After a long break during which both sides claim they tried to settle, Marie Douglas-David, the 37-year-old former Wall Street analyst and alleged Swedish countess, and her husband, George, the 67-year-old CEO of Connecticut’s United Technologies, have apparently decided they’d rather be back in court, entertaining and horrifying us with the lurid details of their recession-inappropriate divorce. Yay?
Back in March, we heard how $20,000 a week, the amount Marie signed on to in a prenuptial agreement, was not enough of a settlement — she needed $53,000 a week to spend on cut flowers and horse care, and so was thinking more like $99 million total. We heard about the intimate details of her sex life with her sexagenarian husband and about the miscarriage she (may have) suffered while George was lunching with Senator Joe Lieberman (George contended she was lying). And yesterday, the bitter battle picked up seemingly right where it left off, with George detailing a “miserable weekend” the couple spent in together, during which Marie made him promise he would give her control of their Swedish castle in their divorce settlement:
“I was subjected to an imperious, aggressive attack,” David said of a 2006 spat at their $425,000-a-year beachfront rental in Sagaponack, LI … “She spoke in an imperious, demanding, aggressive, assaultive way,” he said.
Well, what does he expect? She’s a countess.
Well, what does he expect? She’s a countess.
Both parties have said they have no intention of backing down until they win, which gives the proceedings an excellent reality-show-like quality. “I am not embarrassed,” George told the Hartford Courant last week. Really? Because we are. He continued:
“You have to stand firm for your principles and I am entirely comfortable in standing firm in my principles.”
Admirable. But we’re starting to think he may want to relax these principles a bit (what are they, anyway? Being a dick?), as its becoming clear that George may end up the loser in this divorce. Today’s Wall Street Journal examined United Technologies’ corporate plane records, which were released as part of the proceedings, and found that George was using company aircraft for vacations and other personal reasons. While this is less outrageous than the same behavior from a government-supported financial institution, it still won’t look very good to shareholders, and they’re probably going to make him pay it back.
In the end, we see a choice in George’s future: Maintain his principled stance of being a dick and risk losing even more of his reported $300 million fortune, or give in and give Marie the $100 million and settle the whole thing. Hopefully, this won’t happen before today’s testimony, during which, the Post informs us, he’s due to be grilled about his doings with his Manhattan girlfriend, Wendy Touton. We can’t wait. Sort of?
Trial in $99M divorce in Conn. focuses on argument [AP]
Another Chapter To Open In The David Divorce Case [Hartford Courant]
Earlier: Intel’s Coverage of the Douglas-David Divorce Trial
