Phil Collins breaks Paul McCartney’s UK divorce settlement record
This is one of the rare times when a musician probably doesn’t want to top former Beatle Paul McCartney. Ex-Genesis front man Phil Collins reportedly was ordered to shell out a whopping $46.68 million to his now-ex-wife in their divorce. That’s $1 million more than one-legged harpie Heather Mills got from Sir Paul. And this isn’t Phil’s first time cutting a big fat check to an estranged wife, either.
Phil Collins has handed over £25million to his third wife in the biggest-ever divorce payout by a British showbiz star.
The massive settlement beats the £24.3million Paul McCartney recently handed over to Heather Mills and puts the £12.5million which Chris Tarrant settled on ex-wife Ingrid in the shade.
Genesis singer Phil, 57, has given the huge cash sum to Swiss beauty Orianne Cevey, 35, after just six years of marriage and two children.
And it is not the first time Phil has had to give away large chunks of his cash.
In 1994 he gave his second wife Jill Tavelman £17million after famously dumping her by fax.
It means he has now paid out more than £42million almost a third of his £140million fortune.
A music industry source said: “Marriage has certainly not come cheap for Phil. He has now made two of the biggest divorce payments in showbiz history.
“At least no one can accuse him of leaving his ex-wives short. When you compare what he’s paid out relative to his own fortune the figures are enormous.”
Orianne even got a much bigger percentage of Phil’s fortune than Heather Mills got from Macca. The divorce payout came to light in the latest accounts for Phil’s personal management company, Philip Collins Ltd.
He met Orianne on tour when she was just 22 and he was still married to Jill. They set up home in Geneva and were together for five years before their lavish three-day wedding in Lausanne with 300 guests including Elton John and Eric Clapton.
I don’t really feel sorry for Phil Collins, but I do think it’s rather disgusting that his wife feels that she’s entitled to half of his earnings just because they were married for six years and she pumped out a couple of his kids. Phil made that money on his own without any help or support from this woman- why does she get to keep any of it, outside of child support? To make matters worse, it’s not like Phil can just go out on tour and recoup this loss- the singer has said that he has permanent hearing loss in one ear due to an ear infection, and will probably never tour again.
I really think it’s time for Britain to examine its divorce laws. I also think Phil should take a permanent vacation from marriage at this point. But please, whatever you do, Phil, don’t write anymore sappy songs about being dumped. Why should we all suffer because of your mistakes?
Phil Collins and his third wife Orianne are shown in the header on 1/18/03. They are shown below out with their son on 6/29/04. Credit: WENN
