Harding's wife agrees pounds 25m for mistress
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Your support makes all the difference.The mistress of soccer tycoon Matthew Harding will get a payout of pounds 25m after his widow respected her late husband's last wishes.
Mr Harding, who died in a helicopter crash last October, left pounds 200m in his will, asked that his widow, his mistress and his five children should all be properly looked after.
Ruth Harding and her four children are expected to get at least pounds 50m which will give an expected annual income of pounds 2m. But Mrs Harding agreed that Vicky Jaramillo (right), who has a two-year-old daughter, Ella, from a five-year relationship with Mr Harding, was entitled to around pounds 25m in a trust fund.
"Matthew's wishes were for Ruth, Vicky and the children to be looked after, and Ruth has gone along with that," said Margaret Nugent one of the will's two executors. "It just shows what a kind and caring person she is. There are no arguments over the will as so many people predicted there would be."
Miss Jaramillo, a former waitress, met Mr Harding in 1991 and he left his marriage of more than 20 years to move in with her last summer.
A friend of Mrs Harding's told the Sun newspaper: "She is not exactly a happy bunny about the whole business of Matthew and Vicky. But all along she has insisted Vicky must be looked after properly in the settlement."
The amounts given to the two women are not fixed sums as a large part of the money is still tied up in shares and other investments - including stakes in Chelsea Village, the holding company for the football club, and Benfield, the insurance group which made his fortune. Before his death, Mr Harding, who was one of Britain's wealthiest men, had pledged pounds 1m to the Labour Party.
The investigation into the crash, in which Mr Harding died as he travelled back to London from watching Chelsea's Coca-Cola Cup defeat at Bolton, is continuing. A report from the Department of Transport Air Accidents Investigation Branch is not expected for several months.
Glenda Cooper
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