Divorce case likened to a boxing match

A former Miss Russia and a top American businessman have finally emerged from a divorce likened to a boxing match by the Judge on the case.

Ekaterina Parfenova and Richard Fields have been embroiled in an increasingly bitter divorce, with her asking for £60,000 per year for hairdressers and beauty treatments alone, and him suggesting that she could live somewhere cheaper than the uber-rich areas of London she was used to.

Their previous luxury lifestyle together included Maserati, Range Rover and BMW cars, a cook, a cleaner and two nannies as well as top restaurants and expensive jewellery.

The Judge, Mr Justice Holman, said “There are no winners and no losers.  You’ve not got as much as you [Ms Parfenova] wanted, and he’s having to pay more than he wished to pay.  What I sincerely hope is that each of you take away the lesson of this bruising experience.  It was a boxing match. It wasn’t edifying.”

Meanwhile, Mr Fields has already spent £30,000 on an antique ring for his ‘soon-to-be’ wife no. 6, and Ms Parfenova has said that her financial strategy for the future is to find another rich husband.

She also claimed that her ‘fight for justice’ had been a struggle on behalf of abandoned mothers and children everywhere.

As she received a settlement worth £3.3m and the legal costs ran to over £1m might I suggest that she’s not really that abandoned?

So you don't know where your ex-partner lives?

A few weeks ago I blogged about the woman given permission to serve divorce papers on her husband via Facebook as she didn’t know where he was living.  This got me thinking about the more usual legal route to divorcing when you don’t know where your spouse is.

You will still have to fill in a divorce petition, stating the last known address.  You will need to show that you have done everything you can to find them, such as contacting friends, family, relatives, their bank, employer and any trade union or professional organisation.

You then also fill in what’s known as a ‘statement to dispense with service of the divorce petition’ and return it to the local court with the £50 fee.

If your spouse is missing and presumed dead, there is a different form - a D8D which can be filled in.

The court can then, in either case, end the marriage without the divorce petition actually being sent to your ex-spouse.

Needless to say, this is not a usual route to divorce, and may be one where you need some legal help - we're here to help with all your divorce queries, just email me if you need help.

Keep it in the family

This week we have heard that The Speaker's wife, Sally Bercow, cheated on her husband with his cousin, who has now dumped her and gone back to his wife.  It seems that cheating so close to home is not as unusual as all that, judging by the radio phone-ins I've heard this week.  Sadly such affairs often make everything more difficult as not only does the marriage break up, but often rifts are caused within families that can never be healed.

In a very timely 'life imitating art' way, the Sally Bercow story comes at a time when a long-running storyline on The Archers is about to culminate with Ed Grundy about to marry Emma Grundy. For those of you who have never heard The Archers, Emma used to have a relationship with Ed before cheating on him and marrying his brother Will before splitting with him to get engaged to Ed.... The feud between the brothers goes on and on to the extent that they can barely be civil to each other.  Is Will going to turn up to the wedding and play nicely?

Or will it be as frosty as the next Bercow family Christmas?

Divorce by Facebook...

It has finally happened - divorce by Facebook.  Yes, that’s right - a woman living in Brooklyn has been told by a judge that she can start divorce proceedings against her estranged husband by sending him papers via a Facebook message.

The couple were married in 2009 although they never consumated their marriage because the groom reneged on his promise to have a traditional Ghanaian wedding ceremony.

Since then the couple have been living apart and although the bride doesn’t know where the groom lives, he keeps in touch through Facebook.

It was this aspect that led the Judge at Manhattan Supreme Court to give the go ahead to serve divorce papers through the social networking site.

I’m not sure if the husband will ‘like’ this though!

Marriage is a marathon - right?

I don't know about you, but I was inspired and motivated by the London Marathon yesterday - not necessarily to run a marathon, obviously, but just to get out in the fresh air!  And there were two brave couples embarking on their marriage journeys during the actual race - Laura Harvey and Michael Elliott actually stopped off at 13 miles, dashed across Tower Bridge to St Katharine's Docks for the ceremony, then finished off the marathon before returning to their reception.  Phew.  If they can survive that, they should be ok!

And another runner, Jordan Meikle, met up with his friends and supporters on the course, then pretended to stretch his legs, ending up on one knee with a ring and a rose from his pockets to give to his VERY surprised girlfriend, Kayleigh Harris.  Then a bit of a chat, cue lots of cheering from onlookers and other runners, and he was on his way again.

So two couples embarking on married life in a sporty and romantic way in the middle of a cold, grey and drizzly London Marathon.

All together now - Aaaaaah!

You can't trust anyone these days...

A bishop’s behaviour has been described as ‘lamentable and not frank’ by Judge Richard Robinson in a divorce case in the High Court of London.

The bishop (who used to be a banker - I’m saying nothing) was found to have hidden hundreds of thousands of pounds in offshore accounts, along with ‘further undisclosed assets’.

The couple, who have not been named but are in their 50s, lived in a £825,000 house in south-west London.  The bishop/banker formerly lived and worked in the USA before being ordained into the Anglican church and was now said to be working as a bishop overseas.  The wife had been a health services manager.

The bishop/banker was ordered to transfer the London house to the wife, along with ‘some properties he owned abroad’.

And him a man of the cloth…

Divorce can be simple...

It is reported that Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin are to split all of their assets equally in the finalisation of their 'conscious uncoupling' as they are 'pretty much worth the same'.  They will also share joint custody of their two children.

Whilst most normal mortals spend quite some time working out who earns what, who owns what and who has the biggest pension, it seems that these two are simply drawing a line down the middle and taking half each.

It is also reported that they are using a divorce mediator - a neutral person who advises both parties when the couple are in agreement that a simple split is what they both want.

This just goes to show that divorce can be simple, but then it could be that it's a lot easier when there's $302million to play with...