Chris Hohn in record-breaking $530m divorce settlement

Hedge fund billionaire Sir Chris Hohn is set to pay his American-born ex-wife $530m in what is thought to be the biggest divorce settlement ever awarded by an English court.

Sir Chris, one of the world’s top investors with a personal fortune of $1.3bn, is to pay Jamie Cooper Hohn around $530m, including $493m in cash and a house in Connecticut, her lawyer told a court hearing on Thursday.

The son of a Jamaican car mechanic who grew up in Surrey, Sir Chris has been fighting his estranged wife in the High Court since July over the size of her financial award upon divorce.

Ms Cooper-Hohn was seeking half of the marital assets but her husband claimed she was only entitled to 25 per cent. He argued that the extraordinary wealth generated by him constituted a special contribution to the marriage, so she should be awarded less than half.

Ironically for a case centred around a fight over money, Sir Chris painted himself as someone more concerned about philanthropy than wealth – although he did acknowledge he was an “unbelievable money-maker”.

Sir Chris runs The Children’s Investment Fund, a hedge fund that returns most of its profits to a charity, but he claimed before a July court hearing that he lives a “very simple life”. The judge commented that the couple lived a “Swatch lifestyle” rather than a jet set one.

The couple met as students at Harvard University at a dinner party, were married for 17 years and have four children including triplets. Neither had much money before their marriage, they testified during the July hearing.

Chicago-born Jamie received a masters in public administration from the John F Kennedy School of government at Harvard University having first received a Bachelor of arts from Smith College.

The size of the settlement – and the fortune being divided – is striking even by the standards of London, which is dubbed the divorce capital of the world because of the generosity of the awards to spouses.

The settlement dwarfs the largest previous divorce award in English courts, which was thought to be that of Galina Berezovsky, the former wife of the late Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who was said to have received £100m to £200m.

However, globally there have been much bigger divorce settlements. Billionaire Harold Hamm, chief executive of Continental Resources, who made a fortune from the US shale boom, must pay his ex-wife about $973m in a divorce settlement, an Oklahoma court ruled earlier this month.

The Hohn case was heard over a fortnight in July and gave a glimpse into the world of publicity-shy Sir Chris and his views on topics ranging from an “idiot” investment once made by Goldman Sachs to Chelsea striker Fernando Torres, whom he described as “worthless”.

The billionaire told the court that his interest in charity was awakened when he was 20 and working in the Philippines, where he saw impoverished children living on a rubbish dump.

Whilst he ran the hedge fund, his wife ran the couple’s $4.3bn Children’s Investment Fund Foundation which is one of the world’s top private charities devoted to fighting child poverty.

Mrs Justice Roberts permitted details of the private hearing on Thursday – including the settlement figure – to be reported and will hand down a public version of her ruling on December 12.