Hurley's beau seeks divorce from wife

Hurley's beau seeks divorce from wife

BOMBAY: Supermodel Elizabeth Hurley's flamboyant Indian boyfriend Arun Nayar is seeking a divorce from his Italian wife on the grounds that she treated him cruelly, a lawyer said on Tuesday.

Nayar, from Bombay, is claiming that his wife Valentina Pedroni put him through "mental torture" during their marital life.

"He (Nayar) has said in his petition that my client Valentina was cruel to him," Valentina's lawyer Mrinalini Deshmukh told AFP.

"That is the ground on which he is seeking divorce from my client. I cannot reveal more than this."

Deshmukh said the petition will be heard in Bombay's Bandra family court on May 5.

The Times of India said on Tuesday that Nayar alleges Valentina treated him "in a most cruel manner, continuously torturing him mentally by making wild allegations and harassing him."

They married in Bombay in 1997 and then under Italian law in Milan and lived in a south Bombay apartment facing the sea. Nayar and Hurley, meanwhile, have been romantically involved for nearly three years and are often seen at parties and fundraisers in Britain and the United States.

Hurley, mother of three-year-old Damian by former movie producer Steve Bing, is reported to be learning Hindi to impress Nayar, whose family runs a textile export business.

The British actress has paid repeat visits to India and is said to have been accepted by the Nayar family ahead of a marriage once the divorce goes through. -- AFP