UK court orders Dubai ruler to pay ex-wife £550 million: All you need to know about the royal divorce

In what is being pegged as the highest divorce settlement by an English court, the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, was on Tuesday (December 21) ordered to pay his former wife and children around 550 million pounds.

A UK court ordered the Dubai ruler to pay his former wife, Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, a half-sister of Jordan's King Abdullah II, a lump sum of 251.5 million pounds along with a bank guarantee of 290 million pounds to cover their children's future security.

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

According to Judge Philip Moor, the massive settlement was to ensure security for their children, who face a high risk of abduction given the Sheikh's stature. Claiming that the main threat the family faces from the Sheikh himself, the judge added that they need water-tight security. Justifying the vast settlement, Judge Moor added that the children would need the wealth to maintain the standard of living they have enjoyed so far while the couple was married.

Also read: Multi-million divorce settlements ever: Dubai ruler latest in the list

Previously, the UK High Court had ruled that Sheikh Mohammed Al-Maktoum had authorised the use of spy software to hack his ex-wife's devices, and he had forcibly returned two of his elder daughter to Dubai. 

Princess Haya, who studied at Oxford University and represented Jordan at the Sydney Olympics as a showjumper, had married the Dubai ruler in 2004. This was Sheikh Mohammed Al-Maktoum's second marriage. However, the Dubai ruler divorced her under the Islamic Sharia law in 2019 without her knowledge. Since then, Princess Haya and her children have been living in a London house near Kensington Palace, an estate she inherited from her father, the late King Hussein of Jordan. 

In 2020, the UK High Court had ruled that the Sheikh subjected her to a campaign of fear and intimidation, forcing her to flee to London. The judge had also ruled that the Dubai ruler had forcibly returned home his older daughter, Shamsa and Latifa. In 2018 fearing for her life, Latifa had made an unsuccessful bid to flee the emirate after she was allegedly held hostage in one of the Sheikh's palaces.

In 2016, the ex-wife of Russian billionaire Tatiana Akhmedova received one of the largest divorce settlements, tune to approximately 450 million pounds.