Kathleen Wyatt, 55, wants £1.9 million ($3.5m) some 23 years after the pair divorced and her angry millionaire former-husband angrily hit back saying she has been allowed to “cash in a very old lottery ticket”. Dale Vince, 53, made his millions after setting up a wind-power energy firm Ecotricity, long after the pair divorced over two decades ago.
But Wyatt decided in 2011 to take legal action against her former husband, who in turn countered her legal claim by appealing against the ruling, claiming she had lodged her appeal far too late. However, five Supreme Court judges thought otherwise and unanimously allowed the case to go before a family court. Vince has already spent more than £500,000 ($1m) fighting the case.
Lord Wilson, one of the five Supreme Court judges said the court must take into consideration ” the contribution of each party to the welfare of the family, including by looking after the home or caring for the family”.
The pair married in 1981 and throughout the 1980s lived a sort of new-age traveller style existence, moving from festival to festival in an old bus and eventually had a son Dane. The couple divorced 11 years later in 1992. Mr Vince went on to form his successful business and even received an OBE – he is worth around £107 million ($190m), while his ex-wife went on to live nearly two decades in several different towns across England in relative hardship.
Mr Vince said there had been a settlement made in 1992 following the couple’s divorce, but he said it was so long ago that even the courts no longer kept the records on that settlement and he now cannot prove it was made and agreed.
