‘I’ve yet to sit down with a male client who isn’t astonished that he has to part with half of his wealth. It goes down like a bowl of cat sick, to be honest.” Thus spake Davina Katz, partner and head of family law at Schillings and my new favourite person. London has become the divorce capital of the world, thanks to the women drawn to the new legislation that means our courts start with the presumption that marital assets should be split 50-50 between the spouses – no matter who made the money. This, in turn, is based on the presumption that everybody believes marriage is an equal partnership and understands that whatever has been amassed during it – be that a three-bedroom terrace, children or millions and millions of pounds – has been a joint venture. The law is terribly endearing sometimes.
Director-producer Lynn Alleway’s new documentary (after last year’s Camila’s Kids Company: The Inside Story on BBC One, with previous subjects ranging from life among the Amish to a portrait of Kerry Katona) concentrated on the marriages with money. Millionaires’ Ex-Wives Club posed the question of whether women pursuing ex-husbands for extraordinary amounts of superextraordinary fortunes are greed personified or simply demanding what is rightfully theirs. If you manage to set aside the fact that nobody should be able to become as rich as the people involved are (which is a related but separate issue), the answer perhaps becomes clearer.
Lisa Tchenguiz, as the daughter of the royal minter to the Shah of Iran, grew up in a hugely privileged bubble. “And,” she says, “I was aware it was a bubble.” Already wealthy and expected by her family to become a wife and mother, she married Vivian Imerman, CEO of Del Monte International, a man worth £250m when he left her to go back to his first wife after nine years. She had never been alone. Her friends privately organised a rota so that someone was with her at all times in the months after Imerman left.
He offered her a £2m settlement. She declined. Because she had her own money – and Tchenguiz was charmingly clear throughout the programme about her many advantages – it gave her “a fair chance” to pursue him through the courts for the £123m balance. After four years, she had had enough and settled for £15m. She now runs her own investments in film, fashion and food ventures.
Michelle Young is still doing battle with her ex-husband Scott, after 11 years, 70 court appearances, £17m of legal fees that have bankrupted her and, not incidentally, Scott’s death. He claimed he had lost all his money just before they split (a computer file titled “ProjectMarriageWalk” suggested he knew at least the latter was coming) and neither the courts nor a custodial sentence could make him say otherwise. She was awarded £26m in 2013, but he simply never paid. Shortly before his death, he called Michelle and offered her £30m. We heard the taped call. As the nation screamed as one, “It’s been seven years, ’Chelle – take the feckin’ money!”, she refused. You didn’t know whether to admire her balls or convulse in fury. She has since been granted his £300,000 life insurance payout.
The sums involved were astonishing, but the stories were ultimately the same as in almost any divorce. As one of the solicitors interviewed put it, “It is always quite shocking that love can turn to hate so quickly and that people’s memories are so short.” It’s all about the money and it’s nothing to do with the money. You can put a price on betrayal, but not on love and the people in the wrong are always astonished at the idea of having to pay. It is enough to make a cat sick.
When Beyoncé Met Jay-Z was – woe, woe – a typical Channel 5 documentary. There is a nuanced, perceptive film to be made about the union of two of the greatest and most influential musical talents of the age, one cultivated by doting/ambitious parents in affluent Houston, Texas, the other funding his first videos with the proceeds of his substantial drug-dealing business, but this was the usual unedifying mix of talking heads (Katie Puckrik the only one delivering anything remotely resembling analysis or insight), often-before-seen footage and a laboured voiceover script filled with pointless snark as the well-known highs and lows of the power couple’s relationship flashed up on screen.
The Carters are said to be on the point of splitting, too. Truly, the lawyers are the only winners ever in this world.
