Airbnb boss’ ex in £5m divorce fight after deal she signed while on ‘enough Xanax to sedate horse’ left her ‘destitute’

THE ex of multimillionaire former AirBnB boss is fighting for a £5million divorce payout after claiming an original deal left her “virtually destitute”. Martin Reiter – who masterminded the international growth of AirBnB and was also a senior boss at Wayfair and Groupon – married Caroline Bauer-Reiter in 2012. Caroline Bauer-Reiter is seeking a £5m divorce payout Credit: Champion News Service Her ex is the former boss of Airbnb Credit: Champion News Service The pair split six years later after Caroline signed an agreement in 2019 prior to their divorce which left her with no capital lump sum from her ex-husband’s £17.3m fortune and no personal financial support after 2028. She reopened the divorce battle asking for more cash as the “egregiously unfair” original agreement left her with no capital. Sign up for The Sun newsletter Thank you! Caroline also claimed it was “procured unconscionably,” as before she signed it, her psychiatrist had given her enough Xanax tablets “to sedate a horse”. Family Court judge Mr Justice Cusworth ruled last October the 2019 order should be varied to hand her a divorce package made up of a £2.5million lump sum, plus £96,000 a year maintenance for the next 14 years. The judge also found she should be given £1million towards her legal costs, on top of five-figure annual child maintenance payments. But the former couple are now fighting it out in the Court of Appeal, with Caroline bidding to get her payout rolled up into a personal lump sum of around £5million. Martin’s lawyers are seeking to overturn the “wholly excessive provision for the wife” and reinstate the 2019 agreement. They have questioned interior designer Caroline’s claims she is unable to work and believe she has brought extra costs upon herself by moving to London from Germany. Most read in The Sun Michael Horton KC said: “The judge ought to have treated the wife like any other applicant for a variation who moves from say Macclesfield to Mayfair and seeks an increase in maintenance because she has chosen to live more expensively.” The court heard the former couple married in Austria in 2012 and lived in Berlin from 2016, but enjoyed a globetrotting lifestyle with their two daughters, now aged nine and ten. They split in 2018, with the financial separation deed being signed in Germany in 2019. By that deed, Caroline would receive no capital lump sum, Martin would pay her rent in Berlin until 2028 and give her personal maintenance of around £1,800 a month until August 2024, plus payments for the children. In 2019, a divorce was granted by consent in Germany, with both parties stating that all financial matters had been previously agreed. Martin then remarried in March 2023, moving to an £11.5million house in Holland Park, London, with his new wife. Caroline herself moved to London with the children only two months later in May 2023. She subsequently instructed top lawyers and went to the English divorce courts, seeking to revise the financial agreement she signed in Germany. Mr Justice Cusworth previously found Martin’s net worth was £17.3million as he ordered him to pay her lump sum and money towards her legal costs. Martin is now arguing the “wholly excessive provision” should be overruled. But Caroline’s legal team is arguing she is unable to work due to physical and mental health issues. Arguing against the claim, Martin’s barrister said: “The husband’s case was that the evidence…showed that the wife was living a perfectly normal life. “The husband had seen evidence on the wife’s social media, including an elaborate synchronised dance routine that contradicted her claims to poor health.” Caroline’s barrister, Rebecca Carew Pole KC, claims the millions she was awarded was a “modest” sum and “unremarkable given the husband’s overall wealth”. She also told the court Caroline cannot support herself and has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, “a rare debilitating genetic condition that…disables her from working”. She asked the court to not only uphold but reconfigure the payout awarded in the Family Court to give the wife a capitalised lump sum of around £5million. The judges reserved their ruling on the case to be given at a later date.