Sir Frederick Barclay’s High Court fight over £100million sum he was told to pay ex-wife postponed

Sir Frederick Barclay’s High Court fight over a £100million sum he was ordered to pay his ex-wife has been postponed after a judge heard the retired businessman has made a ‘proposal’.     

The Daily Telegraph tycoon, 88, had been ordered to hand Lady Barclay the money in May 2021 following the breakdown of their 34-year marriage.

Lady Barclay, who petitioned for divorce on the grounds of unreasonable behaviour, subsequently complained that Sir Frederick had not paid money as ordered – and alleged that he was in contempt of court. 

Sir Jonathan was due to oversee a further hearing in the Family Division of the High Court on Monday.

But he adjourned proceedings until March 6 after a barrister representing Lady Barclay told him that Sir Frederick had made a ‘proposal’.

Sir Frederick Barclay’s High Court fight over a £100million sum he was ordered to pay his ex-wife has been postponed after the judge heard the retired businessman has made a ‘proposal’ 

Sir Frederick Barclay, 80, arrived at the Royal Courts of Justice, central London, earlier today for the latest stage of litigation between him and his ex-wife Lady Barclay

Lady Barclay previously asked for Sir Frederick to be sent to prison after claiming he breached court orders to pay her more than £100million in May 2021 – saying he failed to pay two lump sums of £50million

Stewart Leech KC said Lady Barclay would not take any further enforcement action before that hearing. 

Meanwhile, Sir Jonathan said it was ‘absolutely essential’ that Lady Barclay was ‘properly provided for’. 

Mr Leech gave Sir Jonathan no detail of Sir Frederick’s ‘proposal’.   

He had told the judge, in a written argument prepared for Monday’s hearing, that Lady Barclay had ‘lost patience’.

Mr Leech told the judge of Sir Frederick’s ‘abject failure to engage in making any real efforts’ to show when he will be able to pay ‘anything’.

Sir Jonathan ruled in July that Sir Frederick was in contempt as a result of failing to pay about £245,000 that he owed Lady Barclay for legal fees and maintenance.

A barrister representing Lady Barclay told the judge, at a follow-up hearing in August, that the £245,000 had been paid.

But Stewart Leech KC said Sir Frederick remained ‘massively in default’ and told the judge that there was ‘still no plan for payment of the £100 million’.

Monday’s hearing is being staged in public and is listed as an ‘application by Lady Hiroko Barclay for the committal to prison of Sir Frederick Hugh Barclay’.

Sir Frederick and his twin brother, Sir David, were among the UK’s most high-profile businessmen.

Sir David died aged 86 in January 2021.

Their interests included the Telegraph Media Group and The Ritz hotel in London.

The family also has links to the Channel Islands and Monaco.

Sir Frederick and his identical twin brother, Sir David, were among the UK’s most high-profile businessmen.

Sir David died aged 86 in January 2021.

Their interests included the Telegraph Media Group and The Ritz hotel in London.

Sir Frederick (left) and his identical twin brother Sir David (right) were among the UK’s most high-profile businessmen. Sir David died aged 86 in January 2021

Sir Frederick’s High Court fight over the £100million sum has been postponed after a judge heard the retired businessman has made a ‘proposal’

Sir Jonathan Cohen said Sir Frederick had behaved in a ‘reprehensible’ fashion during a High Court fight over money

Lady Barclay said Sir Frederick, and his brother David, had acquired the freehold of Brecqhou – one of the Channel Islands – in 1993 and paid £2.3 million. 

She added that her ex-husband and his brother had once had a brawl while abroad in a row over the running of their businesses. ‘There was a fight on a boat on the holiday,’ she told the judge, ‘They were punching each other’. 

The twins were reported to have bought the Leander G superyacht in around 2016, although it is not known if the alleged fight was on board.

The family also has links to the Channel Islands and Monaco.

She also told Sir Jonathan Cohen, who began overseeing a hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in August, that Sir Frederick had the means to pay but was aiming to ‘string things out’ until ‘one or other of us dies’.