One of the country’s biggest divorce battles is underway at the High Court between a Highgate couple who own a £15 million mansion and a chalet in France.
Tim Steiner, 46, the chief executive of online retailer Ocado, filed for divorce from his wife Belinda, whom he married at Hampstead Garden Suburb Synagogue in 1999, citing unreasonable behaviour.
The couple’s marital breakdown has since been sensationalised in the media, after he posed for photos with his new girlfriend, 27-year old Patrycja Pyka, a former model from Poland.
The two parties, who have four children, were unable to agree settlement terms, and are now facing each other in court, with Tim represented by top family lawyer Fiona Shackleton, who represented Sir Paul McCartney during his divorce from Heather Mills.
The tycoon, who is still living in Highgate, attended Haberdashers’ Aske’s school in Elstree in Hertfordshire before becoming a Goldman Sachs banker, later founding Ocado in 2000 with two colleagues.
The Daily Mail quoted a source close to the couple, who said: “Belinda and Tim got to know each other long before Ocado. She is from a respectable North London Jewish family from the Hampstead area. She was a very glamorous young woman and they met, got married and had children quite quickly.”
