Love turns costly: Woman boss funded employee’s divorce, later faced court setback

Beijing (The Uttam Hindu): Falling in love with a younger employee proved extremely costly for a female startup boss in China. She paid her lover millions of rupees to secure a divorce from his wife but when her own relationship broke down, the case reached the court, where the court dealt her a major blow by refusing to return the money.

According to a report in the South China Morning Post, a woman named Zhu, who ran a company in Chongqing, fell in love with a man named He, who worked at her company. Both were already married at the time, but they began an affair while working together and both decided to leave their respective spouses.

The report said that to make it easier for 'He' to divorce his wife 'Chen', Zhu directly gave 30 lakh yuan (about Rs 3.5 crore) to 'Chen' in the name of divorce compensation and child upbringing.

However, within a year, Zhu and He's relationship soured and they separated. Zhu then went to court to recover the money he had paid. The lower court initially ruled in Zhu's favor, ordering the return of the money.

But when He and Chen appealed the decision to a higher court, the decision was completely overturned. The higher court ruled that the money was given as divorce compensation, not a loan or gift. The court found that Zhu failed to provide sufficient evidence to prove that the money was a loan that required repayment. The court overturned the initial decision and relieved Chen of the obligation to repay the money.