I dumped Camilla’s cousin... because he ISN’T a gentleman
Stinging rebuke by fed-up fiancee as she walks out on Scots aristocrat (who’s still embroiled in longest divorce in Britain)
HE is embroiled in what is believed to be Britain’s longest-running divorce case, which has so far played out in five courts and before 12 judges.
Scottish aristocrat Charles Villiers has spent eight years warring with estranged wife Emma in a legal battle over maintenance payments, in the hope that he could marry the new love of his life.
But now the 58-year-old, a distant cousin of the Duchess of Cornwall, has been dumped by fiancée Heidi Innes, who says ‘the scales have dropped from my eyes’.
It is only 18 months since the couple pledged their devotion to each other before close friends and family in a ‘union ceremony’ at their East Lothian home.
As the genteel gathering toasted the happy couple, they even had a two-tier cake on a stand embossed with the letters H and C, which was adorned with scented pale roses.
However, Miss Innes, 45, an opera singer who has been with Mr Villiers for nearly five years, said last night: ‘It’s over. I’m glad I didn’t marry him officially. He’s not the man I thought he was all this time.
‘He’s supposed to be a gentleman but I don’t think he has behaved very well.’
The couple were forced to leave their rented cottage in Tyninghame, East Lothian, in November after a tribunal ordered them to pay £18,000 in rent arrears run up during the pandemic.
Miss Innes lays the blame squarely on Mr Villiers, alleging he promised to pay the rent, while she covered other bills.
When the owner of the property pursued them for the money last year, Miss Innes used most of her personal savings to pay the debt.
She says Mr Villiers had promised to cover his half-share but, to date, has not paid back a penny.
‘I’ve been used. I’ll never see my money again’
Miss Innes said: ‘I’ve told him there is no future for us and that the scales have dropped from my eyes. I feel that I’ve been used and I don’t think I will see my money again.’
Just a few weeks ago, at the latest court hearing, Mr Villiers begged judges to allow his ‘empty shell of a marriage’ to be ‘finally’ ended.
The lengthy dispute between Mr and Mrs Villiers, who lived in a Georgian mansion near Dumbarton during their 18-year marriage, has racked up huge legal fees.
After the end of the marriage in 2012, Mrs Villiers moved to London, where she applied for maintenance in the English courts and staked a claim on her husband’s half-share of a £3.5 million family trust fund.
Mr Villiers publicly accused his estranged wife of ‘trying it on’ as a ‘divorce tourist’ because judges south of the Border are seen to be ‘more generous’.
In 2015, the High Court in London ordered him to pay his estranged wife £5,500 a month but he refused. The Supreme Court subsequently ruled that she could proceed with her application for maintenance in England.
Mr Justice Mostyn, of the High Court’s family division, ruled last month that Mr Villiers is heavily in debt and should not be required to pay maintenance.
The judge acknowledged that the case had hurt Mr Villiers’s finances and ‘attracted much lurid publicity. This has been a case where love has turned to hatred to an extraordinary degree’.
The divorce is expected to be settled at Dumbarton Sheriff Court, where his lawyers hope to argue that the marriage should be annulled without a financial settlement.
Speaking previously of his devotion to Miss Innes, a mezzosoprano whom he met in Edinburgh in March 2017, Mr Villiers said: ‘I feel very fortunate to have met lovely Heidi who is so full of the joy of life. I’m very happy.’
But Miss Innes said: ‘I know he’s gone through hell with this divorce and I’ve watched the toll it has taken on him and his finances. However, deep down inside he feels privileged and I just think, “Who the hell do you think you are?” ’
The couple moved to Budapest, Hungary, where Miss Innes had bought a flat in 2020 with a view to it becoming a holiday let. She said: ‘He had nowhere else to go so I agreed that he could come with me. I was already feeling by then that I had fallen out of love with him. I saw him as a much older man and not someone I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.’
Despite several attempts to contact him, Mr Villiers, who is understood to be still living in Budapest, was unavailable.