Multi-millionaire faces Britain’s biggest divorce

A multi-millionaire restaurant tycoon’s wife could receive as much as £350 million in what is expected to be Britain’s biggest divorce.

Richard Caring is thought to be worth around £700 million. He owns various London restaurants and clubs including The Ivy and Le Caprice after initially making a fortune in the fashion business.

He had been married for more than four decades when he left his wife. A friend of his told The Sun that Caring and his wife “had been living apart for some time before the split”. While he “remains close to his ex [he] decided the time was right to move on”.

In February, the 68 year-old businessman apparently moved out of the couple’s opulent home in north London, which has been nicknamed “The Versailles of Hampstead”. He now lives with his new partner, a 35 year-old Brazilian property developer, and their infant son in a ten-bedroom gated mansion thought to be worth around £32 million.

Although Caring is “under no illusions” about the potential costliness of his divorce, he is “so wealthy his standard of living won’t drop by a millimetre” the unnamed friend claimed. The tycoon and his wife had two sons together who are now 44 and 37 respectively.

Caring has previously donated large sums of money to both the Labour Party and the Conservatives and has non-domiciled or ‘non-dom’ tax status based on the fact that his father was an American citizen, The Sun reported.

Various newspapers approached a spokesperson for the restaurant owner for a comment about the divorce but he refused to do so.