‘Penniless’ German ex-wife of King Charles’s mega-rich art dealer friend WINS £12m divorce payout

A ‘penniless’ ex-wife of a German tycoon who befriended King Charles III has been awarded a £12million payout after a lengthy legal spat saw her divorce dragged through courts in Germany and London.  

Clarissa Pierburg, 72, had been married to multimillionaire industrialist and art collector Jurgen Pierburg – a friend of King Charles III and attendee at Prince William‘s wedding to Kate Middleton – until their split in 2017.

Mrs Pierberg’s lawyers told High Court judges that she didn’t have ‘anything in the world’ after the pair’s high-profile divorce that has been dragged through the courts.

The pair wed in 1985 after Mr Pierburg split from his first wife Christine in 1984 – and they lived an ultra-luxurious lifestyle until their separation in 2017. 

The Pierburgs shared a chateau in Switzerland with a staff of nine servants, a multi-million pound second home in Knightsbridge, and a £10million 140ft superyacht. 

Mr Pierburg, who has previously supported Charles’s charity projects, also shared a cultural treasure trove with his wife in the form of a private art collection.

After a divorce filed in Germany in 2020, Justice Moor made a financial provision order, handing Clarissa a package which he valued at over £12million – including a £4million Knightsbridge flat. 

Justice Moor described a recent settlement attempt made between the pair in Germany in May, as the top judge said he expected them to stick to the terms agreed in a Dusselforf hotel that was ‘toasted with champagne’. 

Mr Pierburg is a member of the renowned Pierburg industrial dynasty who made their fortune in German motor manufacturing.

He inherited control of the business and most of his wealth when his father Alfred died in 1975.

He has since become famous as an art collector and sold a bronze sculpture by Matisse in 2010 for £37million, then a record for the artist.

In 2014, Charles thanked Mr and Mrs Pierburg in a speech for their financial support to his charity project to restore the Scottish stately home of Dumfries House.

Speaking at the High Court, Mr Justice Moor estimated that Mr Pierburg is worth around £160m.

The court heard that the couple had enjoyed a ‘phenomenal’ standard of living while together, spending between £8m and £13m a year on themselves.

After they became estranged, Mr Pierburg launched a petition for their split to be handled in his native Germany. 

But his ex-wife told the judge she was ‘domiciled’ in Switzerland but decided to move permanently to her ‘home’ in Knightsbridge in summer 2017.

Renouncing her ties with Germany, she said she only ever socialised with Mr Pierburg’s friends there, and had none of her own.

She claimed her ‘love affair’ with England began when she worked as an au pair in York in the 1960s.

And even before moving to London, the city had been an ‘integral part of her life’, she claimed.

However, Mr Pierburg claimed his wife was ‘German to the core’ and Mr Justice Moor ruled in 2019 that they should not be divorced in the UK.

At the time, Clarissa’s lawyers said she had been left ‘distressed’ and ‘quite penniless’ after losing her fight to divorce Mr Pierburg in Britain.

During the 2019 hearing, her barrister Charles Howard QC said Mrs Pierburg was ‘quite distressed’ about losing the case and ‘doesn’t have anything in the world’.

‘My client is now not only penniless, but owes £80,000,’ he added.

But Lewis Marks QC, for the husband, said Mr Pierburg was ‘sympathetic’ to his estranged wife’s financial plight.

In his latest ruling, Mr Justice Moor said that, following a German divorce in October 2020, the pair met up in a hotel in Dusseldorf to try to reach a financial agreement.

They agreed a package worth over £12m, which included Clarissa being handed her £4m home in Knightsbridge.

But the wife later backed out of that agreement, saying she was unhappy with it because it ‘left out important things for her’.

She then brought her fight for money to England instead, where Mr Justice Moor has now handed her a similar deal to that she agreed in Dusseldorf.

He said: ‘I am clear that there is sufficient connection in this case for me to make a financial award in principle.

‘The parties had a home here. The wife was very attached to this country and decided to make her life here when the marriage broke down.

‘Whether this was, originally, a tactical decision or not, I am satisfied that she does now intend to live here indefinitely’.

The judge said the wife had described their standard of living during the marriage as ‘phenomenal.’

‘It has subsequently been said by her that the expenditure rate was between Euro 10 million to Euro 15 million per annum’, he added.

The judge confirmed her divorce package would include the £4million home, around £1million to renovate the property, provision for a second country home and maintenance payments of around £500,000-a-year for life, unless she remarries. 

The maintenance payments will continue to be paid from the husband’s estate even if he dies before the wife, the judge ruled.

‘These parties have now been involved in bitter contested litigation for a number of years – it is time it ended,’ Justice Moor said.

‘The parties wanted it to end when they met in Dusseldorf on 20 May 2022. I now expect it to end on the terms of that Dusseldorf agreement.

‘After all, both parties were content with it as a proper solution as recently as 20 May 2022. They even toasted it with champagne.

‘I very much hope the husband will see the sense in this as well.’