Some divorcing couples are willing to go to almost any lengths to ensure that their divorce settlement includes ‘custody’ of their most cherished possessions.
Fair enough, some personal possessions could well have sentimental value – understandably, many people will be reluctant to give up ownership of their pets for example.
But here we are talking about such everyday items as Air Miles, Clubcard points, bed linen, vacuum cleaners, dustbins and frying pans. For one divorcing couple – the owners of a prized stallion – the financial settlement hinged on how the horse semen was to be divided up!
In some divorce cases, protracted discussions centre around seemingly trivial belongings, rather than high-priced assets like cars or homes as you might expect. People can become attached to the most unlikely household objects.
Meet me at the service station – and bring the pan
As reported in the press, one disgruntled husband, whose ex-wife had made off with his favourite frying pan when she moved out, kept her engagement ring in a bid for revenge. Once negotiations were concluded, they agreed to meet at a motorway service station halfway between their new properties, to exchange the items in a sort of hostage-release-style handover.
A volatile marriage needn’t necessarily mean an acrimonious divorce
‘Loose Woman’ Carol McGiffin, has described her former marriage to DJ Chris Evans as “chaotic.” She says in her recent autobiography: “We argued all the time. Our rows were pathetic. We had one about a can of deodorant – the second he’d bought in the eight months he’d been living with me. He seemed to think he was some sort of hero for buying it, so I suggested that he might have bought some of the other things he used all the time, such as toothpaste. Next morning, he squeezed the toothpaste that was left down the lavatory.”
However, when it came to their divorce settlement, Evans’ accountant asked what McGiffin wanted; she duly replied, and the agreements were drawn up without any squabbling.
Can a court ruling be taken too literally?
This week it was reported that a Serbian farmer, Branko Zivkov, 76, had taken exception to a court ruling which stated that he had to share half his farm equipment with his former wife of 45 years.
Zivkov took extreme action in the form of a mechanical grinder, which he used to slice his machinery and farming tools in two.
He told Belgrade daily tabloid Kurir: “I still haven’t decided how to split the cow. She should just say what she wants – the part with the horns, or the part with the tail.”
