'No idea bride was worth 100m pounds'

London: An heiress who asked her husband to sign a pre-nuptial agreement omitted to tell him that she was worth more than £100 million (Dh551.7 million), he said on Monday.

Nicolas Granatino signed the contract believing his bride-to-be was merely "well off", and promised he would make no financial claim on her fortune if their marriage failed.

Granatino, 38, a former investment banker, said Katrin Radmacher's wealth was not "particularly evident" to him during visits to her flat in Chelsea and her family's Swiss ski chalet in Verbier.

Her family home in Germany had seemed quite ordinary because it had shared bathrooms and no great art.

It was only later that he learned he had married one of Europe's richest women, the Supreme Court was told in London.

Granatino, who parted from his wife in 2006, is seeking £6 million in a divorce settlement. He insisted Radmacher, 40, kept him in the dark about her vast wealth during their whirlwind courtship.

He said he had no idea his fiancee was worth £106 million and claimed they had not discussed her family's fortunes before he signed the pre-nuptial contract in 1998.

"Katrin's family appeared well off but during the course of our relationship she had not at any stage mentioned to me what she was worth, what she might be due to inherit."

Radmacher, heiress to a German paper-making business, insists that Granatino knew the extent of her wealth and told her he was marrying her for love.

"He made it clear to me, before and after our engagement, that he didn't want a penny from me and he would sign a pre-nup."

Following the break-up, Granatino initially asked for a £10 million settlement and was awarded £5.6 million by the High Court, but that was reduced to £1 million plus maintenance payments by the Court of Appeal last year.