Pizza Ovens, Sunken Trampolines: Dubai Ruler's $730 Billion Divorce
NDTV
From revelations of blackmail, intimidation, and hacking to extravagant spending on horses, homes, and sunken trampolines, much of the details of the case had remained private.
London's family courts frequently play host to the most acrimonious and costly disputes between estranged couples. But none have been as revealing or expensive as that between Dubai's ruler and his former wife, Princess Haya Bint al-Hussein.
From revelations of blackmail, intimidation, and hacking to extravagant spending on horses, homes, and sunken trampolines, much of the details of the case had remained private. Now a judge's ruling on the 554 million-pound ($734 million) financial award between the two and their children - the highest in U.K. family court history - has exposed a family dispute like no other.
The case stemmed from the pair's overseas divorce in 2019. The princess had fled to the U.K. that year with their two children out of fear for the safety of her family. That's after she learned that Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum had orchestrated the abduction of his two children from another marriage.
Since then, he was found to have ordered the hacking of phones belonging to her and her legal teams and tried to buy a property situated close to hers. One judge said the sheikh conducted a campaign aimed at "intimidating and frightening" the princess before she fled and said the sheikh was "prepared to use the arm of the State to achieve what he regards as right."
