Sir Frederick Barclay due back at High Court amid battle over £100m

Sir Frederick Barclay, 88, is due back at High Court amid battle over £100million sum he was ordered to pay his ex-wife

• Sir Frederick Barclay, 88, is due back at High Court on Monday 
• He is in legal battle with ex-wife Lady Barclay after their 34-year marriage
• Read: Judge warns Sir Frederick Barclay ‘the debt will not go away’

Sir Frederick Barclay is due back at High Court amid a legal battle over a £100million sum he was ordered to pay his ex-wife. 

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

At the time, Sir Jonathan Cohen said Sir Frederick had behaved in a ‘reprehensible’ fashion during a High Court fight over money.

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

Sir Jonathan is due to oversee the latest stage of the litigation at a hearing in the Family Division of the High Court on Monday.

Sir Frederick Barclay is due back at High Court amid a legal battle over a £100million sum he was ordered to pay his ex-wife

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

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

The judge 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’.

READ MORE: Sir Frederick Barclay, 87, is warned ‘the debt will not go away’ and he should be ‘ashamed’ for leaving his ex-wife penniless after divorce

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.

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’.

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