Image: Christina Estrada

A Saudi billionaire has reportedly died, a few weeks after his former wife who’s currently a Pirelli poster girl, was awarded a whooping sum of £75 million in divorce settlements.

Following the unfortunate incident, model Christina Estrada will have to wait a bit longer to receive the payout though it has been approved by a law court.

The Telegraph confirms that 54-year-old Christina was awarded the huge amount earlier this month at a High Court, after the case was hurriedly processed due to her ex-husband’s deteriorating ill health. Sheikh Walid Juffali, 61, was a billionaire businessman before death.

Dr Juffali [the deceased] was suffering from terminal cancer, and could not attend court hearings but his ex-wife had connections in high places who had helped facilitate a quick processing of the court declarations, hoping the cash would be paid on time but sadly, he died sooner than expected.

The proceedings on Christina’s awarded £75 million were yet to be concluded before he left the world on Wednesday in Zurich where he was receiving treatment.

Model Christina Estrada fought the legal battle to lay hands on the cash for over three years, reports confirm.

“However, the settlement is now legally binding.  High Court Family Division judge Mrs Justice Roberts had ordered the sum to be paid by 4pm on Friday July 29, but this will likely be delayed while Dr Juffali’s affairs are put in order,” Telegraph wrote.

“More specifically, the ex-Pirelli calendar girl requested more than $141,000 for haute couture dresses, $51,000 for fur coats and $27,000 for shoes each year, as well as five cars and wealthy homes in both London and Beverly Hills,” NY Daily News wrote.

“Her initial request was for a settlement of $309,000.”

A report quotes the Guardian, citing Christina as saying: “Having grown up in a middle-class family and having enjoyed a successful career until my marriage, I am fully aware that the spectacular life Walid and I led was immensely fortunate and rarefied,”

“And I fully understand how this can be perceived in the wider world. My focus now is to support my daughter and move forward with our lives,” Estrada continued.

“I am Christina Estrada,” she said. “I was a top international model. I have lived this life. This is what I am accustomed to,” The Daily Beast adds.

American-born Ms Estrada is having the worst of times at the moment, having lost a former husband and still facing the reality of a delayed divorce settlement.

Love hurts, sometimes, for a lot of reasons. Reports confirm Ms Estrada and Dr Juffali [who was chairman of Saudi Arabia’s EA Juffali and Brothers], met in 2000 and married soon afterwards.

In a twist of fate, the marriage crashed sooner than it was consummated.

Dr Juffali had fallen head over heels in love but not with the American-born model, his soul was held in captive by a charming 25-year-old Lebanese model. The helpless billionaire lost it with Christina and decided to take another wife, and divorcing Ms Estrada under Islamic law, without her knowledge.

Ms Estrada is said to be a humble woman as reports confirm she never asked for the £75 million awarded to her. She in fact, rejected an offer which would have given her £37 million, coupled with her own assets, and eventually received a £53 million cash settlement.

Telegraph adds that “her lawyers said that when assets she has already been given are included, the payout amounts to £75 million, adding that it was ‘by more than £50 million the largest needs award ever made by an English court.’

In court, Ms Estrada told Mrs Justice Roberts: “I was a top international model. I have lived this life. This is what I am accustomed to.”’

Meanwhile VanityFair quotes Dr Walid’s lawyer as saying: “[Awarding] £53 million to a lady who has £20m [in her own assets] is an astonishing amount of money.

“[Anything more] would drive this case into fantasy territory.”