Camilla’s relative, a life of ‘vulgar excess’ and a divorce that’s shocked high society
Cross-Border case could set legal precedent
WITH their Scottish estate, eight-bedroom Georgian manor house and private loch, Charles and Emma Villiers seemed the epitome of wealthy marital respectability.
Born into one of the country’s oldest families, racehorse owner Mr Villiers – a distant relative of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall – presided over a multi-million-pound fortune, and the couple were regulars at Scotland’s smartest parties.
But today their 18-year marriage lies in tatters and is the focus of a landmark legal action brought by Mr Villiers. He claims EU regulations are keeping him imprisoned in a loveless union and allowing his estranged wife to fight for a larger share of his inherited wealth than she deserves.
Accusing her of ‘divorce tourism’, Mr Villiers, 55, claims his wife Emma has used EU law to exploit a loophole by not filing for maintenance in Scotland – where they lived and where inherited wealth is discounted – but in the more generous English courts, where the case may set a precedent.
Mr Villiers said: ‘I must be the only man in western Europe who is legally not allowed to divorce. Scottish divorce law says you can only have a decree of divorce when all
‘Only man who’s legally not allowed to divorce’
financial matters have been resolved. The bit the EU hasn’t meddled in is that you still have to get divorced where you last lived together as a married couple. My divorce can only happen in Scotland. But where the EU has been able to interfere is with maintenance, and it says Scotland and England should be treated as if they were two separate independent EU countries.’
The strain of the resulting four-year delay in the divorce is compounded by Mr Villiers’s fear that his wife is no longer the woman he fell in love with 20 years ago.
Accusing her of ‘vulgar excess’, he claims she came to love the trappings of their lifestyle more than her husband.
He said: ‘I gave her some very nice diamond rings for our tenth wedding anniversary, but when we went to race meetings she would wear these glass rings and people would say to her, “Oh, Emma, what beautiful rings you’re wearing.”
‘I got very bored with it all. I also felt very insulted, because I had given her some lovely real diamond rings.
‘She’s the sort of person who had 11 pairs of white jeans, and then would go and buy more. She has no concept of the value of money.’
Mr Villiers, a devout Catholic who has family links with the Duchess of Cornwall through his mother, Elizabeth Keppel, the daughter of Viscount Bury, was first introduced to Emma at a Dorset house party.
They married in 1994 and settled in eight-bedroom Milton House in Dunbartonshire. Their only daughter Clarissa arrived a year later.
But Mr Villiers says the marriage started to founder in 2011 after he suggested they downsize, as Clarissa was then 17 and at boarding school. He said: ‘The house was enormous and there was just the two of us rattling around in it. It had served its purpose as a family home and I thought we should talk about a new chapter.
‘But Emma basically said, “If you’re ever thinking of selling this house, I’m off!” She said, “I’d rather sell my engagement ring than this house.” She was clearly saying, “I’m married to this house, not you.”’
By 2012 the couple had separated, with Mr Villiers moving to Edinburgh while his wife moved to London with Clarissa, now 23. He was subsequently declared bankrupt and, although discharged the following year with around £250,000 inherited from his mother, the family manor was repossessed in 2015.
Mr Villiers then filed for divorce – in Scotland – but three months later his wife applied to the English courts for financial maintenance.
In March 2016, Mrs Justice Parker ruled Mrs Villiers was ‘habitually resident’ in England and approved a monthly £5,500 interim maintenance payment pending the divorce – when Mrs Villiers is claiming £10,000 a month. Her lawyers maintain her husband has a half share in a £3.5 million trust fund inherited from his grandmother, plus another £600,000 from his mother. Mr Villiers says he has no direct access to the fund and has provided generously for Clarissa.
At the Supreme Court next month, two English judges and one Scots will decide if he can appeal against Mrs Justice Parker’s ruling.
Mr Villiers’s barristers, Michael Horton and Alex Laing, from Coram Chambers, in London, warn that if EU regulation continues to operate unchecked, there is likely to be a ‘significant increase’ in such cross-Border cases.
Mr Villiers, who has since found love with opera singer Heidi Innes, 41, said: ‘The emphasis is on Mrs Villiers’s rights to maintenance, but what about my rights to be able to get divorced, move on with my life and have legitimate children?’
The law firm representing Mrs Villiers declined to comment.
‘I’m married to this house, not you’