Divorce: UK Court Orders Dubai Ruler to Pay Ex-wife £500m

The emir of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum has been ordered by a UK court to pay his ex-wife Princess Haya and their two children up to half a billion pounds as part of a divorce settlement.

UK Court Orders Dubai Ruler to Pay Ex-wife £500m

In a ruling on Tuesday morning, Mr Justice Moor said Sheikh Mohammed was “uniquely” the main threat to Princess Haya bint al-Hussein, the half-sister of King Abdullah II of Jordan, and the children.
The money awarded to Princess Haya ensures lifetime security to her and the couple’s two children. Moor said in a written statement: “She (Princess Haya) is not asking for an award for herself other than for security.”

Haya told the court that a large one-off payment would allow her and her children a clean break from the emir during almost seven hours of testimony.

The court has directed Sheikh Mohammed to make a one-off payment of £251.5m within three months to upkeep her British mansions, including her Kensington home.

The payments will be guaranteed by a £290m security held by HSBC bank.

Despite the record-breaking amount of money ordered by UK courts to settle the custody battle, it was still less than half of the £1.4bn that Princess Haya had initially wanted. The last time UK courts granted an amount this large was in 2016, to the ex-wife of the Russian oligarch Farkhad Akhmedov, for £450m.

The legal saga between the two began in April 2019, when Haya fled to the UK after fearing for her safety as her marriage deteriorated. A month later, she asked the sheikh for a divorce.

The two began a legal battle over custody of their children in the High Court in London. In March 2020, a judge ruled that Sheikh Maktoum had waged a campaign of harassment against Princess Haya. The judge also concluded that the emir was keeping two daughters from another marriage, Shamsa and Latifa, captive after organising their kidnapping.

But earlier this year, another senior judge ruled that Sheikh Mohammed had ordered phones belonging to Haya and her lawyers to be hacked using the controversial Pegasus spyware.

As in May, Tuesday’s judgement deemed the children at risk of being kidnapped by their father. Latifa was abducted off the coast of India in 2017, with Shamsa being taken from Cambridge and returned to Dubai in 2000. Latifa is now said to be living freely after a long campaign demanding her release.