IT IS the only divorce battle in history to feature the sex life of an American president, a philandering billionaire, a golden labrador named Beauregard and six pairs of vintage British asparagus tongs.

At 75, one of America’s best known conservative financiers has become embroiled in a romantic apocalypse that has convulsed Washington and thrilled Democrats who for years were on the receiving end of right-wing pressure groups lavishly funded by Richard Mellon Scaife.

It was Scaife who in the 1990s sank tens of millions of dollars into investigations into Bill and Hillary Clinton’s Arkansas past in the hope of securing the then president’s impeachment during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

Yet now it is the same man who is seeing his colourful sexual history splashed across the newspapers. A brutal public falling out with his wife Ritchie has not only provided a jaw-dropping glimpse of sex among the super-rich, but has also provoked a stunning change of political heart.

Having once set out to destroy the Clintons, Scaife has now made friends with them. “I never met such a charismatic man in my life,” the Pittsburgh-based banking magnate declared of Bill Clinton. He has written a $100,000 (£50,000) cheque to the former president’s Global Initiative foundation and admitted to Vanity Fair magazine that philandering “is something that Bill Clinton and I have in common”.

When Scaife’s 60-year-old wife discovered that he was having an affair with a 43-year-old blonde former prostitute, she hired a detective who photographed the pair at a motel.

In an apparent clerical error, the divorce papers were posted on a court website complete with the startling revelation that Scaife was paying his wife $725,000 a month in interim alimony. His fortune is estimated at $1.3 billion.

Since then the warring couple’s every move has been subjected to media scrutiny. After Ritchie Scaife tried to seize his favourite labrador, he placed a sign on his lawn: “Wife and dog missing - reward for dog.”

The battle over custody of Beauregard has since extended to six pairs of asparagus tongs made by Mappin & Webb, which are said to be worth $1,800.

The couple met at a dinner party in 1979. Pittsburgh society was scandalised when Scaife dumped his then wife and married Ritchie at a flamboyant wedding, the end of which featured a huge fireworks display that spelt out the words “Ritchie loves Dick”.

Scaife acknowledged that he now believes monogamy is not essential to a good marriage. “I believe in open marriage,” he said.

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