Chef White battles estranged wife over alimony

CHEF MARCO Pierre White and his estranged wife Matilde are embroiled in a High Court row over money.

Mrs White wants a judge to consider jailing Mr White for not paying alimony as ordered.

Leeds-born Mr White says he cannot afford to pay what he has been ordered to and wants a review. A judge analysed their dispute at a public hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London yesterday.

Mr Justice Holman said their arguments would be considered at further hearings next year.

Both Mr and Mrs White were at the hearing. The pair, who are both in their fifties, married in 2000 and separated more than a decade ago. The court heard they had been involved in litigation between 2008 and 2011 – and had run up lawyers’ bills in the region of £2m.

No decision had yet been made on how much she should walk away with but a less senior judge had ordered Mr White to make alimony payments pending final decisions.

Mr Justice Holman said a judge would first have to consider whether the size of alimony payments Mr White had been told to pay should be varied because he did not have enough money.

A judge would then separately have to consider Mrs White’s application to consider having Mr White committed to prison for not paying what he had been ordered to pay.

Barrister Philip Perrins, who represented Mrs White, said his client was in a “desperate” situation. He said she was bankrupt, in rented accommodation and facing being made homeless.

Barrister Oliver Wise, who represented Mr White, said his client wanted the amounts of alimony he had been ordered to pay changed. Mr Wise said Mr White could not afford to pay more than he was currently paying.