Ruler of Dubai Ordered To Pay Over $730 Million Divorce Settlement

The ruler of Dubai was ordered by a British court to pay a divorce settlement to his ex-wife and their children of over $730 million. It is the largest such settlement in a British family court ever, according to reports. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who is also the prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, was ordered to pay the settlement to Princess Haya bint Hussein, and to children Jalila, 14, and Zayed, 9. The sheikh has multiple wives and is divorced from some of them.

The settlement also includes a payment of some $14.6 million a year for security arrangements for the princess and children. Haya also was awarded several million dollars to compensate for property, including clothes and jewelry, lost when she left the sheikh. The security is necessary mainly to protect them from Sheikh Mohammed, the judge said in his ruling that was issued in November but made public on Tuesday. A British court found earlier this year that the sheikh had hacked his ex-wife’s phone using the Pegasus software produced by Israel’s NSO Group for foreign governments’ security needs.

Haya, 47, the daughter of the late King Hussein of Jordan, fled the Emirates in 2019 for Britain and received custody of the children using that country’s courts.