The Daily Mail reports that a former model once romantically linked to Prince Andrew is involved in what could, in financial terms, be one of the biggest divorce cases in British legal history.
Christina Estrada is said to have separated from her husband of 14 years, Walid Juffali. The split happened after Mr Juffali, whose religious faith permits him to have up to four wives, married a Lebanese TV presenter in 2012. Mr. Juffali, who has a 13 year old daughter from his marriage to Ms. Estrada, and his new wife are said to have become parents to a daughter last year.
The paper reports that Ms. Estrada is seeking a share of at least three luxury properties which Mr. Juffali owns in the United Kingdom. These properties include a converted church in Knightsbridge, worth in the region of £41 million, which Mr. Juffali purchased last year.
The other properties which Ms. Estrada is said to have made claims on are Bishopgate House, a country estate in Surrey worth an estimated £10 to £15 million, and a coastal mansion near Dartmouth with an estimated value of about £6 million.
Mr. Juffali’s family business, E.A. Juffali and Brothers, is estimated to have a net worth of up to £10 billion, with his family’s personal wealth being believed to be around £4 billion.
No details were forthcoming from either of the couple’s lawyers, but the paper believes that Ms. Estrada is likely to seek a financial settlement of a sum in excess of the value of all three of the properties – i.e. in excess of £60 million.
The largest divorce settlement in British history is that of Formula One mogul Bernie Ecclestone, who paid his wife Slavica an estimated £740 million when they divorced in 2009. Other notable divorce settlements are those made by Paul McCartney to Heather Mills in 2008, when he paid her an estimated £24 million, and Mr. Juffali’s own divorce in 2000 from his first wife, Basma Al-Sulaiman, in which he made a settlement of about £40 million.