An American financier who claimed his work was so touched by “genius” that he should not be forced to give his estranged wife half their £180 million fortune has been told by a British court there was nothing exceptional about his contribution to their marriage.

Randy Work had claimed he should have to give Mandy Gray no more than 39 per cent of his assets because he had made a “special contribution” to the creation of the couple’s wealth.

The 49-year-old financier had even used the word genius in describing how he had made £7 billion for an American private equity firm in Japan, while at the same time making millions in commission for himself.

When the couple’s marriage fell apart after they moved to England in 2008, Mr Ward asked the courts to set aside the provision of the Matrimonial Causes Act, which requires that a divorced couple’s wealth to be divided equally, on the grounds that his contribution had been “wholly exceptional”.