England and Chelsea star Ashley Cole could be set to lose more than just his wife if pop babe Cheryl Cole decides to end their marriage over reports of his alleged infidelity.

While a millionaire in her own right, Cheryl’s fortune, estimated around £6m is less than half of that of £82,000 a week footie star Ashley. And a costly divorce could see him hit hard in the pocket.

29 year -old Ashley, who is alleged to have bedded an unnamed blonde secretary behind his wife’s back in 2008 and sent saucy texts and pics to both her and glamour model Sonia Wilde, is reportedly worth £14m and earns £4.6m a year from his contract with Chelsea alone. He also has a lucrative sponsorship deal with Adidas.

A Cole divorce would prove costly. Unlike other WAGs Cheryl has her own money, but the discrepancy between the couple’s net worths means she would have a very strong case for a significant claim over a large portion of his wealth, now and in the future.

Speaking just before their marriage in 2006, Fight For Your Love singer Cheryl, who shares a £6m mansion in Surrey with the Chelsea ace, insisted she did not believe in prenuptial agreements.

 ’I think that’s defeating the point, ” she said at the time. “We’re getting married because we’re committing ourselves to spend our lives together. No ifs and buts.’

Now with reports Cheryl might be about to call time on her marriage “within weeks”, Ashley, widely regarded as the best left back in the world, could find himself in a similar situation to former Arsenal star Ray Parlour.

In 2004 Parlour was ordered to pay his ex-wife Karen a third of his future earnings in a landmark High Court ruling. At 29, Ashley, dubbed “Cashley” Cole by the press could expect to play top flight football for the next five or six years.

In 2008 Cheryl was told she could expect a £4m payout if she divorced her husband (then worth an estimated £10m), after reports he had a drunken one night stand with hairdresser Aimee Walton.

The current record for a British divorce settlement is believed to be the £48 million which the insurance magnate John Charman was ordered to pay his wife Beverley in 2006.

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