Dear Enrico,

Happy Valentine's Day, even if a very strange one for us.
In fact today marks the finalisation of our divorce at Canterbury Court from where I have just returned.

When the court order comes through the post you will go ballistic and probably call me lots of names and try to turn the children against me however I think if you stop to think for just one moment coherently you can only agree with the judges decision.

You must have realised once your relationship with Sabrina had become strong enough to warrant the break up of ours, that divorce was on the cards. You wanted it more than me. You also have known all along that divorce costs money and is never cheap. Now you have the proof.

The first hearing was in January last year(06) and including today's there have been 5 in total, Out of these five you have only been present once, all of the other times preferring to totally ignore all of the court's letters and the communications from my solicitor. For a person with such an accute business acumen you surprised me.

It soon became blatently obvious to the courts and me that you didn't want to give me anything at all and I'm afraid I couldn't accept this proposal from you. You told the courts you were up to your neck in debt and then took your girlfriend and the children on a holiday to Mexico AND treated yourself to a brand new Mercedes 4x4. That's not skint.

I apologise in advance for doing this to you but I had to. I have spent the best part of 18 years at your side and when I left I left with nothing. I have nothing to show for all my hard work put into the family business, the house and our family. I'm sorry you don't see eye to eye on this.

The judge has ordered a fairly substantial lump sum to be paid to me but he is also very aware that is not close to half of what I could have asked for had I been so inclined. I suppose I'm trying to tell you you've been extremely lucky, it could have been a lot worse.

So Enrico, today I wish you all the best. I hope the decision you made to end us was the right one or else all of this would have been in vain. On one hand I wished I'd never met you, never had our children as that would have saved so much heartbreak and pain on the other I have learnt immensley from all of this and can now look forward to a new life with my partner of joy, trust and love. I hope you find these qualities too.

Mari