KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 9 — The estranged ex-wife of Datuk Seri Mahmud Abu Bekir Abdul Taib, son of Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, told the Syariah High Court today that her husband married his Australian mistress without her knowledge, and later fathered a child with the woman.

At the retrial of her RM400 million divorce from Mahmud Abu Bekir, Shahnaz Abdul Majid testified that her husband brought Louise Aida Hiley to his sister’s wedding in 1999 but she had not known at the time that the duo were married.

“Why didn’t he tell me? I didn’t know,” Shahnaz told the court this morning.

The 50-year-old, who is the sister of popular singer Datuk Sheila Majid, also said she had only discovered later that Hiley and Mahmud Abu Bekir had a child together.

Shahnaz testified last August that Hiley and Mahmud Abu Bekir’s son is called Adam, but that the two have since separated and that Adam is with his mother.

Mahmud Abu Bekir filed for divorce from Shahnaz on May 11, 2011, almost two decades after they married in 1992.

Shahnaz also said today that she and her 20-year-old son, Raden Murya, had met Hiley two or three years ago.

Shahnaz further testified that Mahmud Abu Bekir stopped paying her maintenance since August 2011.

She said he used to give her RM7,000 every month from 2001 to 2006, then RM10,000 monthly in 2007, and finally RM12,000 monthly from 2008 to July 2011.

“After August 2011, not a sen, either for me or my child, until today,” said Shahnaz.

During her cross-examination with Mahmud Abu Bekir’s lawyer Saadiah Din, Shahnaz also said that she and Mahmud Abu Bekir have not lived together since 2001 until he filed for divorce in 2011.

“He paid for a holiday only once in 10 years. It was when I went to Damascus and Turkey with my child,” Shahnaz testified.

She added that she bore other expenses like a domestic helper and a driver, while the three vehicles she had access to - a Jeep, a Mercedes Benz and a BMW Jeep X3 - were company cars.

Shahnaz said that Mahmud Abu Bekir used to visit their son at her home in Kuala Lumpur about once a fortnight or once a month after they separated in 2001.

"He would drop by for a few hours, three or five hours at a time at my house. Sometimes, he enters the house, and sometimes he doesn't. He watches TV or takes afternoon naps and interacts with our son," she said, adding that the last time she had sex with Mahmud Abu Bekir was in 2000.

Shahnaz also said that she had gone to the KL Syariah Court in 2006 or 2007 to seek advice on what to do.

"They asked me to bring my husband along. But it was so difficult to call him. So I couldn't speak to him," she said.

Shahnaz has testified that Mahmud Abu Bekir has an estimated RM1 billion in assets locally and some US$700 million (RM2.2 billion) in bank accounts globally.

In 2012, a witness from the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) told the court that Mahmud Abu Bekir has amassed some RM1.3 million in savings and about 400,000 units in trust funds.

Shahnaz has accused Mahmud Abu Bekir of abusing her from 1994 to 1998.

The hearing resumes in the afternoon.