Dubai Ruler Asked To Pay ‘Record’ $730 Million To Ex-Wife For Divorce Settlement

The High Court in London on Tuesday ordered the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, to pay his former wife and children around £550 million ($730 million).

As per the court order, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum must pay Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, a half-sister of Jordan’s King Abdullah II, a lump sum of £251.5 million and provide a bank guarantee of £290 million to cover children’s maintenance and security as adults.

The 72-year-old ruler of the emirate of Dubai has long been locked in a bitter legal battle with his 47-year-old former wife, who lives in London with their two children, aged 13 and nine.

Sheikh Mohammed, who is also vice-president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, last year failed in a legal bid to block publication of its judgments. He had applied to the High Court for the summary return of the children to Dubai.

The couple married in 2004 in Sheikh Mohammed’s second official marriage. He divorced Princess Haya under Sharia law in 2019, without her knowledge, according to the court judgment.

She and her children live in a house near Kensington Palace and on an estate west of London that she inherited from her father, the late king Hussein of Jordan.

The case was held behind closed doors in the Family Division of the High Court of England and Wales. This is said to be the highest divorce settlement set by an English court.

Previously the largest settlement was approximately £450 million to Tatiana Akhmedova, the ex-wife of a Russian billionaire, in 2016.