A former rock band manager has won a significant victory in the Court of Appeal, securing the right to claim an additional £14 million from her ex-husband, a former SAS major. The case involved a three-way legal battle with her estranged multimillionaire mother, who had secretly gifted the ex-husband £27.6 million after the couple's separation.
Maria-Christina Copinger-Symes, 54, married James Copinger-Symes, 57, in 1998. They lived in a Chelsea home worth over £3 million with their four children. Ms Copinger-Symes, part of the wealthy Perez de la Sala shipping dynasty, worked as a music manager for a firm involved with the rock group INXS. She has been estranged from her family for years, with a judge noting that her mother and siblings felt 'hate' towards her due to a previous court battle over family wealth in Singapore.
The couple divorced in 2022, with a court order requiring Ms Copinger-Symes to pay her ex-husband £1.2 million, leaving her with £5.25 million. However, she later discovered that her mother had secretly given her son-in-law approximately £27.6 million after the split. In August 2024, a Family Court judge overturned the financial order, ruling that the gift amounted to 'material non-disclosure' by the ex-husband.
The ex-husband and mother appealed that decision, arguing the gift was 'non-matrimonial' and would not have been made if the wife could share it. On Wednesday, three senior judges dismissed the appeals, paving the way for Ms Copinger-Symes to claim a share of the gift. Lady Justice Andrews stated that the suppression of information about the expected gift presented a 'distorted picture' of the couple's financial circumstances and needs, justifying the setting aside of the original divorce order.
The court heard that Ms Copinger-Symes now runs a successful scent and candle company, Lilou et Loic. The family feud originated from a dispute over a London property and what her mother described as 'your ultimate betrayal of the whole family' during a legal fight in Singapore. The ex-husband, however, maintained a close relationship with his in-laws, who supported him in the divorce and gifted him the £27.6 million.
