £250,000 on a red McLaren sports car.’
The couple’s settlement hearing is set for June.
The friend says that Belinda hopes more than anything to resume her relationship with her children.
‘Tim is a flash playboy who loves wealth and power,’ she told her friend. ‘The legal costs of our divorce have already spiralled to well over £1million. I want to see my children.’
An Ocado spokesman said: ‘Tim regards this as a personal matter and does not wish to comment.’