Why do some women end up paying alimony to their husbands, according to James Sexton?

James Sexton says alimony is gender-blind and follows the math: it exists to maintain the marital lifestyle and to rehabilitate the lower earner's earning capacity. A wife who is a company CFO married to a musician who earns far less can owe him support. He wrote a magazine article on this, titled The Last Remaining Feminist Taboo, after seeing many female clients react with disbelief to the idea.

• His example is a UK physician who moves to the US for marriage and loses her medical licence, then needs support to rebuild her earnings after a divorce.
• Sexton cites the ex-husbands of Adele and Kelly Clarkson as having done well, and Jeff Bezos's ex-wife as the largest settlement because she was there before Amazon existed.

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett (2026-10-30). Read the whole episode summary →

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