Insurance magnate fails to halt €71m divorce award

INSURANCE king John Charman yesterday failed to stop his former wife receiving £48 million (€71m), the biggest divorce payment in British legal history.

Mr Charman, 54, had challenged the sum awarded by a High Court judge, saying his wife Beverley’s share in his fortune was “grotesque and unfair”.

The Court of Appeal threw out his claim, but called for a Law Commission inquiry into the system that had made London the “divorce capital of the world for aspiring wives”.