Divorce 'shock' for millionaire

Published on Friday 11 July 2008 22:08

A MILLIONAIRE businessman was shocked when his wife failed to return home from a city break – and sent divorce papers instead.

David Campbell, 64, had been "oblivious" to problems in his marriage, a court heard, and expected his wife, Margaret, 67, to come back to their home in Coupar Angus, Perthshire, after her weekend in Edinburgh.

But, instead, a knock on the door turned out to be a summons being served on him.

Yesterday, a judge ruled that Mrs Campbell should be granted a divorce and awarded her a quarter share of the couple's 3.8 million assets. The Court of Session in Edinburgh heard that Mr Campbell had been a wealthy bachelor when the couple married in 1990. He was a pharmacist and later moved into property development and antiques. Mrs Campbell was a divorced science teacher and a mother of three teenage sons.

She complained that her husband had not been open with her about his finances. He paid all the household expenses, apart from food, but refused to hold a joint bank account, or put properties in both their names.

She said she felt he did not trust her. Her health had suffered and they stopped sleeping together, yet he appeared to think he was oblivious to their problems, she added.

Mr Campbell told the court that the breakdown of the marriage, in November 2006, had come as a "total shock".

Lord Carloway said that, in purely financial terms, Mr Campbell was "not ungenerous" to his wife and her sons, but had taken a "somewhat hard-headed or isolationist" approach.