The famous football player Ray Parlour and Arsenal had a long battle to have their divorce settlements. The couples got married in the year 1998 and had three children. They had differences of opinion, and so they decided to get divorce. Following their divorce, Arsenal was granted with a capital award of 250,000. She was also provided with two mortgage-free houses worth more than 1,000,000. The court ordered Ray to pay 250,000 a year for maintenance. However, he was willing to pay only 120,000 per year. Arsenal was also not satisfied with the amount that the court had ordered. They both appealed further to reconsider the maintenance amount. This time the court ruled in favour Arsenal by increasing the amount to 406,500 a year.
The Parlours case has set precedence to all the divorce cases that deal with vast sums of money. Many lawyers are using the argument of Parlours case. By and large, an opinion has been created that if one spouse has greater income than required his needs, his or her spouse can have a claim. It could have a larger impact on any professionals with higher income. The three senior judges in the Court of Appeal had granted this kind of award, in order to extend the principle of equality in the financial awards in the cases of persons having surplus income also. Parlours case has provided an opportunity to various other couples to put forth arguments in court based on this line, to get a higher financial award from the court.
Another similar case was WPP Group Chief Executive Martin Sorrells divorce with his wife Sandra after more than 32 years of married life. He was ordered to pay around 30 million pounds in settlement. Of that, around 23.5 million should be in cash and the remaining was the two underground parking spaces at Londons Harrods departmental store.
Ally McCoist, a footballer, was also caught in the court battle with his wife Allison. They both were fighting for a 5 million divorce battle. Allison quoted unreasonable behaviour of McCoist as a ground for divorce. The couples had differences of opinion after 12 years of their married life. McCoist had admitted to his wife that he had illegal affair with an actress. Provoked by his affair, she filed a divorce litigation. McCoist had been working as a football pundit in a television channel, and was earning more than 150,000 for a year. When he was playing football, he was earning around 18,000 a week. Apart from this he was also earning around 100,000 per year on BBC1s A Question of Sport. When the hearing was going on in the case in Edinburgh, McCoist failed to turn up to the court. However, his solicitor later produced a medical certificate stating that his client was ill. In the same manner, the football player kept on dragging the issue by quoting many absurd reasons. At last, the judge warned the celebrity couples to settle down their financial issue, or else they would have to face their dirty laundry aired in public.
Another popular case that was the talk of the town, for a long period, was the divorce case of Princes Diana and Charles. Diana, the most famous woman in the world, was accused by her husband, as committing adultery. They got divorced on 28 August 1996. Though the divorce issue was initially suppressed, later it was the point of focus, by the media that earned huge money by publishing and telecasting the same issue over and again. The speculations were that they both had a premarital affair.
Diana, the iconic presence on the world stage, though noted for her charity work, her charitable deeds were overshadowed by her marriage to Prince Charles. Various chapters of her private life riveted the world, in 1990s through many books, tabloid newspapers and other articles in almost all magazines, and even in television movies. The rose of the England was a fashion icon and was admired all over the world. Her divorce stories were published across the nation and it kindled the interest of the people.
