Judge accused of ‘gender prejudice' in £61.5m divorce battle
A judge has been accused of 'gender prejudice' against a husband in a £61.5 million divorce battle.
High Court judge Mr Justice Francis awarded Simon Entwistle, a 42-year-old City trader, £325,000 after his divorce from Jenny Helliwell, an interior designer and multimillionaire heiress, in January last year.
Mr Entwistle had sought to be awarded £2.5 million of Ms Helliwell's £61.5 million fortune.
Now his barristers have accused the judge of 'gender prejudice', arguing that Mr Entwistle would have received more money if he had been a wife being divorced by a wealthy husband.
At the Court of Appeal on Thursday, Deborah Bangay KC, for Mr Entwistle, said: 'The judge was warned against gender prejudice, but failed to heed that warning.
'Had the positions been reversed, it is very unlikely that he would have ... so ungenerously assessed the needs of a wife after a six-year relationship.'
Mr Entwistle and Ms Helliwell married in 2019 in a £500,000 ceremony in Paris and lived in a £4.5 million villa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which was gifted to her by Neil Helliwell, her businessman father.
But they split after just three years of marriage in 2022 when Ms Helliwell ordered her husband out of their home with 48 hours' notice.
Mr Entwistle asked for £2.5 million from his ex-wife's personal fortune, which the previous High Court hearing was told stood at £61.5 million.
His statement of needs submitted to the court included £36,000 a year for flights and £26,000 for a personal meal plan.
But he was left £125,000 out of pocket following proceedings because his legal costs of £450,000 exceeded the £325,000 he was awarded.
'The parties went through this painful litigation and the husband is actually worse off now than he would have been if he never brought a claim in the first place, which is tragic for everybody,' Mr Justice Francis told the previous hearing.
Edward Faulks KC, for Ms Helliwell, told Thursday's Court of Appeal hearing that the £325,000 award was 'generous'.
'This was a three-year, childless marriage,' he said. 'It was not his first marriage. It is the wife's submission that the judge was generous to the husband.'
Mr Faulks added: '[The judge] assessed the husband's needs on a generous basis and awarded him a lump sum of £400,000 in addition to his own assets. He did so despite the fact that the husband's 'needs' were self-created.
'They largely arose from his depletion of funds on costs borne of his decision to challenge the pre-nuptial agreement and thereafter reject generous open offers which exceeded his ultimate award.'
The Court of Appeal reserved its ruling to be made at an unspecified later date.
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