Gender bias and the omelette

‘Needs’ are what determine most financial divorce cases. What does a person “need”?

Where the other party has funded an opulent lifestyle, needs can differ. For example, many ladies say they “need” Botox and a huge fashion allowance.

Simon Entwistle married heiress Geri Halliwell, and she funded an extravagant lifestyle with a villa in Dubai. On their divorce, he said he needed £26,000 a year (£500 a week) for meals because he could not cook. “I cannot even cook an omelette”, he told Mr Justice Francis.

That cut no ice with the judge who told him to learn. Simon had the last laugh, however, because he won an appeal after it was discovered that his now ex-wife had hidden £48,000,000 of assets.

This is an interesting case, however, of gender bias, because you can be sure if Simon had been the wife in the relationship his “needs” would have found much more sympathy with a judge.

August 2025
Rodney Hylton-Potts