Estranged wife closes celebrity chef's restaurant

The soon-to-be ex-wife of chef John Burton Race has closed the seafront restaurant he owns in Devon because he is going to have to sell as part of their divorce.

Mr Burton Race was told by a judge during a divorce hearing in September that he would have to sell the New Angel in order to afford his wife's financial settlement, but he claimed that he could not be forced to sell the eatery.

However, while he was in Australia, appearing in the latest series of ITV's I'm a Celebrity, Get me Out of Here, Kim Burton Race, who is also his business partner, put a closed sign in the window and told staff that it was being closed down.

Mr Burton Race said: "The decision to close the restaurant was not made by me. It is in the hands of the lawyers. I have nothing more to say."

The Michelin-starred New Angel has been valued at £1,250,000 and its guest house is worth £850,000. It is thought that the chef had agreed to the sale of their home in Ashprington, near Totnes, which is worth £1.5 million.

Burton Race has two children with his estranged wife. He left her in March this year to be with his mistress Suzi Ward and their three-year-old son.

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