The real-life ‘Split’: Inside Dale Vince’s messy ‘super-rich’ divorce battle
For the past four years, the founder of Ecotricity has been locked in an acrimonious divorce battle with his wife – even after he offered her £50m in an amicable settlement. As a judge agrees to an award that was less than his original offer the tycoon tells Chris Blackhurst why he feels vindicated and why the court system needs to urgently change
Dale Vince is feeling vindicated. Not that he will be raising a glass or two. “I did all that when I was put under so much stress,” he says wryly. Multi-millionaire Vince, 63, has had to stand back and watch a multitude of outlandish claims about his private life make lurid headlines as his divorce has wended its way through the courts. There has been great delight in the reporting of allegations of how the green energy tycoon, eco-warrior and major Labour donor, flew in private jets, drank Dom Perignon champagne, bought designer clothing, drove powerful petrol-powered cars and holidayed on a luxury 56ft yacht.
His ex-wife Kate, 50, declared he was a man who had “no problem in participating in conspicuous consumerism” and claimed he was giving his money away to try and dodge paying her what she was rightly due.
This was all vigorously denied by Vince. He now claims to be vindicated as a judge has made a financial settlement which sees his ex walk away with less than he first offered her four years ago. A relieved but also frustrated Vince shakes his head at the madness of it all. “It’s caused four years of grief. The whole thing has been a waste of time and life, not to mention the court’s time.”
Kate was demanding four houses with swimming pools – he already had given her one, the beautiful gothic mansion that was their home, on a hill overlooking Stroud in Gloucestershire – as well as a £6m residence for her horses, £20,000 a month for clothes and £30,000 a month for holidays.
Mr Justice Cusworth said Vince should pay Kate £41.8m plus interest. She is now to receive three tranches of £13.94m, £14.49m and £15.08m. The first payment will be made by 30 April this year, with the next two to follow annually.
It’s lower than the £50m Vince originally offered or indeed the £60m her lawyers pushed for. Four years ago, Vince had proposed £50m in a voluntary arrangement. That was rejected and the result, after numerous court hearings and much acrimony, not to mention a combined legal costs bill estimated at £6m, is that Kate now receives a much lower sum.
Lawyers representing Ms Vince stated: ‘We are very grateful to the court for the fair and equitable award granted to Ms Vince.
‘It is only right that Ms Vince has received an award which reflects her extensive contributions throughout the marriage, which the judge acknowledged, during which Mr Vince built the majority of his fortune’.
Kate told the court how Vince loved the high life, flying on private jets, drinking expensive wine, going on fabulous holidays and more. He did those things, he says, but at Kate’s instigation. “Kate organised them. When I go to London I go on the train. I’ve not flown for eight years.”
It’s no surprise that Vince became a target for some sections of the media. He has given £2.4m to Labour over the past decade, and also made payments to the Liberal Democrats, Green Party and Just Stop Oil. His ex-wife asked for half his donations to charities, Labour and political causes since they parted, which totalled around £5-6m – her lawyers argued that half the donation cash was Kate’s and that she did not agree to the gifts. The judge said it was “hardly inexplicable” that the tycoon should make a political donation.
By her own admission, Kate, who had been married to Vince for 18 years, said that her ex-husband had “strong ideals”, adding: “I liked meat but Dale said that he would not kiss me if I ate meat. I had to become a vegan.”
Vince met Kate in the 1990s when she began working at Ecotricity. They married in 2006 and have a teenage son. A former New Age traveller who wears T-shirts, colourful scarves, ripped jeans, boots, and two earrings, Vince is an unconventional CEO. He’s an outspoken campaigner on all manner of political and eco-issues – “I don’t try and fit in” is his description of himself.
The owner of National League football club Forest Green Rovers, famous in the macho, meat-eating world of football for serving an entirely vegan menu to players and fans, for having an organic pitch and employing solar-powered robots to cut the grass, claims it is “the greenest football club in the world”.
Vince made his fortune from Ecotricity, the Stroud-based renewable electricity firm which he founded and still owns but which, he says, would have been at risk of being sold if his ex-wife had gotten everything her lawyers were asking for. That was “hard to accept. It shows no consideration for the 800 people who work for Ecotricity. Their jobs would be bound to be at risk. I would have no control over the terms and the price, and in a forced sale, you’re bound to attract a lower price”.
He says he regarded the claims as “an existential threat to Ecotricity”. Kate’s argument was that she was entitled to 50 per cent and that it must be paid.
Following the settlement last week, Vince insists the pain and financial cost of the legal proceedings could have been avoided. “Everything was good between me and Kate. We could have reached a satisfactory outcome. I’d offered a sum of money which I think was more than fair. We’d had voluntary hearings; we could have settled.”
It’s not the first occasion he’s experienced the divorce courts. Born and raised in Norfolk, to parents who ran a road haulage firm, Vince left school at 15. He drifted, eventually becoming a traveller. He joined the protest to stop the installation of US nuclear cruise missiles at RAF Molesworth and took part in the Battle of the Beanfield at Stonehenge.
He was first married to Kathleen Wyatt, two years his senior and with a child of her own, in 1981. The couple were living on the road, using state benefits. They had a son, Dane, in 1983. After 18 months together, they separated, eventually divorcing in 1992.
Much later, in 2011, after Vince had made his fortune, Ms Wyatt, who had lived what was described in court as “16 years of real hardship”, lodged a financial claim of £1.9m against him, nearly 20 years after their divorce. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which, in a landmark ruling, said there was no time limit in law for claims for financial provision, and Ms Wyatt’s claim could proceed in the High Court.
Then, Vince hailed the court's decision as “Mad. I feel that we all have a right to move on and not be looking over our shoulders. This could signal open season for people who had brief relationships a quarter of a century ago.”
It was settled, finally, in 2016 when Vince agreed to pay £300,000 to Ms Wyatt. He commented then that the case had been “a terrible waste of time and money”. Today, here he is again, saying the same. “There ought to be a law against cases like this: built on excessive demands. Ours was a no-fault divorce, and I offered a fair settlement.”
The two experiences, he says, “were very different. This latest was a divorce and a financial settlement, which should have been simple. The only question that required answering was, what is fair and equitable?”
Four years ago, he said that was £50m. Kate declined and what followed, as he sees it, was a convoluted, legal process designed to be unfairly combative and saw his character being “assassinated”. The law, the system, he says, needs to urgently change. “In the commercial world, you would face a penalty. In that world, all my costs would be payable by the other side.” That, he says, might have made Kate and her legal team think twice.
He is, though enjoying the feeling of finally being “free. I can do everything I want to do, without looking over my shoulder.”
Today, his main home is in Stroud, and he mostly divides his time between there and London. “I want to get back to a normal life.” And no, that does not include jetting off on private jets and guzzling champagne. He laughs. “My life and work are one and the same. I can get on now with doing what I believe in.”
Davina Katz, of Katz Partners LLP, Vince’s lawyer, said: “Throughout these proceedings Mrs Vince sought 50 per cent of the assets, despite the fact Dale had worked very hard for many years before they met, building Ecotricity, the world’s first green energy company, from literally nothing into the extremely successful business it is today.
“I am delighted for Dale that the court has recognised this and agreed with him that fairness dictates Mrs Vince should receive less than half the assets. Mrs Vince was seeking a settlement of over £60m and has been awarded £41.8m, which is a great deal less than Dale had offered her from the outset, before this matter came to court.”
So, what next for Vince? He quite liked the idea of going from media personality to media proprietor and owning The Observer. An approach was made, but the owner, Guardian Media Group, would only negotiate with James Harding and his Tortoise Media. The title has now been sold to Harding in a £25m deal but not before Vince joined the picket line of striking Observer staff, unhappy at the development.
He won’t be drawn on whether a mooted new, rival Sunday paper was now in the offing. “There’s a lot of talking going on,” is all he will say.
For now, he has some celebrating to do – albeit not with Dom Perignon.
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