Long life: Putin, Saatchi, Murdoch…hell hath no fury like an old man scorned

The days may be long gone when a husband would pretend to commit adultery in a Brighton hotel so as to clear his wife, whatever her faults, of any blame for a divorce. But might it not still be customary for him at least to present their separation as mutually and amicably agreed? Not so, apparently. For such gallantry has been strikingly absent from the three most publicised divorce suits of the summer, in which rich and powerful men have each acted unilaterally and without much regard to their spouses’ dignity.

A month ago, Vladimir Putin appeared on Russian television with his wife, Lyudmila, to announce that their 30-year marriage was over. And while she said that their divorce was ‘civilised’ and had been ‘our common decision’, Lyudmila appeared to be the victim of a painfully staged event, probably intended to limit the damage to Putin’s popular image as a defender of Orthodox family values.