Divorce can be messy, especially when there are assets and children involved.
But what happens when you’re left with nothing and the other party ends up with everything?
Ivana Moral had been married to her husband for 25 years when they decided to part ways in 2020.
At the divorce hearing, she told Spanish court Judge Laura Ruiz Alaminos that she and her daughters were “left with nothing”.
This was due to the fact that she was asked to sign a separation of goods agreement when they married. In other words, he would keep his wealth and they would split common possessions.
“I was supporting my husband in his work and in the family as a mother and a father. I was never allowed access to his financial affairs; everything was in his name,” she told Spanish publication inews.
Now Moral’s fortunes have certainly turned around after Alaminos ruled that her ex has to pay $215 000 (about R4 million) for 25 years of unpaid domestic labour, the New York Post reported.
According to inews, the record amount was calculated based on the annual minimum wage throughout the couple’s marriage.
The unnamed man was also ordered to pay a monthly “pension” of $527; also $422 and $633 to his 20-year-old and 14-year-old daughters.
During the hearing, the court also heard that Moral’s ex-husband built a successful gym business that allowed him to buy multiple luxury vehicles and an olive oil farm, all worth R118m.
She said she hoped her case would inspire other women “to know that we can claim for housework when there is a separation of goods agreement”.
Upon hearing that the judge had ruled in her favour, Moral’s lawyer Marta Fuentes told inews: “The ruling represents the labour of all the women in the shadows… who, without a doubt, constitute a fundamental support in personal, marital and familiar terms during years and years so that the ex-husband could develop his professional career and a rise in wealth which at the moment of separation could not share.”
