[DailyTelegraph] From Australia: She is a household name, he was once a high flyer in the financial world.
The power couple were in the Family Court yesterday warring about how to divide their assets, including their five-bedroom Sydney home worth $3.2 million and her extensive jewellery collection.
On day three of the case, the court heard it wasn’t just the husband who was a big earner during their six-year relationship – although he was currently unemployed.
The court was told the wife, who cannot be named, had secured a 60 per cent pay rise in November when she moved to a rival company. She was now earning $800,000 a year, with scope for more through endorsements. The wife was in such demand the chairman of her former employer had emailed her in a last-ditch attempt to get her to stay.
“You have been a great asset,” the chairman wrote, commending her on the “fun you brought to everything”.
The woman’s manager told the court her decision to change jobs would be seen in the industry as a betrayal and she would find it difficult to ever return to her former employer.
Counsel for the husband argued that emails showed no sign that her decision to change jobs was regarded as betrayal or disloyal.
But counsel for the wife said her job was in a “precarious” and “fickle” industry.
The wife was in such demand that she was being offered money for endorsements of clothing and six-figure sums to appear at events. She had even tried to get $850,000 a year from her current employer.
Her manager said she was not yet at the top of her industry but may become a leading light.
At one point one side called the other “conniving” and the judge said he felt he was “being drawn into the antipathy between the parties”.
The wife is expected to take the witness stand today.
Husband:
Wife: