{ "archive_path": "archive/1791475216.150721", "base_url": "www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/why-london-divorce-capital-world-b1299143.html", "basename": "why-london-divorce-capital-world-b1299143.html", "bookmarked_date": "2026-10-08 16:00", "canonical": { "archive_org_path": "https://web.archive.org/web/www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/why-london-divorce-capital-world-b1299143.html", "dom_path": "output.html", "favicon_path": "favicon.ico", "git_path": "git/", "google_favicon_path": "https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=www.standard.co.uk", "headers_path": "headers.json", "htmltotext_path": "htmltotext.txt", "index_path": "index.html", "media_path": "media/", "mercury_path": "mercury/content.html", "pdf_path": "output.pdf", "readability_path": "readability/content.html", "screenshot_path": "screenshot.png", "singlefile_path": "singlefile.html", "warc_path": "warc/", "wget_path": "www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/why-london-divorce-capital-world-b1299143.html" }, "domain": "www.standard.co.uk", "extension": "html", "hash": "1V3WAXN0S5X9YMRNG9XG", "history": { "archive_org": [], "dom": [], "favicon": [ { "cmd": [ "curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--max-time", "120", "--output", "favicon.ico", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=www.standard.co.uk" ], "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "end_ts": "2026-10-08T16:15:14.183981+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "favicon.ico", "pwd": "/data/archive/1791475216.150721", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-10-08T16:15:13.394949+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "git": [], "headers": [ { "cmd": [ "curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--head", "--max-time", "120", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/why-london-divorce-capital-world-b1299143.html" ], "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "end_ts": "2026-10-08T16:15:14.821297+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "headers.json", "pwd": "/data/archive/1791475216.150721", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-10-08T16:15:14.194241+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "htmltotext": [], "media": [], "mercury": [ { "cmd": [ "/app/node_modules/@postlight/parser/cli.js", "https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/why-london-divorce-capital-world-b1299143.html" ], "cmd_version": "1.0.0", "end_ts": "2026-10-08T16:15:29.423839+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "mercury", "pwd": "/data/archive/1791475216.150721", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-10-08T16:15:24.548109+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "pdf": [], "readability": [ { "cmd": [ "/app/node_modules/readability-extractor/readability-extractor", "/tmp/tmpihy6n20h", "https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/why-london-divorce-capital-world-b1299143.html" ], "cmd_version": "0.0.11", "end_ts": "2026-10-08T16:15:24.534484+00:00", "index_texts": [ "How does it feel to get a \u00a315\u2009million divorce settlement? I ask a rich divorcee like I\u2019m interviewing a lottery winner. \u201cIt\u2019s terrible!\u201d she says, \u201cit\u2019s really not what you think.\u201d A week later I watch Dominic West sitting beside a red-lipped Sienna Miller at the Leicester Square premiere of their new divorce drama, War. \u201cThe difference between love and war is a knife-edge,\u201d West grins. Bloody, passionate, sexy, manipulative, who doesn\u2019t love a good divorce! After all, nearly half of everyone married does it. And the details are especially fascinating \u2014 and lurid \u2014 when the warring parties are mega rich.No wonder Sky\u2019s new courtroom drama takes as its subject the messy separation of a glamorous couple \u2014 a film star (Miller) and tech entrepreneur (West) \u2014 engaged in a bitter divorce: One minute, holding hands in limos and kissing on the red carpet; then next setting honey traps and ripping-up pre-nups, as Miller declares: \u201cTake him for every penny he\u2019s got!\u201dA central character in this filthy, sexy money-fuelled drama is London itself \u2014 which has a reputation as the magnet for ultra high net- worth (UHNW) divorce. A status cemented by big money cases \u2014 this year saw Russian businessman Mikhail Kroupeev\u2019s \u00a3100m divorce, last year US billionaire Michael Fuch made a \u00a336m settlement. Both dwarfed by the record-breaking \u00a3554m settlement Fiona Shackleton \u2014 King Charles\u2019s lawyer in his divorce from Diana \u2014 secured Princess Haya bint Hussein in her divorce from Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum in 2021.Princess Haya Bint al-Hussein of Jordan and lawyer Fiona ShackletonAFP/Getty\u201cLondon is still the divorce capital of the world\u201d, says Emily Kapoor from Katz Partners, whose partner Davina Katz represented Ecotricity tycoon Dale Vince in his \u00a343m divorce. War shows London\u2019s law firms with floor-to-ceiling windows, Picassos on walls and \u201cWar Rooms\u201d with legions of staff. Legal costs alone in such cases can easily exceed \u00a35m.\u201cWho gets in first, in which country, can be important\u201d, says Claire Gordon, partner at Farrer &Co who represented a tech billionaire\u2019s wife awarded \u00a3230m last year \u2014 Britain\u2019s third largest ever divorce payout. \u201cIf you have an internationally mobile UHNW family, who spend 100 days in the UK, 50 days Gstaad and 100 days in California, there is a potential debate as to where they reside and the jurisdiction that should hear their divorce.\u201dLondon\u2019s lure of the equal splitIf you\u2019re the home-maker, you usually want your case heard in London because \u201cEngland sees marriage as an equal partnership whatever the couple\u2019s respective roles\u201d, Gordon explains, which means assets are equally split.\u201cThere have always been big-money cases in London but in the nearly 30 years I\u2019ve been doing this there\u2019s been an exponential rise in the amounts being awarded,\u201d says Gordon. \u201cWhen I was junior family lawyer if we had a \u00a330m divorce case that was notable, whereas now it\u2019s not unusual to have clients with a \u00a3100m settlement.\u201dGordon frequently oversees UHNW divorces where clients are splitting international homes \u2014 \u201cyou get Maine, I\u2019ll have New York. Whoever gets the house may get the contents. Emotions can flare if one partner has managed a major refurb. Or if she\u2019s giving up the ski chalet, she might argue she should be bought a replacement in the settlement.\u201dShe\u2019s helped couples divide yachts, cars, horses, designer clothes and Birkin bag collectionsShe\u2019s split art collections: Old Masters, or more recently Hockneys and Jeff Koons. And helped couples divide yachts, cars, horses, designer clothes and Birkin bag collections. Rows erupt over exclusive personalised licence plates and wine collections \u2014 that vanish when one side drinks them during proceedings. But \u201cit\u2019s not always the Picassos that are the sticking points but the portrait of one of the children by a famous painter friend of the family\u201d.London affords particularly generous maintenance payments. If the asset split isn\u2019t enough to meet the income needs of one party, ongoing maintenance can be awarded on the basis of the couple\u2019s married lifestyle. \u201cHorses and art can be expensive hobbies, or the cost of flying pets around the world in private jets,\u201d Gordon notes.Spend, spend, spend!The wealthy divorcee I speak to reveals her lawyer advised her to spend, spend, spend! \u201cShe said your bill for cosmetics is very low \u2014 you need to spend more! We\u2019d always used private jets, so I had to start buying airline tickets to show how much I travelled. I went and spent thousands on a bracelet that I hate just to show I could spend \u00a37,000 a day.\u201dBut Gordon warns divorcing women against over-inflating expenses. \u201cIf it looks like suddenly Gucci and Prada where before it was Longchamp, it\u2019s very noticeable and judges aren\u2019t impressed.\u201d But Kapoor often sees it. \u201cOur old office used to be around the corner from Selfridges and they\u2019d disappear and sink \u00a375,000.\u201dStill, Kapoor\u2019s clients are already families used to a certain standard of living: nannies, housekeepers, drivers and the rest. \u201cThere\u2019s arguments about the loyalty of staff \u2014 who goes with who. They\u2019ve all got estates in the country so they all ride. If they ski, they still want to have private skiing lessons and ski out of helicopters.\u201dEngland is \u201ca good jurisdiction if you think that your husband or wife is hiding money because judges here have the tools and the appetite to investigate that,\u201d says Kapoor. \u201cIf a husband claims he doesn\u2019t have any money, but is going on yachts and driving Ferraris, a judge can make an award based on what they believe he is worth \u2014 that\u2019s pretty unique.\u201dIf a breadwinner does try to cheat financial disclosure, evidence used against them can include social media photos \u2014 for example, \u201cIf he says he\u2019s penniless but he\u2019s on a yacht in Monaco drinking champagne,\u201d Gordon explains. Recently Varsha Gohil won a \u00a36.6m payout after it took 23 years to prove her convicted money-launderer ex-husband had hidden his \u00a328m fortune. It is Britain\u2019s longest divorce case. \u201cUsually the husband would rather have the divorce go through pretty much anywhere in the world rather than London\u201d\u201cUsually the husband would rather have the divorce go through pretty much anywhere in the world rather than London\u201d, says Ayesha Vardag, star lawyer of her eponymous Vardags firm. She helped turn London into the divorce capital of the world when she represented German heiress Katrin Radmacher in 2010, whose landmark Supreme Court case changed English law by making prenuptial agreements legally enforceable.The appeal of London is \u201ca combination of the 50-50 split\u201d, the principle that all assets built up during the marriage are equally shared, and \u201cthe fact that English judges will look at the reality of the asset base, not be fobbed off with wealth-concealing structures\u201d, Vardag explains.She says her work is \u201cthe equivalent of doing a massive global, corporate or financial de-merger. It involves all sorts of financial forensic skills to track down assets, and value them, and working out complex corporate and trusts structures to determine ownership and access to money \u2014 it\u2019s become an immensely sophisticated field.\u201dThe TV show War revels in a couple\u2019s underhand tactics with honey traps, spies and lawyers who proclaim: \u201cIf they play dirty, we will be total and utter filth!\u201d and pronounce \u201clet battle commence!\u201dVardag has seen the grubby side. In one case a female client came into her office, \u201copened up a big bag of sex toys and shook them all over the table in our conference room saying: \u2018Look what he\u2019s been making me do.\u2019\u201d Cases can be both tragic and farcical, like one of a couple who hit the other over the head with a beefsteak because they were having an argument about whether the wife was going to cook her husband steak.Alamy/PAYet, despite reputations, Vardag insists divorce lawyers aren\u2019t in the habit of dirty tricks. \u201cPerhaps in days gone by lawyers would be nastier. Now there\u2019s much more of a sense of responsibility that you\u2019re dealing with a family and very often with children. You\u2019re dealing with people\u2019s mental health and being absolutely vile and destroying all prospect of a future relationship between a couple that are going to need to co-parent, it\u2019s contrary to our moral responsibility.\u201dOf course, she says, \u201cYou\u2019re going into it to get the absolutely best deal and best future you can for your client. You\u2019re going to fight very hard for them. But that\u2019s very different from entering into dirty tricks or nastiness or the kind of stuff that pushes people to the edge, because you have to remember that you\u2019re dealing with fragile human beings at a very extreme point in their lives.\u201dMy wealthy divorcee agrees. \u201cIt\u2019s a terribly emotional time and nobody behaves particularly well. These are people you loved and had children with. Even the rich are humans.\u201dStill for the viewers of War, the dirtier the tactics, the better." ], "output": "readability", "pwd": "/data/archive/1791475216.150721", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-10-08T16:15:22.755154+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "screenshot": [], "singlefile": [], "title": [ { "cmd": [ "curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--max-time", "120", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/why-london-divorce-capital-world-b1299143.html" ], "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "end_ts": "2026-10-08T16:15:22.747549+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "Why London is the divorce capital of the world | The Standard", "pwd": "/data/archive/1791475216.150721", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-10-08T16:15:22.717105+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "wget": [ { "cmd": [ "wget", "--no-verbose", "--adjust-extension", "--convert-links", "--force-directories", "--span-hosts", "--no-parent", "-e", "robots=off", "--reject=js,mjs,woff,woff2,ttf,otf,eot,mp4,m4v,mov,webm,ogv,mkv,avi,flv", "--timeout=120", "--restrict-file-names=windows", "--page-requisites", "--user-agent=Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) wget/GNU Wget 1.21.3", "--compression=auto", "--timestamping", "https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/why-london-divorce-capital-world-b1299143.html" ], "cmd_version": "GNU Wget 1.21.3", "end_ts": "2026-10-08T16:15:22.707022+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/why-london-divorce-capital-world-b1299143.html", "pwd": "/data/archive/1791475216.150721", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-10-08T16:15:14.829351+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ] }, "icons": null, "is_archived": true, "is_static": false, "latest": { "archive_org": null, "dom": null, "favicon": "favicon.ico", "git": null, "media": null, "pdf": null, "screenshot": null, "singlefile": null, "title": "Why London is the divorce capital of the world | The Standard", "warc": null, "wget": "www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/why-london-divorce-capital-world-b1299143.html" }, "link_dir": "/data/archive/1791475216.150721", "newest_archive_date": "2026-10-08T16:15:24.548109+00:00", "num_failures": 0, "num_outputs": 6, "oldest_archive_date": "2026-10-08T16:15:13.394949+00:00", "path": "/lifestyle/why-london-divorce-capital-world-b1299143.html", "schema": "Link", "scheme": "https", "snapshot_id": "41d853e0-297e-453f-a120-a14d7e6233c5", "sources": [ "/data/sources/1791475216-import.txt" ], "tags": ",pool,drudge,war-wiki", "tags_str": "pool,drudge,war-wiki", "timestamp": "1791475216.150721", "title": "Why London is the divorce capital of the world | The Standard", "updated": "2026-10-08T16:15:13.394661+00:00", "updated_date": "2026-10-08 16:15", "url": "https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/why-london-divorce-capital-world-b1299143.html" }