An Australian man has been awarded a payout of more than £100,000 (NZ$194,600) after he successfully sued his estranged wife for racial discrimination, alleging she viewed Australians as "inferior".
Sydney-born businessman Duncan Bendall won a racial discrimination case against his British wife, Fiona, after he claims he was unfairly dismissed from their joint firm on the basis of his nationality.
While residing in Sydney, the Bendalls co-founded The Female Social Network, their second joint venture, in 2016.
After the couple relocated to London last year, the Bendalls were pictured with Sarah, Duchess of York, during the firm's UK launch in June. Yet their 19-year marriage was rapidly deteriorating, leading to Mrs Bendall dismissing her husband on the grounds of "gross misconduct" just two months later.
Following their separation, Bendall took his case to the London Employment Tribunal, The Times reports, with the businessman alleging he had been discriminated against by his estranged wife on the basis of race and sex.
He claims Mrs Bendall - who was nominated for the 2019 New South Wales Business Woman of the Year Award - became "increasingly abusive and bullying" as their relationship worsened, leading to her victimising him at work and attempting to erase his contributions to the company.
The tribunal heard that the board forced through a shift in the firm's shareholdings from 50-50 to 51-49 in favour of Mrs Bendall, The Times reports, in order to promote the business as female-owned.
Bendall was allegedly given just 12 hours to object to the proposal while he was in Australia for Anzac Day.
During the dispute Mrs Bendall emailed her husband a strongly-worded rant, criticising his "Australian mentality".
"I hate Australian mentality and you have it [in] droves just shit (sic)," the email said, as obtained by the outlet.
"And DO NOT say you are a founder in MY business MY efforts ever again You leech - you don't even believe in women or have ever struck your neck out (sic)."
In August last year, Mrs Bendall texted her husband that their relationship was over and his belongings would be packed. He was subsequently kicked out of their shared London home, which also served as the company's office.
"Fiona had an almost exclusively female team - there was one male who worked as a sales intern - and they got into the habit of staying up late drinking excessive amounts of alcohol in the family home," Bendall told the tribunal.
"Many of the colleagues were smokers and used to stand outside the house smoking directly under the bedroom window of my and Fiona's 15-year-old daughter. This used to distress me and I would ask them to stop."
Despite living in the country for 15 years, the businessman said Mrs Bendall frequently treated Australians as an "inferior race".
The employment judge ruled that Bendall had been racially discriminated against by his wife, but dismissed that he had been treated unfairly due to his gender.
Fiona Bendall's firm has been ordered to pay her estranged husband more than £100,000 in compensation.
