The Prince of Wales
The most appealing public figure considered the rose of England, Princess Diana, was rated as one of the most famous women in the world. She got divorce from Prince Charles on 28th August 1996. After divorce the princess had lost the title Her Royal Highness and was called Diana, Princess of Wales. Though her divorce issues were first suppressed, later it was highly focused by the media at global level. Many speculations that went around were that Charles had resumed his old, pre-marital affair with Camilla Parker Bowles, who is now the wife of Charles and that Diana was also having affairs with her riding instructor. They both separated on 9th December 1992. She was said to have received the settlement of $22.5 million and was responsible for paying personal bills and retained the title of princess alone.
The popular actress Denise Richards, who was six months pregnant with her second child, cited irreconcilable differences with her husband Charlie Sheen as the reason for the divorce. She sought for the custody of her first daughter and also her unborn child but agreed to grant visitation rights to her husband. Sheen is also a famous actor and well-known for his role in the movies Platoon and Wall Street. Interestingly, earlier, the actor was on probation for two years for drug abuse. Before marrying Sheen, Denise was quoted saying that she had never been happier and that having met a perfect man in Sheen, the marriage was going to last. But, within a short span, it came to an end.
Another interesting case which grabbed popular attention was the divorce between the former England footballer and TV artist Gary Lineker and his wife Michelle. Michelle was the one who applied for the divorce and also obtained it after 20 years of married life. She quoted ?unreasonable behaviour? as the reason for divorce and was also granted a decree nisi. Surprisingly, Lineker did not try to defend his position against the allegation that he caused stress and anxiety to his wife. He did not even attend the hearing in the Court.
The sensational footballer Ray Parlour got married with Arsenal in 1998 and had three children. He scored many amazing winning goals in the football match but failed in the personal life. The bone of contention was maintenance payments. Arsenal was granted with a capital award of £250,000 and also two houses worth more than £1,000,000 and both the houses were free from mortgages. They both were not satisfied with the court ruling of maintenance amount as £250,000 a year and so they appealed further. Ray agreed to offer £120,000 per year. But favouring Arsenal, court ordered to increase the award to £406,500 for annual maintenance. It was also subject to review over a period of time.
In another case, John Charman, a 53-year-old insurance millionaire got divorce in the year 2003 from his wife Beverley who was also 53. He was ordered to pay 48 million pounds that equalled to 37 percent of his total assets.
White vs White, a watershed case in England was another famous divorce settlement case, which gives the message that wives should also be granted with a greater share of their husband?s wealth. Mr and Mrs White put a lot of efforts to build up a multi-million pound dairy at Somerset near Taunton during their 33 years of married life. In 1997, when they were in their divorce case trials, Mrs White was awarded with a settlement of £900,000. But Mrs White went on further appeal and received £1.6 million. It was around 30 percent of the total assets. Experts opined that the case would have a greater impact on Wealthy divorce settlements. Because, in earlier days, wives had a share just to lead their life comfortably and the husbands had a greater claim on the assets; but now the measure is changing gradually. Very soon equality in sharing may become the norm.
These are some of the familiar cases that were much talked about and a few of them also set precedence to other cases.
James Walsh is a freelance writer and copy editor. For more information about getting a Divorce see http://www.quickie-divorce.com/divorce-option2.html
About the Author
Rating: Not yet rated