The wife of multi-millionaire Titan sub disaster victim Shahzada Dawood was left less than £100,000 after it was discovered he did not have a valid UK will.
Father Mr Dawood perished in the OceanGate disaster in June 2023 when the submersible imploded during a voyage to the Titanic wreckage in the North Atlantic. The 48-year-old had been with his 19-year-old son, Suleman, as well as three other men, with everyone on board killed.
One of the richest men in Pakistan with strong links to the UK, Mr Dawood was sitting on a £1.3billion a year business empire at the time of his tragic death. His net worth at the time was reported to have been £285million.
Shahzada and son Suleman, 19, both perished in the Titan sub disaster
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Despite the family’s enormous wealth, Shahzada’s widow Christine was left with a fraction of the sum, according to documents. Mrs Dawood, a life coach who lived with her husband, Suleman, and their other daughter Alina in a Surrey mansion, was issued his UK estate of £76,958 after Shahzada died without a valid UK will.
A Grant of Letters of Administration was issued to the estate’s administrator, usually a spouse or nearest blood relative, during the ongoing legal affairs following his death, Daily Mail reports. The will listed Shahzada’s main residence as being in Pakistan, meaning most of his fortune remained outside the UK.
Shahzada Dawood and wife Christine
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The Titan sub disaster made international headlines when communication with it was lost while on its voyage on June 18, 2023. On board had been OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, 61, British businessman Hamish Harding, 58, and French diver Paul-Henry Nargeolet, 77.
Debris from the small vessel was discovered 3,700 metres below the ocean surface, only around 500 metres away from the Titanic’s final resting place on the ocean floor. In August last year, a lawsuit was filed by Mr Nargeolet’s family against OceanGate.
A hearing was opened in September into the deaths of the five men in the submersible
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A hearing into the five men’s death was opened the following month in Charleston, South Carolina. Speaking to the press last year, widow Mrs Dawood said: “No parent should have to grieve for their child. It’s unnatural. All of a sudden your purpose, your identity, is ripped away from you.”
One family friend of the Dawoods said after the tragedy that Shahzada would never have done anything to “put his family at risk”. Richard Hawkes, a friend of Mr Dawood, said: “I know how much Shahzada loved his family.
“I can’t imagine that Shahzada would have done anything that he thought possibly could have had the devastating consequences that we’ve seen this week.”