Briton hits the divorce jackpot

A BRITISH-BORN woman whose past can be traced back to a council- house upbringing in Sevenoaks and a career as a flight attendant has been awarded a divorce settlement in New York of $22m (pounds 13.7m). It includes a sprawling estate in a rich Hamptons enclave on Long Island, cash and Monet and Picasso paintings.

Warner LeRoy, a Manhattan restaurant owner, has been ordered by a court to hand over what amounts to 40 per cent of his personal fortune to his former wife, Kay. The couple were divorced last year after a messy and sensational trial.

Mrs LeRoy, whose maiden name was Kathleen O'Reilly, was born in Kent. She met Mr LeRoy in 1966, when she was a flight attendant for Trans World Airlines, at a party to launch one of his restaurants. He married her in 1970. She was granted a divorce on grounds of inhuman treatment by Mr LeRoy and cruelty.

The divorce trail commanded headlines in the city. It featured allegations of serial adultery by Mr LeRoy with, among others, an aspiring singer and a Hungarian gymnast. Mrs LeRoy admitted to infidelities with a fireman, an author and a New York lawyer.

Under the settlement order Mr LeRoy, a descendant of the founders of the Warner Brothers studio empire, must deliver cash that may amount to $15m as well as paying his former wife an annual allowance of $700,000.

Friends said that he will be pained most by the loss of his Hamptons estate, where he grew rare trees and nurtured koi fish. However, he escaped what would have been the worst of all penalties - the breaking up of his restaurant chain, which also includes the Russian Tea Room.