Felicity and Michael Sutcliffe Felicity and Michael Sutcliffe
City manager Michael Sutcliffe is getting divorced – and his wife, Felicity, says it’s because of an affair.
The couple’s impending divorce was confirmed on Monday by her lawyer, Tim Pearce, after being approached by The Mercury.
“I can confirm that the summons is with the sheriff,” he said.
“I do not know at this stage if it has been served. I do not want to discuss my client’s divorce any further.”
The Mercury has confirmed from several sources that the reason the marriage has broken down, as stated in the summons, is the city manager’s alleged extramarital affair.
No name is mentioned.
News of their divorce comes in the wake of reports that Sutcliffe’s nemesis, the DA’s John Steenhuisen, is having an affair with married co-worker Terry Kass Beaumont.
Beaumont, the DA media officer, has been married to the party’s provincial director, Michael Beaumont, for only a few months.
She and Steenhuisen, who has stepped down as provincial chairman of the party, are now seeking divorces and are believed to be living together in Umhlanga.
The Sutcliffes have been married since the mid-1970s, when they met as geography students at university, soon after Sutcliffe completed his national service.
They both have doctorates from the University of Ohio.
They have two grown-up children and, until recently, shared a flat on Durban’s South Beach and were regularly seen walking together along the beachfront in the mornings.
However, around the time of the World Cup, Felicity, a town planner, moved out and is now living in Joburg.
Divorce papers have been issued out of the Durban High Court.
A source close to the couple told The Mercury that they had been trying to keep their problems “hush-hush”. They were married out of community of property and, through their lawyers, were itemising assets and deciding who would keep what.
The source said because they were married before 1984, when the accrual system was introduced into South African law, there would have to be a redistribution of their assets.
“She does not want to take him to town – she has substantial means herself – but she is claiming for maintenance,” the source said.
Sutcliffe, whose contract as city manager expires at the end of next year, has a package of more than R1.7 million a year and is reportedly the highest-paid municipal official in the country.
He could not be reached for comment on Monday. - The Mercury