LONDON (AFP) – A British court on Thursday awarded a 53 million pounds ($69 million or P3.2 billion) divorce settlement to a former model who had demanded 196 million pounds from her Saudi billionaire husband – including 1 million pounds a year just for clothes.
Lawyers for US national Christina Estrada, 54, said the total settlement amounted to 75 million pounds, including the value of her existing assets.
She had asked for 196 million pounds from 61-year-old husband Sheikh Walid Juffali but thanked the court after the ruling.
“I am fully aware that the spectacular life Walid and I led was immensely fortunate and rarefied. And I fully understand how this can be perceived in the wider world,” she said in a statement.
In hearings during which she was cross-examined on her material needs she told the court: “I was a top international model. I have lived this life. This is what I am accustomed to.”
She said she needed 60 million pounds for a home in London, 4.4 million pounds for a country house in Henley-on-Thames as well as 495,000 pounds for five cars.
Her clothing budget included an annual 40,000 pounds for fur coats, 109,000 pounds for haute couture dresses and 21,000 pounds for shoes.
Juffali is terminally ill with cancer and undergoing treatment in Switzerland. He divorced Estrada under Islamic law without her knowledge and married a 25-year-old Lebanese model in 2012.
