Multimillion-dollar divorce squabble plumbs lurid depths

It is the divorce case with everything: an ageing, rich husband; a 1.82m, much younger, blonde Swedish countess wife; allegations of affairs and forced sex; and an unseemly squabble for US$100 million ($175.5 million).

No wonder the marital problems of George David, the 66-year-old chairman of United Technologies, and his soon-to-be ex-wife, Countess Marie Douglas-David, 36, have captivated the American public in a case that has been dubbed the divorce of the century.

In times of recession-induced anxiety, tabloid newspapers have had a field day with the lurid details of the marital collapse that has played out in a Connecticut courtroom. Jim Shea, a columnist for the local Hartford Courant, said the spat was "the ultimate divorce steel-cage match".

The heart of the issue is simple, though one for which many struggling Americans might have little sympathy.

The countess has been offered US$43 million as a settlement but says it is not enough to finance her lifestyle. So she is suing for US$100 million.

"She always wants more, more, more. Too much is never enough," said David's lawyer, Anne Dranginis.

To back up her claims, Douglas-David filed papers in court showing she needed at least US$53,000 a week to cover her living expenses, including US$4500 a week for clothes, US$8000 for travel and US$1500 for eating out.

She argued that her husband's offer would not support such a lifestyle for longer than 15 years, and as a result she had no choice but to go to court.

But it is the protagonists' appalling behaviour, ruthlessly detailed by their legal teams last week, that has truly riveted the public. Neither party comes out looking good, or, indeed, even mildly versed in decent behaviour.

Douglas-David has portrayed her husband as an emotionally cold control freak who spent several hundred thousand dollars on her each week, but created a "golden cage". She has accused him of having an affair, of teasing her about being childless, of showing no sympathy after a miscarriage and of refusing to give her any control of her own money.

She says he once told her: "If you improve and behave, you can have in-vitro fertilisation."

She has also claimed he taunted her with separation threats as a form of sexual foreplay, serving divorce papers four separate times and then wooing her back into the marital bed, sometimes on the same day.

David did not help his own cause. In one piece of testimony, he denied Douglas-David gave him valuable financial advice about his business.

"I don't remember specific conversations with Marie ... it's like you go home and talk to the dog."

But David was not the only sinner.

He says his wife tried to serve her own divorce papers in the spectacular setting of a marriage guidance session, which he was attending alone.

His lawyers also say the countess had an affair with a Swedish fencing champion. David spent almost US$250,000 on five detectives to track the pair in Stockholm.

Indeed, David's lawyers have sought to portray Douglas-David as a sexual predator who bullied her husband into sex, in effect raping him.

The divorce fight is so bitter that even Douglas-David's engagement ring is up for grabs. He retains the title to the US$190,000 diamond-encrusted ring and has refused to surrender that right, even though she insists it is hers.

Perhaps Andrea Peyser, a New York Post writer, summed up public reaction best, in a "plague on both your houses" column about the couple.

"Take the dough, baby, and scoot away on your stilettos," she advised the countess. "You can always find another rich mega-creep."

The pair married in 2002, and Douglas-David gave up her job as a vice-president at Lazard Asset Management a year later.

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