TV chef John Burton Race's ex-wife declared bankrupt

The ex-wife of television chef John Burton Race has been declared bankrupt over an unpaid £15,000 bill for building work on their former home.

Kim Burton Race, 43, who is believed to have won a £3.6 million settlement when the couple divorced almost two years ago, was said to owe the money for work done to their Grade-II listed Victorian rectory in Devon.

Mr Registrar Jaques made the bankruptcy order following a brief hearing at London's High Court, after an offer to pay the debt off at £50 a week was rejected.

Mrs Burton Race, who now lives in London with the couple's two children, ran a travel brokering business before she married the chef in 1997.

Their acrimonious split came 10 years later when she found out the 51-year-old star of Kitchen Criminals and Britain's Best Dish had fathered a secret love child.