Even for a man of Phil Collins’s wealth — the rock star is estimated to be worth £140 million — the reported £25 million divorce payment he has been obliged to make to his third wife, Orianne Cevey, would have hardly been painless: small wonder that he kept quiet about it until the figure emerged in his company accounts.

London’s divorce courts are seeing a stream of foreign custom as wives reason that the best way to glean an extra million or so from their husband is to try their luck in England.

“It’s generally accepted that London is the divorce capital of the world,” according to James Turner, QC, a counsel involved in top family law cases. “More foreign claimants than ever are ‘forum shopping’ for the best divorce jurisdiction — and that tends to be England.” The trend started in 2000, when the House of Lords ruled that marital assets should be split equally.

“I’m aware of cases where wives have tricked their husbands into living in the UK for a few months and then sprung divorce proceedings on them,” Mr Turner told The Times. “It also helps that prenuptial agreements are not binding in this country.”

Some countries, such as Russia, let rich husbands hide their wealth in trusts and companies. English courts look at all marital assets before dividing the wealth. “Oligarchs are now worried that their wives may start divorce proceedings over here.”

A few countries, he added, would apply English divorce law in their own courts — so long as one of the parties was from here. These included Switzerland, where Ms Cevey was born.

Collins, 57, might have seen financial calamity coming. This is his third divorce; last time he had to pay £17 million. He had notoriously dumped by fax his second wife, Jill Tavelman, who is the mother of his daughter, Lily.

He had two children with his first wife, Andrea Bertorelli. When she left him for their decorator, the rock star responded by appearing on Top of the Pops with a pot of paint on his piano.

The size of this settlement prompted divorce lawyers to wonder why, given what happened last time, Collins did not seek a pre-nuptial agreement.

He met Ms Cevey in 1994, when she was working as a translator. They married in 1999 and set up home near Geneva. The couple, who have two children, announced their split in 2006, stating that they had “grown apart”.

Ms Cevey, 35, who has stayed in the marital home, recently set up a jewellery business, and also works as a designer for a Geneva watch company. Collins divides his time between Switzerland, New York and England.

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