Saudi billionaire Dr Juffali dies after model ex-wife granted £75 mn in divorce settlement

Riyad: Dr Sheikh Walid Juffali,61, died in Zurich on July 20 weeks after he was awarded a huge £75 million settlement to his ex wife Christina Estrada, 54. Dr Juffali was suffering from terminal cancer and did not attend the hearing in Zurich, where he was receiving treatment. If Juffali died before the court’s verdict, then Estrada’s three-year fighting to claim the cash would have failed. However, there’s no worry for ex model Estrada as the settlement is legally binding.

High Court Family Division judge Mrs Justice Roberts had ordered the sum to be paid by 4pm on July 29, but this is likely be delayed while Dr Juffali’s affairs are put in order. Dr Juffali divorced Estrada by talaq in Saudi Arabia in September 2014 after 13 years of marriage. Estrada has sought for financial relief under Part III of the Matrimonial and Family Proceedings Act 1984 at the Family Division of the High Court in London.

If Juffali died before the court’s verdict, then Estrada’s three-year fighting to claim the cash would have failed. However, there’s no worry for ex model Estrada as the settlement is legally binding.

Estrada is a former Pirelli calendar girl. Pirelli is a trade calendar published by the Pirelli company’s UK subsidiary. Dr Juffali was recently ordered to pay out £75 million in maintenance to his ex-wife Christina Estrada for her reasonable needs; jaw-dropping as the sum was, it was loose change to Juffali, whose family runs one of the Middle East’s largest conglomerates with a fortune estimated at some £8 billion. Sheikh Walid was chairman of EA Juffali & Bros, founded in 1946 by his father Sheikh Ahmed and his brothers Ebrahim and Ali.

The Juffalis came of the Bani Khalid tribe, rulers since the 15th century of much of what is now Iraq and eastern Saudi Arabia and historic enemies of the House of Saud. The family supplied governors of Nejd and in the late 19th century began to furnish camels to pilgrims travelling to Mecca. American-born Estrada was said to be devastated at news of her former husband’s death. She and Dr Juffali, who was chairman of Saudi Arabia’s EA Juffali and Brothers, met in 2000 and married soon afterwards.

Dr Juffali then decided to take another wife, a 25-year-old Lebanese model, and divorced Ms Estrada under Islamic law without her knowledge. Estrada, who had a daughter with her former partner, had initially asked for £196 million. She claimed that her ‘reasonable needs’ included a £55 million home in London and a £4.4 million country mansion in Henley, as well as more than £1 million a year for clothes and £335,000 a year for staff. The court granted: £2.5 million per year, including £500,000 for clothes against Estrada’s total demand of £6.5 million per year.

Christina Estrada’s list of requirements

• £600,000 for hiring private jets
  
• £116,000 for handbags
  
• £83,000 for cocktail dresses
  
• £40,000 for fur coats
  
• £4,000 for sunglasses
  
• £46,000 for Wimbledon and Ascot tickets
  
• £39,000 for watches