The money at stake is surreal, the testimony reads like a James Bond script, and some of the most powerful people on earth don’t know which side to take. Behind the Gothic facade of London’s High Court, a ferocious divorce battle between fabulously wealthy ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum and his glamorous Jordanian wife, Princess Haya, has sent shockwaves through high society, politics, diplomacy and the British royal family – and might not be over yet.
In December, after months of hair-raising evidence, 47-year-old Haya was awarded a record-breaking sum of £550 million ($1 billion), with the judge castigating the 72-year-old sheikh as “a clear and ever-present danger” to his wife’s safety. There were tales of stately homes being purchased simply to spy on other stately homes; of stalkings, kidnappings, affairs, blackmail and high-tech phone hacking. Even the lawyers – some of the most expensive and celebrated in the business – are claiming to have been bugged.
“I was sheltered from the realities of what women in the region face.”
– Princess Haya
Sheikh Maktoum painted himself as a man of integrity, fighting against his wife’s unreasonable demands, and for custody of his children. British-educated Haya portrayed him instead as a ruthless tyrant who kidnapped two of his own daughters, and who spares no efforts to impose his will on his family. Haya told
