How can I have been so stupid? The heiress fighting her penniless Kosovan 難民 ex-husband for her own fortune

Linda Berkeley: 'Just an ordinary woman who fell for the wrong man'

Linda Berkeley 収容する／認めるs she was 'extraordinarily lucky' to receive a bequest of £500,000 from her father's 広い地所 in 1963 - a 人物／姿／数字 that would be the 同等（の） of £7million today.

"I should never have had another 財政上の worry," she says. "My father was an engineer who had worked hard all his life to make something of himself. Just a week before he died, when he was very ill with the heart troubles that killed him, he was still going into the office. It 簡単に would never have occurred to him not to work. It was the type of man he was.

"He loved me very much, and he died knowing that I would be 始める，決める up for life, which must have given him a lot of 慰安."

The 53-year-old 離婚 滞るs, の近くに to 涙／ほころびs. "The most hideous thing in all of this is that I keep thinking of what my father would make of all this. I feel that I have let him 負かす／撃墜する terribly. I never 現実に saw the money he left me as 地雷 - I always considered it to be his.

"And now most of it is gone. If there is such a thing as an afterlife, and we 会合，会う again, my biggest dread is that he will turn to me and say: 'How could any daughter of 地雷 have been so damned stupid?'"

It is indeed curious. Linda has just finished telling me that she is 永久的に 氷点の these days, because she feels that central heating is a 高級な she can ill afford. "I sit here looking at my 手渡すs telling myself that I can only flick the switch when they 現実に go blue," she says. "I am terrified that I am going to l ose my home.

"My father would be 荒廃させるd if he could see me like this, and that shames me more than I can say."

So where did the money go? In some ways it would be easier for Linda to 耐える had she squandered the lot on 罰金 ワインs and designer 着せる／賦与するs. But she didn't. She says her predicament has come about 簡単に because she fell in love.

It's hard to listen to Linda's story without concurring with her 結論 that she has been "a dreadfully silly woman".

Her story has a depressingly familiar （犯罪の）一味 to it. When she was in her 中央の-30s - "old enough to know better," she says, with a sigh - she met a penniless Kosovan 難民 ten years her junior with a sexy accent and come-to-bed 注目する，もくろむs. Her 運命／宿命 was 調印（する）d.

She was 選び出す／独身 and singing in a nightclub the evening Ardian Bulliqi introduced himself. He complimented her 発言する／表明する, and asked her out for a drink the next night.

Bowled over by his 教祖的指導力, the romantic story of how he had come to 逃げる his 母国, and his 熱烈な 決意 to start もう一度 in Britain, she was only too willing to help.

So she let him move into her upmarket Chelsea flat. She supported him, 支払う／賃金ing for everything, 負かす／撃墜する to his cigarettes. She enthusiastically agreed to marry him. And when her American 親族s made a 抱擁する fuss about a prenuptial 協定 - or 欠如（する） of it - she 簡単に shrugged. She was in love, and what price could you put on that?

急速な／放蕩な 今後 16 years, however, and the lawyers are trying to 設立する 正確に／まさに what that marriage should cost her in the 法廷，裁判所s.

For four years, ever since her always rocky marriage was 宣言するd untenable, Linda has 設立する herself in a 合法的な 戦う／戦い to 持つ／拘留する on to what she 述べるs as the pitiful 残りの人，物 of her father's 相続物件.

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Smitten: Linda Berkeley with her tall, dark, Kosovan 難民 Ardian Bulliqi

She （人命などを）奪う，主張するs that not content with 'fleecing' her throughout their marriage, her former husband - the father of her son Edmond, now 15 - is out to 廃虚 her by 火刑／賭けるing （人命などを）奪う，主張する to much of what is left of her money.

The 初めの 解決／入植地 gave Mr Bulliqi almost half her wealth, 含むing the lucrative car wash 商売／仕事 she had 始める，決める him up in. She is 控訴，上告ing, （人命などを）奪う，主張するing that his 需要・要求するs far より勝る what is fair in 法律.

"He has told me, to my 直面する, that he will see me sleeping in a box under the Charing Cross arches," she says.

"What a thing to say to the woman who bore your child, and who gave you everything. It just sums up how wrong I was about this man.

"I honestly don't think now that he ever loved me. He （機の）カム to this country looking for a rich, gullible 西部の人／西洋人, and he 設立する me. It must have been so 平易な for him. I can only pray that the 法律 recognises this, rather than 手渡すing him even more money."

合法的に, her 事例／患者 is a コンビナート／複合体 one, and while it may not 伴う／関わる the sorts of sums 存在 交渉するd in the McCartney v Mills 離婚 戦う／戦い, the 問題／発行するs 伴う／関わるd are 類似の, and the 判決 will be closely watched.

For at the heart of this 事例／患者 is the question of what （人命などを）奪う，主張する a spouse should have on his or her partner's 財政／金融s, if that money was earned or 相続するd many years before the marriage took place.

Linda says: "That money was my father's and he has no 権利 to it. He wasn't even born when my father died, for goodness sake. Morally, I feel as if I should not give him a penny. Besides, I have already paid dearly for having him in my life."

The 法律 says さもなければ, of course. It is 必然的な that Linda will have to を引き渡す a かなりの sum to her former husband, but she will not know for another few weeks what that 人物／姿／数字 is.

Her 怒り／怒る is 理解できる, but has she really been 不正に done by? Or is she just discovering the hard way that you do not have to be a 億万長者 Beatle to be reminded what those 公約するs can 現実に mean?

The 爆発性の story started, aptly enough, on Guy Fawkes Night 1989. Linda was singing in a blues 禁止（する）d and living an enviably bohemian life. Unfettered by 財政上の 関心s, she was able to follow her dreams. The suave and swarthy Ardian （機の）カム up to her before one of her gigs.

"He said something like 'If you sing for me tonight, I will be drunk with love', and it was amazing,' she 解任するs.

"He was - still is - the most extraordinarily good-looking man, and he had this 深い bass 発言する／表明する. I thought he was terribly sexy, definitely exotic. That night we went for coffee and he told me all about himself. I couldn't get enough. It was all so romantic.

"He told me about 逃げるing his country, about seeing a friend 発射 in 前線 of him, and about how he was 迫害するd because of his ethnicity. I was 乱暴／暴力を加えるd for him. I 手配中の，お尋ね者 to help."

With hindsight, she wonders if she - a woman on the wrong 味方する of 35, anxious to settle 負かす／撃墜する - was 平易な prey for what would have been in earlier times known as a cad and a charmer. Whatever, within a few weeks, Ardian, who was renting a flat with his brother, had moved into her Chelsea home.

At the time, he was working in a 挟む 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業, but his 態度 to work was somewhat relaxed. He was by no means career minded.

"Looking 支援する, I should have realised. いつかs he worked, but mostly he didn't.

"He wasn't 与える／捧げるing anything to the 世帯 at this time. Even if he had a 職業, he paid for nothing. I even bought his cigarettes.

"For our first Christmas, I paid for him to have 運動ing lessons. Then I bought him a red Toyota Corolla, the first of two cars."

Did she resent keeping him? "No. I honestly thought I was just helping him get 設立するd. I even gave him money to send to his family in Kosovo. Once I gave him £3,000. My thinking was: 'They need it. They will 支払う／賃金 me 支援する'."

But 警告 bells should have been sounding about the 関係, not just the money. Linda （人命などを）奪う，主張するs that after just six months together, things had turned violent, and feeling that she was walking on eggshells was commonplace.

"I could do nothing 権利. He would criticise the way I kept the house, the things I cooked. He would go mad if I served him up leftovers. He'd say: 'I am not eating leftovers. How dare you? You are trying to 毒（薬） me.'"

"In time we would come to 列／漕ぐ／騒動 about money. I'd say he needed to be 与える／捧げるing to the 世帯. He'd say: 'Why should I? You have enough for both of us.'"

"いつかs he would 攻撃する，衝突する me. Looking 支援する, I was 完全に in his しっかり掴む, but I didn't see it then, I just thought he had troubles, but I could help him through them."

In August 1991, Linda discovered she was 妊娠している, and the couple moved to Hampton Wick, Surrey, where they bought another home - the deposit paid for out of her 貯金, and the mortgage 安全な・保証するd in her 指名する.

Things continued in a decidedly one-味方するd vein. "I 設立する the house, 選ぶd the furnishings, arranged for all the work to be done.

"Of course he could have done the decorating - it wasn't as if he was working - but by then I didn't 推定する／予想する it of him."

When baby Eddie arrived, Linda threw herself into motherhood, giving up her work to concentrate on her family. But the 関係 was getting rockier and rocker.

"He was angry with me for so much of the time, and I never knew why. He 非難するd me for everything. Once he 衝突，墜落d my car - never 申し込む／申し出ing to 支払う／賃金 for the 損失 - and somehow 非難するd me for making him 衝突，墜落. Once, I 申し込む／申し出d to 支払う／賃金 for him to go 支援する to college, but he wouldn't hear of it."

But in 1997, Ardian did 表明する an 利益／興味 in something - and Linda 掴むd on the chance to furnish him with a 目的 in life. "He （機の）カム home talking about a friend who had a car wash 商売／仕事, and had been encouraging him to 始める，決める one up.

"At the time I was selling the house in Chelsea and 手配中の，お尋ね者 to 投資する the money. We agreed that I would buy the 前提s, and we'd 始める，決める up the 商売／仕事 together, but he would run it."

Soon Linda could see that Ardian was making a decent go of running the 商売／仕事.

The 宗教上の grail of a 'normal' family life even seemed within しっかり掴む when he started 支払う／賃金ing for Eddie's schooling, and even 扱う／治療するd the whole family to a few holidays.

But in 2000 he 苦しむd a family 悲劇, when his older brother committed 自殺 by jumping in 前線 of a train. He was distraught. "From there the old personality started to creep 支援する in. He became 隠しだてする, not letting me have anything to do with running the 商売／仕事. One day he told me he had bought houses for his parents, and his sister, in Pristina.

"I was so angry with him. I told him that that money should be going in the bank to 支払う／賃金 for Eddie's education. We had a 抱擁する 列／漕ぐ／騒動 about money.

"I showed him my accounts, and pointed out that in my 貯金 account I had only £125,000 left. I remember him 存在 shocked. He said: 'But that's peanuts!' I agreed."

From there, it was downhill all the way.

"The final straw （機の）カム when I discovered that he had told Eddie, who was then just 11, that he was going to 離婚 me, but that he should keep it a secret. The poor boy was distraught.

"He lost 22lb in three months. Finally, I thought: 'I cannot do this any more. I cannot put my son through it.' I 受託するd that we did not have a normal family life, and never would have."

In 2004, the couple finally 分裂（する） up and there was no 財政上の 解決／入植地 大（公）使館員d to the 離婚.

In 2005, however, Mr Bulliqi 適用するd for what is known as a "fair 株 on a clean-break basis".

To Linda's horror, he w as awarded the entire 商売／仕事, and ordered to 支払う／賃金 Linda just £102,000 in 維持／整備 over five years.

This meant the pair 存在 left with almost equal 株 of their 資産s. This week, the 法廷，裁判所 of 控訴，上告 heard from Linda's QC, James Turner, that this 決定／判定勝ち（する） was 不公平な.

"It 感情を害する／違反するs against the 原則s of fairness to 扱う／治療する the wealth in the 現在の 事例／患者 as if it had all been acquired by the 共同の 成果／努力s during the 関係," he said.

If the 法廷，裁判所 決定／判定勝ち（する） does not go her way, she says she will have to sell her own home. But how much sympathy does she deserve?

Many would say that she is 簡単に discovering what true equality is - すなわち that rich women today are just as likely to lose out in the 離婚 法廷，裁判所s as rich men have 伝統的に done.

She retorts that this isn't about gender, but fairness.

"I know people will say that I have just been stupid, and must 支払う／賃金 the price, but I do believe there is something wrong with a system that 許すs people to just take, take, take, without 与える／捧げるing to a marriage.

"That 適用するs whether you are Sir Paul McCartney, or just an ordinary woman who fell in love with the wrong man."