A headteacher who gave up her career to be “looked after” by a millionaire doctor demanded he compensate her when they fell out in a £2.3 million divorce battle.
Fifty-eight-year-old Katriona MacFarlane claimed 74-year-old Dr James MacFarlane should compensate for her lost career and help her to buy a home similar to the £1 million country cottage they shared together.
Katriona MacFarlane was working as an acting headteacher when she met Dr James MacFarlane, a semi-retired GP, in 2003, the Daily Telegraph reported.
When they decided to marry, she sold her own home to buy his daughter’s half share of his house in Darley Dale.
In 2013 Dr James MacFarlane told her that he wanted to divorce her.
Judges have now ruled that Katriona MacFarlane cannot be compensated, because no one had twisted her arm when she decided to give up full-time work.
At a divorce court in Nottingham in 2015, Judge Mark Rogers said Katriona MacFarlane should have half the proceeds of sale of the house, plus a £140,000 lump sum from her ex.
But at the Court of Appeal, her barrister Paul Isaacs said it was wrong that Dr James MacFarlane would not be compensating her for her years off the career ladder.
Judge Rogers had rejected her claim to compensation for her lost career, citing the fact that it had been a mutual decision between the parties, the barrister said.
Had she not abandoned full-time work, she would now be earning up to 105,000 pounds a year but instead was working as a supply teacher, Mr Issacs claimed.
Rejecting her case, Mr Justice Moylan said Judge Rogers had been right to refuse Mrs MacFarlane compensation for giving up her job.
The decision was a joint one and the evidence of what she would be earning now if she had stayed in her job was “unclear”, he said.
