West End restaurants tycoon Richard Caring is facing one of the biggest divorce payouts in British legal history.
The owner of a string of venues including The Ivy, Sexy Fish, Le Caprice and J Sheekey, as well as the nightclub Annabel’s, has separated from his wife of 45 years, former model Jacqui, it was reported today.
Mr Caring, a close friend of former BHS owner Sir Philip Green, is said to have moved into a £32 million, 10-bedroom house in St John’s Wood with his new partner, 35-year-old Brazilian property developer Patricia Mondinni, and their toddler son.
Mother-of-two Jacqui Caring, 67, still lives at the family’s palatial home dubbed the “Versailles of Hampstead”.
Mr Caring, 68, who started his career as a teenager selling dresses to shops in London in the sixties to help save his father’s business, is estimated to be worth £700 million.
Courts are increasingly awarding spouses half of fortunes built up by successful entrepreneurs, particularly after a long marriage.
The biggest divorce settlements seen in Britain include the £740 million awarded to Formula 1 billionaire Bernie Ecclestone’s ex-wife Slavica in 2009 and the £337 million paid by hedge fund boss Chris Hohn to his former wife Jamie Cooper-Hohn in 2014.
Mr Caring married Jacqueline Stead, the Aldershot-born daughter of a retired major, in 1971 after spotting her on a catwalk.
He said of her in one interview: “She gave up modelling three days after she met me. She’s not a fool. She doesn’t cook, and she doesn’t work.”
They have two sons, Jamie, 44 and Ben, 37, who have worked in their father’s business empire, which also includes a 30 per cent stake in the Soho House private members’ clubs group.
The Carings have homes in Hong Kong and at Pixton Stables in Dulverton, Somerset, which is a 50-acre shooting estate.
A spokesman for Mr Caring would not comment.
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