For more than 25 years they have been the unofficial King and Queen of the Ibiza party scene, running the biggest club night in the world and hosting events that attracted scores of celebrities and influencers.

But Andy McKay and Dawn Hindle - who became notorious for their debauched nineties Manumission raves - have split up and are now embroiled in a bitter battle over ownership of their multi-million pound hotel and nightclub empire, The Daily Mail has learned.

Central to the ongoing legal battle is the legendary Pikes Hotel on the island - the location for the video for Wham's Club Tropicana and venue for a Freddie Mercury party said to have been one of the wildest in Balearic history.

The reason for the dispute between the former couple - who also founded the Ibiza Rocks hotel - is that after their separation Dawn was initially left running the hotel but was then ousted with Andy taking her place despite her protestations.

And now ownership of Pikes is understood to be at the heart of their legal dispute with both desperate to keep hold of the renowned party hotel.

Dawn - who has three children with McKay - has now left Ibiza, her home since the nineties, and moved back to England to start a new life in Somerset while awaiting the outcome of the case.

The hugely wealthy couple, both 57, have both assembled legal teams to formalise their split with the court case - which is shrouded in secrecy - understood to be ongoing.

While it's unclear exactly when the rift between them started, friends say Dawn was unhappy at Andy replacing her as manager of Ibiza's famous Pikes boutique hotel abruptly last year.

Andy and Dawn had originally run the hotel-cum-nightclub alongside husband and wife club promoters Mark and Sarah Broadbent after buying it in 2011 in a multi-million pound deal.

Dawn was in charge of running front-of-house while Andy operated behind the scenes.

According to one account Dawn - as well as many of the staff close to her - was forced out almost overnight last January because Andy wanted to take the business in a 'new direction'.

Both Dawn and Andy are believed to have deleted references to each other on their social media on legal advice but a handful of mentions survive including a comment by Dawn on an old photo of Pikes which she says was 'before I got kicked out of my job and life and we were in a ❤️ position'.

One Ibiza source said: 'It was a very public breakup - both of their business and their marriage - which considering their profile on the island was inevitable.

'They actually split a couple of years ago but the fallout is very much ongoing.

'There is no love lost between them, none.

'And that bitterness has led to a drawn-out legal battle with neither side wanting to give any ground.'

Another Ibiza club scene source said: 'Their legal case is ongoing. I understand it is over the Pikes brand and property.

'Dawn was running it when she was already estranged from Andy before he took it over. And she wants it back.'

Some recent visitors to Pikes left social media comments like 'rooting for Dawn' or 'hope she finally gets justice'.

A profile posted on Pikes' website after it took its 'new direction' saw Andy discuss his career at length and his plans for the direction of Pikes while making no mention of Dawn.

That included the relaunch of Manumission as a Monday night event at Pikes - sixteen years after it originally halted in 2008 following a dispute with the venue that hosted it.

In the promotion for the event, Andy alone is referenced as 'the current owner of Pikes' with no reference made to Dawn whatsoever.

Dawn and Andy are both still listed as directors of Ibiza Rocks at Companies House - even though it is said that they now only communicate through lawyers.

The couple have three children, who are all young adults, Tyler, Zachary and Coco.

At the infamous three-day party for Freddie Mercury's 41st birthday in 1987 guests were reputedly offered cocaine sprinkled on their cornflakes in the morning and the fireworks display could be seen 90 miles away in Mallorca.

Other regulars at Pikes - where in-season rooms start at £500 a night - have been Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Liam Gallagher, Julio Iglesias and Grace Jones.

On Dawn's own social media she has posted pictures with members of Duran Duran, Fatboy Slim, Jarvis Cocker, Goldie and, um, Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford before their split.

Since Dawn moved back to the UK earlier this year she's settled in Somerset where she has been exploring high end local places like Babington House, The Newt hotel, the Hauser and Werth gallery - as well as going to Glastonbury.

She posted while visiting Babington earlier this year: 'I am loving Somerset life.'

The Daily Mail has approached Dawn Hindle and Andy McKay and several associates for comment.

Dawn's mother Marjorie said: 'I don't know what's happened - I don't get involved in my daughter's marital affairs.

'I don't think my daughter would comment until the court case is over.'

Manumission began as a weekly club night founded by Andy and his brother Mike McKay and their respective partners Dawn and Claire in 1994, running for 14 years and was at one stage routinely attracting crowds of 14,000 people a night - making it the biggest club event in the world.

It was famed for its debauched spectacle with live sex shows and widespread ecstasy use.

Andy and Mike later fell out and the two couples became rival presenters on the island.

Using the pen name Claire Manumission, Mike's partner has written a memoir of their time at the club, The Motel: High Times in '90s Ibiza, which is due out next May.

The press release for that book says: 'Over its 14-year history, over 1.5million people attended Manumission in Ibiza.

'It was the biggest weekly party in the world earning it a place in the Guinness World Records.

'This doll's house on acid became home to a wild menagerie of DJ's, supermodels, international pop stars, bestselling writers, New York strippers and ask no questions drug dealers - the whole of Bohemia was there.'

Speaking about the book, Claire Manumission said it covers 'the sex shows, the controversy, betrayals and finally the abolition of Manumission but it's told predominantly from The Motel, on the long wild weekend of my 24th birthday – the weekend when Norman Cook met Zoe Ball and Lisa I'Anson missed her Radio 1 broadcast and was subsequently very publicly fired on the BBC News at Six.

'The Motel is a darkly humorous look at hedonism in drug-kissed 90s Ibiza… when for a few brief years a generation decided to throw off the shackles of the past and "be free to do what it wanted to do".'

Ibiza Rocks was engulfed in controversy this summer after the deaths of two young British men in falls saw events suspended.

• A previous version of this article included a photograph posted by Dawn Hindle on her Instagram which we said showed her children. In fact, it showed one of her children, along with Imogen, Alex and Samantha Devenny. The article has been amended to remove this image.