Arab Press

بالشعب و للشعب
Friday, Jul 24, 2026

Princess Paid Bodyguard $9M in Blackmail to Keep Their Affair Quiet, but Still Got Busted

Princess Paid Bodyguard $9M in Blackmail to Keep Their Affair Quiet, but Still Got Busted

The royal couple lived large when they were together, spending more than $2 million in one summer-on strawberries. But then she was blackmailed by her lover and his greedy chums.

Money, it seems, really can’t buy love. But in the case of Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, and his sixth wife, Princess Haya, it can sure buy a lot of other stuff, including the silence of her secret lover.

In what is being dubbed as the biggest divorce settlement in U.K. history, the newly divorced sheikh was ordered to pay some $734 million to his estranged wife in a case that has lifted the veil on what the super rich do in their spare time.

Testimony, which can only now be reported under British court rules, suggests that Princess Haya, 47, who happens to be the sister of King Abdullah II of Jordan, “borrowed” a cool $7.5 million from her then 10-year-old daughter’s trust account to pay off her bodyguard, a former British soldier, with whom she was conducting an illicit affair. The princess’ security team had apparently blackmailed her to keep the tryst under wraps. “I was scared and that was the money available in that account,” the princess told the court, according to British press accounts published Tuesday.

The sheikh, 72, divorced his youngest wife when he discovered the affair, which led to the court proceedings. Calling their life “truly opulent” and remarking on the “unprecedented standard of living enjoyed by these parties,” the presiding judge ordered the wealthy ruler to pay the princess millions to continue to enjoy the lifestyle to which she and her children have become accustomed.

A large part of the record settlement is for security for the princess and her children—to protect them from the sheikh, who apparently considered her infidelity a capital offense. “Most importantly in this regard, and absolutely uniquely, the main threat they face is from HH himself not from outside sources,” the judge said, referring to the sheikh as His Highness. “This is compounded by the full weight of the state that he has available to him as seen by his ability to make use of the Pegasus software, which is only available to governments.” The sheikh used the software to hack the phones of the princess and her lawyers.

The judge also scolded the blackmailers, who have not yet been charged with any crime, saying, “This was clearly a most unsatisfactory episode. I realize I have not heard from the alleged blackmailers, but nobody should be blackmailed and HRH must have been very frightened at this point.”

The couple separated in 2019 when the sheikh discovered his wife’s infidelity. Haya took the kids, now age 14 and 9, to the U.K. While married, the ruler provided the princess with an annual $110 million budget for household expenses and nearly $12 million in allowance for each of the children. Haya originally asked for nearly $2 billion in maintenance.

The court saw holiday snapshots of the family on their $400 million super yacht, in addition to vacation pictures from their collection of villas and estates as well as shots of their custom-made Boeing 747 and matching helicopters, all staffed by around 80 servants. The court was also told how one summer, the family of four spent more than $2 million—on strawberries.

While the high-dollar payout would surely have satisfied most divorcées—especially considering the circumstances of her infidelity—Haya was said to be disappointed not to have her haute couture wardrobe, valued at about $110 million, or her $26 million jewelry collection returned to her from Dubai. The court was shown a photo of her walk-in jewelry vault, which she said had been stripped of the good stuff, leaving around $25,000 in “costume jewelry” that the judge did offer to order returned. According to press reports, he asked her if there would be “any point” to do so, to which she said, simply, “no.”

She will also not get her stable of racehorses, but instead was awarded some $6.6 million to “buy a few reasonable horses and run them for several years.”

Her lawyers had insisted that travel funds be allocated for the children, which the court awarded to the tune of $7 million a year, plus an additional $1.3 million for unspecified “leisure” activities. An additional $250,000 was earmarked for animals, including horses and ponies, and $130,000 for the children’s private tutors.

A request for the couple’s son Zayed, age 9, for money to purchase three new automobiles—in addition to the one he already owns—was denied, with the judge telling the princess, “I do consider it an artificial edifice to talk of children of the ages of these children owning motor vehicles. Moreover, Zayed’s precious motor vehicle has now finally been returned to him.”

Admitting that the circumstances of the divorce were highly unusual, the judge applauded the princess for wanting her children to have a “normal life,” adding that in his judgment he did his best “to a conclusion as to what is reasonable while remembering that the exceptional wealth and remarkable standard of living enjoyed by these children during the marriage takes this case entirely out of the ordinary.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

Arab Press
0:00
0:00
Close
OpenAI Sued After ChatGPT Allegedly Discouraged Emergency Care Before Near-Fatal Embolism
Miliband Sets Climate and International Law at Centre of UK Diplomacy
Pentagon Discloses Nearly 100 US Troop Injuries During Renewed Iran Fighting
Trump Readies New Tariffs as Temporary Global Levy Nears Expiry
High Prices Push Coffee Drinkers Toward Whole Beans and Home Brewing
Trump Draws Boos and Podium Scrutiny at Spain’s World Cup Triumph
Spain Defeats Argentina in Extra Time to Win Second World Cup
Turkey Explores S-400 Transfer to UAE in Bid to Rejoin F-35 Program
US Retaliates Against Iran After Two American Troops Killed in Jordan
Proposed U.S.-Saudi Nuclear Pact Could Permit Limited Uranium Enrichment Under International Safeguards
Why Kentucky Fried Chicken Became KFC—and Why the False Explanations Persist
Iran Claims It Destroyed Bahrain’s Main Artificial Intelligence Center in Missile and Drone Strike
Ukrainian Drones Strike Wildberries Warehouses Deep Inside Russia
Reported CIA Mission Helped Clear the UAE’s Path to Advanced US AI Chips
Artificial Intelligence Capital Fuels Markets While Governments and Regulators Face Mounting Strategic Tests
China’s Moonshot’s Kimi K3 Narrows the Gap With Anthropic Through Scale, Openness and Lower Cost
The Ledger Will Not Trust on Faith
Passenger Bound for Germany Refused to Sit Beside a Woman on a Plane — Then Slapped a Flight Attendant
Ukraine’s Leadership Rift Spills Into the Streets as Protesters Target Army Chief
The Ten World Cup Finals That Defined Football History
Smartphones Are Getting More Expensive, Sales Are Collapsing, and Even Apple Admits: "Prices Will Rise"
Leadership Change and Strategic Rivalry Redraw the Political Map
The AI Race Enters Its Infrastructure Era
Britain Nationalises British Steel to Protect Scunthorpe Production and Strategic Supply
Thomas Tuchel Faces Fierce Backlash After Tactical Retreat Costs England World Cup Final Berth
A Quiet Bastille Day: France Grapples with World Cup Heartbreak and Leftover Fireworks
Spain in Ecstasy: "We Feel Unbeatable, We Taught the Whole World a Lesson"
Harvard Astrophysicist to Lead U.S. Scientific Advisory on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena
Emergency Sirens Activated Across Bahrain as Interior Ministry Issues Shelter Directives
World Cup Visitors Turn American Big-Box Stores Into Souvenir Stops
Netflix Weighs Always-On Channels, Bundles and Short-Form Video
The AI Invoice Shock: Layoffs Didn't Save Managers Money — They Cost Them More
Concern: Sexually Transmitted Bacterium Among Men Develops Antibiotic Resistance
Passenger Partially Pulled Out of Ryanair Jet After Cabin Window Fails Mid-Flight
Severe Heatwave Drives Dangerous Ground-Level Ozone Pollution Across Two Thirds of European Union
The Physical and Electronic Barriers Disrupting Domestic Wireless Networks
France and Morocco Open World Cup Quarter-Finals as Collina Defends Refereeing
Tech Pulse: The Future of AI and Screen Culture
Global News Briefing: Escalating Geopolitical Tensions and Corporate Shakeups
Global News Brief: Escalating Conflicts, Public Health Crises, and World Cup Drama
Europe's Growing Struggle with Extreme Heat and Air Conditioning
Anthropic Reengineers Agentic Architecture to Shift Autonomous Workplace Automation to the Cloud
Logic Flaw in Windows 11 Permission Architecture Silently Consumes Hundreds of Gigabytes of Local Storage
Apple Advances Late-Stage Operating Systems with Fourth Beta Deployments
Global Crisis Alert: Escalating Middle East Tensions and UK Political Upheaval
Japanese Technology Firm Fujitsu Launches Advanced Artificial Intelligence Tool for Corporate Disclosures
South Africa Officially Launches Nationwide Campaign for Highly Contested Local Government Elections
United Kingdom Commits Additional Funding for Unexploded Ordnance Clearance in Laos
Singapore Announces Stringent New Greenhouse Gas Regulations for Commercial Cooling Systems
Cambodia and Thailand Hold High-Level Border Security Talks at United Nations Headquarters
×