A former supermodel Ms Christina Estrada who dragged her former husband,
billionaire Sheikh Walid Juffali to court demanding £196 million from
the businessman to meet her ‘reasonable needs’ – which included two
luxury houses, a huge clothes budget and five cars has been informed
that her husband has passed away.
Her ex-husband, billionaire Sheikh Walid Juffali passed away in Zurich on Wednesday following a lengthy battle with cancer.
Dr Juffali, was chairman and heir of EA Juffali and Brothers, one of Saudi Arabia’s most successful companies.
Ms Estrada met the businessman in 2000 and got married soon after, then
they had a daughter together. However the marriage ran into difficulty
after Dr Juffali’s decision in 2012 to marry a 25-year-old Lebanese
model, who is now the mother of his two youngest children, while still
married to Ms Estrada. The sheikh divorced Ms Estrada in Saudi Arabia in
2014 under Islamic law without her knowledge.
Earlier this month Ms Estrada, took the 61-year-old to the High Court
where her fight for a share of his fortune became one of the
highest-stakes divorce battles of its kind.
Ms Estrada claimed her ‘needs’ included £1million for clothes, £40,000
for fur coats, £109,000 for haute couture dresses and £21,000 for shoes
every year.
She also said she needed enough from her ex-husband to afford a luxury
home in London worth about £60million, a £4.4 million house in the
country at Henley, as well as £495,000 for five cars – three in London
and two in the US.
She told family judge Mrs Justice Roberts: ‘I am Christina Estrada.
‘I was a top international model. I have lived this life. This is what I
am accustomed to.’ Her lawyers estimated her ex-husband was worth
£8billion.
Rather than the £196 million she demanded for her husband’s lawyers
offered £75million but rejected the offer which, added to her own
assets, would have given her some £37million to live on.
Ms Estrada, who is in St tropez, has reportedly been informed of her
husband’s death this week and was said by friends to be ‘devastated’ at
the news.
However the court hearing was brought forward due to his worsening
health.
High Court Family Division judge Mrs Justice Roberts had ordered Dr
Juffali to pay Ms Estrada the lump sum by 4pm on Friday, July 29,
however this could now be subject to a delay while his affairs are put
in order.
Dr Juffali’s death will not affect the settlement. It is now legally
binding and he will have to still pay her the money.
She was ultimately awarded a £53million cash settlement at London’s High
Court – with lawyers saying the payout is worth £75million when assets
she has already been given are taken into account.
Her lawyers said the award she received was ‘by more than £50million the largest needs award ever made by an English court’.
But Dr Juffali had said in a written statement before he died said in
his statement that he had left the vast majority of his wealth to his
three oldest children, including his daughter with Ms Estrada, now a
teenager, who cannot be identified.