Case No. FD20F00034-and-FD19P00380

3. HH was born on 15 July 1949 and is therefore aged 72. He is the Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates; its Minister of Defence; and the Ruler of the Emirate of Dubai. HRH was born on 3 May 1974, so she is aged 47. She is the daughter of the late King Hussein of Jordan and his third wife, Queen Alia. She is the half-sister of King Abdullah II. She resides with the two children at HRH’s home near Kensington Palace, London, W8 and at Castlewood House, Egham. They married on 10 April 2004. It was the second official marriage of HH. The two children are Sheikha Al Jalila Bint Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum (“Jalila”), who was born on 2 December 2007. She is therefore aged 13 but will be 14 within the next month. Sheikh Zayed Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum (“Zayed”) was born on 7 January 2012. He is therefore aged 9 but will be 10 early in the New Year. HRH’s home near Kensington Palace was purchased in May 2016 for £87,500,000. It was placed in a trust structure for the benefit of HRH and the children. It was refurbished in 2017/2018 in the sum of £14,680,000. 4. On 7 February 2019, HH divorced HRH by talaq under Sharia law, without HRH’s knowledge at the time. This was a final divorce but, on 8 May 2019, it was registered with the Dubai Court, meaning that it is entitled to recognition in this jurisdiction. The breakdown of the relationship was acrimonious. It has been set out in detail in previous judgments of the President. I do not need, therefore, to set it out again, other than to refer to the previous judgments. Some of the findings are, obviously, of significant importance to this judgment and I will refer to those findings in due course. Suffice it to say that, on 15 April 2019, HRH travelled to England with Jalila and Zayed. There is no doubt whatsoever that I can treat this now as a permanent move and proceed on the basis that HRH and the children will be habitually resident in this jurisdiction for the foreseeable future. HH informed HRH on 26 April 2019 that her funding would cease on 29 April 2019 and it did so. On 14 May 2019, HH made an application for the children’s return to Dubai but he subsequently withdrew the application and accepted that the children would be remaining here indefinitely with HRH. Indeed, on 17 July 2019, the President made the children Wards of Court, which remains the position to this day. 5. On 18 October 2019, HRH requested that the children’s very substantial allowances of AED 5 million per month for Jalila and AED 2 million per month for Zayed be paid to a UK bank rather than to their accounts at N Bank. These were very substantial payments indeed amounting, at the current rate of exchange, to approximately £12 million pa to Jalila’s account and £4.8 million pa to Zayed’s account. The result of the request was that the standing orders to the N accounts were ended on 28 October 2019. 6. A fact finding hearing took place before the President in November 2019. HH had made it clear that he would not attend and that he would not give evidence to this court, either in writing or orally, arguing that his position prevented him from so doing. The court, however, has decided that his position does not give him immunity in relation to private law matters. Nevertheless, he has not attended at any point, although he has instructed top quality lawyers to represent him. The judgment of the President is dated 11 December 2019. It has been widely reported. A number of very serious findings were made, including that HH had ordered and orchestrated the abduction of two of his elder children, Sheikha Shamsa (born 1981) and Sheikha Latifa (born 1984); had forced them to return to Dubai; and had detained them there since. In the case of Sheikha Shamsa, the abduction took place from this country in August 2000. Turning to this case, the President records HRH’s evidence that HH threatened to remove Zayed from her care, such that she would not see him again and that he said that both children “ do not need their mother any more ”. The President found that HH had not been open and honest with the court and that HRH had been placed in a position of great fear. HH had deliberately used his connections with the Press to generate hostile stories aimed at destabilising her and harming her. He had published poems considered by HRH to be threatening, including one entitled “ You lived; you died ”. The President concluded that HH would use his very substantial powers to achieve his aims. 7. Reporting restriction orders were made by the President on both 28 January 2020 and 3 February 2020, although these orders have subsequently been varied to permit the reporting of various judgments. Nevertheless, I took the view that, as is currently normal practice in the Family Court, the hearing of HRH’s financial claims should be heard in private, albeit with accredited members of the Press attending. I gave permission for it to be reported that her claims were being heard but I refused to permit the reporting of any detail as the case progressed on the basis that I would decide after I had given judgment whether to allow the reporting of my judgment and, if so, the extent of any necessary redactions. At all times, I had the welfare of the two minor children at the forefront of my thinking. 8. The issue of the legal costs being incurred by HRH has loomed large over these proceedings and has resulted in a number of different applications by her. In the early days, these were heard by the President before he reassigned the financial proceedings to me. I have dealt with them since. On 11 February 2020, HRH applied for security for costs. Subsequently, she has made a number of applications for legal services funding. I will set out her financial disclosure later in this judgment but, suffice it to say, both the President and I came to the same conclusion, namely that, although HRH does have significant assets, they are not readily available to fund this litigation and, in the case of the two biggest assets, the English properties, it would be unreasonable to expect her to do so. In comparison, it was clear that funding the litigation was of no consequence for HH. Moreover, at all times, both the President and I have proceeded on the basis that, whatever HRH has spent in legal costs, HH has spent more. HRH also applied for interim financial provision pursuant to Schedule 1 on 21 February 2020. She had not received any financial assistance from HH for the children since the separation and had been forced to utilise her own resources. At the time, she sought what, in the context of this exceptional case, I consider to be modest funding, namely £84,000 per month to pay the outgoings on HRH’s home near Kensington Palace and, initially, £40,000 per month for the Castlewood Estate in Egham that she had inherited from her father, the late King Hussein of Jordan. She also sought £533,000 per month to cover security costs for her and the children. 9. The President heard the application on 5 March 2020. HH accepted that his wealth was sufficient to meet any reasonable order. On that basis, the President decided that he should not require him to provide financial disclosure and he dispensed with the requirement for the parties to file Forms E1 setting out their respective financial positions. He did, however, make a number of directions as to the evidence that would be required in relation to HRH’s budget and he provided for a private FDR to be heard in July 2020 before a retired judge, Sir David Bodey. If the case did not settle, I was to deal with the PTR on 22 July 2020 with the President hearing the claim over five days commencing on 12 October 2020. He made an interim order of £439,000 per month, which was made up of £355,000 per month for security costs and £84,000 per month for the running costs of HRH’s home near Kensington Palace, backdated to 1 December 2019. At the hearing, HRH did not press for additional maintenance in relation to Castlewood. The first payment, including the arrears, was to be paid in the sum of £1,756,000 by 19 March 2020. He made an order for security for costs in the sum of £4 million. In his judgment, he does refer to HRH withdrawing many millions of pounds worth of money from the accounts in the names of the children in Dubai on her departure for this country. The funds have been used over the past year. He refers to HH claiming that a significant part of this money had been used inappropriately on, for example, show jumping horses for the Olympic Games. I will obviously have to return to this in due course. The President did make the point that the only contribution made by HH since separation had been a sum of £1 million for the children’s education. Two independent companies, U and, subsequently, O had been providing security in this country for HRH. The cost had been £354,066 in January 2020. HRH wished to take the provision of security “ in house ”. Moreover, she made the point that the costs would increase dramatically if the family was able to live a more normal life post Covid-19 . The President allowed the sum paid to O in January 2020 going forward but did say that, if HRH could produce better evidence of the actual cost of security, he would consider the matter again. He rejected HH’s contention that she should fund herself from money already provided by him prior to the separation. He made the order for security for costs on the basis that there was no evidence of HH having assets in his sole name in this country against which HRH could enforce a costs order. 10. In fact, when HRH produced her budget in April 2020, it was clear that the sums she had sought on an interim basis were far lower than those she was seeking long term. Indeed, that first budget was in the sum of £42,093,100 per annum, of which the general maintenance provision was £14,072,000 per annum; £8,115,000 was for security; and £19,905,200 was the reinstatement of the children’s allowances at the then rate of exchange. In May 2020, HH produced a counter budget for HRH and the children. The figure he proposed for general maintenance was £2,589,000 per annum, which he subsequently revised to £3,158,000. He also proposed a security budget of £3,600,000 per annum (£300,000 per month). HRH applied on 14 May 2020 to vary the interim provision based on further evidence of the costs of security. She exhibited a letter from an anonymous director of her security operation dated 11 May 2020, redacted to preserve anonymity. A new company had been incorporated on 1 February 2020 to run the security operation. It was said that the use of O was not an appropriate long term model. There was a need for dedicated, trustworthy long-term staff and an increased number in the team. It had to be sufficient to enable HRH and the children to leave the house separately at the same time. The level of threat required enhanced pay. It is right to say that the budget included 25% of the costs of salaries for “ severance costs ”, which Mr Dyer QC, who is the main leading counsel for HH, has long criticised. Finally, the letter said that HRH needs a property nearby to house the security team. The budget included salaries etc at £3.4 million; consultancy fees for the management team at £962,650; severance costs of £824,542; rent at £450,000; professional fees of £306,000; legal fees of £175,000; and VAT at £672,000, making a total £8,115,000 per annum. 11. On 3 June 2020, the President refused an application that HH had made to instruct an expert in security to report on the reasonable security needs of HRH and the children and the cost of doing so. In his judgment, the President made the point that, although the security budget had increased from £4.6 million pa as recently as March 2020 to £8.1 million pa, the exceptional feature here is that the main risk is from HH who is the very person challenging the quantum. The President said that it was in HH’s interests to reduce the budget if he wished to abduct the children. He was of the view that any such expert instruction was bound to compromise the confidentiality of HRH’s security arrangements. If such information was not made available, the report would be anodyne and unlikely to assist the court. 12. On 19 June 2020, HRH made two applications. The first was for leave to apply for financial provision after an overseas divorce pursuant to Part III of the Matrimonial and Family Proceedings Act 1984. In the application, HRH made it clear that she was only seeking capital provision to cover the long-term costs of her security and that of the children. The second was for legal services orders or, in the alternative, for further security for costs. She exhibited to her application the requisite refusal from two financial institutions to provide her with a legal fees loan; a refusal from one of her trusts, the R Trust to provide her with a loan due to the conflict with the interests of the children who are also beneficiaries of that Trust; and a letter from her solicitors, Payne Hicks Beach (“PHB”) setting out her outstanding costs, which were (£1,482,177) as at 11 June 2020 and an estimate of her future costs. The letter also said that the firm was not prepared to enter into a