More female millionaires amid divorces

London

High-profile divorces are boosting the number of female multimillionaires, with the trend expected to continue as more wealthy couples end their marriages in British courts this year.

The number of women on The Sunday Times Rich List has risen by nearly 50 per cent in 10 years, from 78 to 114.

However, just two of these women, JK Rowling, 48, and Tamara Mellon, 46, made fortunes in their own right. The rest inherited their vast wealth or own businesses jointly with their husbands, or have won it in divorce hearings.

Galina Berezovsky, 55, Irina Abramovich, 46, and Slavica Ecclestone, 55, all walked away with millions when they divorced their husbands.

The former wife of Boris Berezovsky, the Russian oligarch, was awarded £100 million (Dh618 million), while Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea Football Club, is believed to have been forced to part with £150 million.

Bernie Ecclestone’s £2 billion divorce made his former wife one of Britain’s richest women. Slavica, a former Armani model, has an estimated wealth of £740 million and is ranked the 136th richest person in Britain.

The trend is likely to continue. Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that the number of British couples getting divorced has risen since the end of the recession.

According to the ONS there were 118,140 divorces in England and Wales in 2012, an increase of 0.5 per cent on the total for 2011.

The ONS said the year-on-year rise could be a reflection of the changing economic situation.

It suggested that couples trapped in unhappy marriages could have been waiting for the value of their house or investments to recover before attempting to split their assets.

Ayesha Vardag, a divorce lawyer, claims women today are less likely to put up with “the shenanigans, the loneliness, the betrayal” of a failed marriage if the alternative is “a series of big fat cheques, her home in her sole name and the freedom to do exactly what she wants”.

Amy Harris, a family lawyer, said: “There is a reason that London is known as the divorce capital of the world, because judges here have so much discretion and can really do what they like and make huge awards.

That is why you have so many of these wives coming over from countries like Russia to get divorced here.”

Divorce hearings due to take place this year suggest the list of wealthy women will grow. Michelle Young, 50, is seeking £300 million from her husband, Scott, a property tycoon. Pauline Chai, 66, a former beauty queen, could be awarded £500 million when she divorces Khoo Kay Peng, 74, who owns Laura Ashley.

This year’s Rich List shows that Britain’s most affluent people are wealthier than ever, with a combined fortune of £518,975 billion; that is 15 per cent more than last year’s combined total of £449,654 billion.

To get into the top 500, the rich need £190 million — up £30 million from the £160 million threshold for entry into last year’s list.

Philip Beresford, who has compiled the ranking since 1989, said: “I’ve never seen such a phenomenal rise in personal wealth as the growth in the fortunes of Britain’s 1,000 richest people over the past year.”

­—The Telegraph Group Limited, London 2014