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Telegraph
a day ago
- Business
- Telegraph
Billionaire's wife gets £230m after husband said ‘you'll have to work at Tesco'
A billionaire's wife has won £230 million in her divorce after he threatened that she would have to work at Tesco. The wife, whose name was not revealed, was awarded the third-largest divorce settlement in English history after the Family Court found her husband's coercive behaviour eroded his wife's free will. Justice Cobb found that the husband 'deployed a number of scare tactics' to rattle his former partner. The judgment found he told his wife that if she adhered to a postnuptial agreement they signed in 2021, she would bankrupt the family, and she would end up 'working on the tills at Tesco'. The wife, who was diagnosed with anxiety and depression following their separation, said she felt 'cornered' and 'trapped' by his behaviour, the judgment read. Justice Cobb also found that the husband ostracised his wife from her lawyer, as he 'sought to drive a wedge between them for his own advantage'. In reaching a decision, Justice Cobb said: 'I am satisfied, from all that I have read and heard, that the wife was ultimately placed in a position of obvious disadvantage. 'I am further satisfied that the husband sought to frighten the wife by telling her that he would 'explode' the trusts and that consequently the family would become bankrupt.' The judgment said the pair had come from relatively modest financial backgrounds. The wife said her family was 'very poor' and the judgment heard that the pair began married life with 'zero... absolutely nothing'. The now-separated couple, who have three children educated at day and boarding schools in England, became wealthy after the entrepreneurial husband floated his company. 'Rich beyond our wildest dreams' In 2012, the husband founded a technology company, which led to an estimated wealth of £1.5 billion, which the wife described as being 'rich beyond our wildest dreams'. Six years later, the couple decided to relocate to the UK, due to security fears in their own country and to provide their children with an English education. The judgment revealed that by 2020, the couple's marriage was bound by the country they had left, known as 'Country A'. This meant that all the assets acquired during their marriage were owned equally and subject to equal division on divorce. In the summer of 2022, the marriage ended, and the couple separated before the wife issued an application for divorce on Sept 2. At that time, it is estimated they had amassed a wealth of £2.3 billion. 'A landmark judgment' Claire Gordon, the Farrer and Co partner who represented the wife, said: 'In this landmark judgment, the Family Court has recognised the strain that a build-up of persistent and attritional conduct places on relationships, and that this can ultimately erode a person's free will. 'There does not need to be a 'blow up' event or an interaction for there to be improper pressure or control – the effects of such conduct are insidious. 'It was a privilege to support our client in this case, which we expect to have wider implications for others in a similar situation.'
The Independent
15-05-2025
- The Independent
Sperm donor who claims to have fathered over 180 children loses latest custody battle
An unregulated sperm donor who claims to have fathered more than 180 children across the world has failed to gain custody of a three-year-old child. Robert Albon has attempted four times to gain parental rights over a child he fathered in the UK, with a judge previously describing him as a 'man who seeks to control' with women and children appearing a 'commodity' to him. The 54-year-old, who also goes by the pseudonym 'Joe Donor' and advertises his services online, had applied for the toddler to live him after her mother was deemed unable to look after her. Originally from the United States, Mr Albon started acting as an unregistered sperm donor in 2013 and has been living in the UK since 2020. On Wednesday, Mr Justice Poole rejected his application for custody of the girl, who was born in 2022, and turned down a second application for parental rights over a second girl, who was born in March 2023. The family court in Middlesbrough heard that the mother of the three-year-old had contacted him on Facebook, before he travelled 250 miles the same day to have sex with her, which he advertised as a 'free' service. Afterwards, they exchanged messages, with the woman telling him: 'Have done an awful lot of thinking about how you have treated me. I can't eat. I actually came within minutes of ending my life this morning. It was my 17-year-old that stopped me. I cannot carry on any longer. You have truly broken me.' Messages also show that he was being accused of using the unborn child to try and get housing and benefits. The judge ruled the girl, known as CB, could be adopted but not by her father as there was 'substantial risk' she would be cast aside. In the case of the second girl, known as CA, the judgement found that while he could be declared her father on her registered birth certificate, he was denied increased contact of parental responsibility. In this case, he had once again had sexual intercourse with the girl's mother and had limited contact with the child, but she now 'wants nothing to do with him' having learnt about his through legal proceedings. The High Court heard that the women who had used Mr Albon's services were mainly single, vulnerable or in a same-sex relationship. In February, he was named by a judge who hoped to protect women from using his services, after he subjected a Cardiff couple to a 'nightmare and a horror story' when he took them to court to get parental rights. In the recent judgement, Mr Justice Poole said: 'The evidence before the court shows that Mr Albon will have sex with, or provide his sperm for artificial insemination, to just about anyone who asks.' He added that Mr Albon's motives for acting as a donor had been questioned during the proceedings, saying: 'Is he motivated by the desire to have sex with many different women? Is he compelled to reproduce? 'Does he enjoy gratification from knowing that there are scores of his children on the earth? Is he simply attention-seeking? 'Does he want to secure his immigration status? It is difficult to look into the mind of Mr Albon because he is not self-reflective.' There is a warrant for his arrest in the US, where he was offering sperm donor services until 2017, over unpaid child maintenance amounting to thousands of dollars.
