I won't give her a penny! Spitting fury on behalf of all ex-husbands, the eco tycoon whose former wife wants a slice of his millions - 23 years AFTER they divorced

• Dale Vince separated from Kathleen Wyatt when he was penniless traveler
• They divorced in 1992 and he didn't see or hear from her for 15 years
• Now, Ms Wyatt wants a £1.9million chunk of his £104million fortune
• First legal letter came soon after he appeared on Sunday Times Rich List in 2011, he says.

When Princess Diana’s swanky divorce lawyers Mishcon de Reya first wrote to Britain’s wealthiest green-energy entrepreneur Dale Vince, saying they were representing his ex-wife Kathleen Wyatt, he binned the letter. ‘I thought it was a hoax,’ he says.

Dale, 53, had separated from the mother of his grown-up son Dane more than three decades earlier when he was a penniless new-age traveller. They divorced in 1992 and he hadn’t seen hide nor hair of her for 15 years. Well, he hadn’t until those letters kept ‘coming and coming’. 

Then it dawned on him that, yes, his very-much ex-wife was actually suing him for a £1.9 million chunk of the fortune he had made from his green energy firm Ecotricity more than two decades after the ink had dried on their decree absolute.

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Court battle: Dale Vince (pictured with his wife Kate) is being sued for a slice of his million by his former wife. who he divorced in 1992

‘That first letter came soon after I appeared on the Sunday Times Rich List in 2011,’ says Dale, who received an OBE from the Queen in 2004 for his commitment to green issues.

The paper had listed him as Britain’s 804th wealthiest person with a fortune estimated at £90 million (four years later, that figure has now risen to £104 million).

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‘The letter said did I have any paperwork from the divorce because their client couldn’t recall whether there was a settlement or not. I ignored it, but the letters kept coming and coming.

‘Within a few months their position had changed when they discovered I didn’t have the paperwork and there were no longer any court records.

‘Her recollection became that there wasn’t a settlement and I couldn’t prove otherwise. Who keeps records for more than 20 years? It just seemed crazy. I couldn’t believe it.’

Nor could many people when, last month, the Supreme Court set a legal precedent ruling that, despite the passage of decades, Kathleen, 55, has the right to have her case heard. The next hearing is scheduled for October.