Australia’s most expensive divorce case: Billionaire ordered to pay ex wife $180m settlement

One of Australia’s most expensive divorces has ended with a monster payout in a case that stretched over three years and featured allegations of assault and infidelity.

A billionaire has been ordered to pay his wife $180 million and sign over a luxury property portfolio in one of Australia’s most expensive divorce cases.

The woman, who the Family Court of Australia heard has lived a life of “happy idleness” that has included “spending most days of the week with her friends” and “enjoying first class international travel”, will continue to do so after the court ordered she receive the massive payout.

Neither party can be identified because of laws that suppress the identities of people before the Family Court.

But the pair have waged a three-year battle over the division of their massive asset pool in the case that has heard allegations of assault, admissions of infidelity, and outlined how a billion-dollar empire was built.

In a judgment published last week, Justice Peter Campton detailed how the wife was to be paid from the massive wealth pool that the husband had built much of before he met her while she was working in the entertainment industry.

Caucasian woman holding gavel

The judge ordered the man to pay the first instalment of $40 million by March 22.

The second is due on July 26, and a third and fourth next year by March 22 and July 26 respectively. A final payment of more than $21 million is due on March 22, 2026.

He was also ordered to transfer to the wife three properties, including a $10 million overseas apartment which had been her primary residence for several years.

The court heard the pair had been married for about 20 years and had no children.

However the wife had adult children from a previous relationship who “lived off him, including one that was consistently out of work”, the court heard.

The major question for the court was when they broke up.

In cross-examination, the wife said that she did not return to the overseas property where the husband spent a lot of time after 2007.

She told the court this was because the husband did not want her there as he was having an affair at the property.

The husband’s lawyers accused the woman of lying about the affair – only for the husband to admit to it while giving evidence.

“He acknowledged that he had sex with other people,” Justice Campton wrote in his judgment.

The court was read an email the wife sent the husband about his infidelity, and also heard that she asked him for a divorce several times.

“Three years ago, you told me — no, promised me — that you would have no further contact with her,” the wife wrote. “The constant explicit texts since then say it all.

“You f..ked her when you were both at [Suburb O] as the last thing you wanted to do was spend a weekend with your wife.”

The husband told the court he and the wife spent more than 20 years “living apart together”, arguing he had provided his wife a luxury standard of living.

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