The ruling on financial maintenance for a defiant wife and her rights if she is divorced?

Question:
The first message in this episode is from listener (M. H. A.) from Abha. Our brother’s message is somewhat long, so I will read it as it was received. He says:
Greetings, and after that:
I am sending you my problem, seeking a ruling on it, and may Allah reward you with good. I am Egyptian and have been working in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for about a year. Before I arrived, I contracted my marriage to my wife in Egypt. After I arrived, I sent for her to come here so we could live here and start our married life here. She and her family agreed, and I sent her the full bridal gift as stated in the contract. I prepared our marital apartment, and she came here and we got married. After a month and a half of marriage, signs of pregnancy began. She insisted on returning to her family to spend the pregnancy period, but I refused. I told her that I was ready to serve her with everything I have. I actually took her to a specialist doctor who was treating her and monitoring her condition, but she refused to do anything but return to her family. Let it be what it may be. She said: If you want to divorce me, divorce me. If you want to stop sending me money, don’t send it. I will send the cost of the return ticket from my bridal gift, but I must travel. I used both encouragement and warning with her, but she insisted on that, until the house became a hell. In the end, I booked her a ticket and she traveled to her family. Now I want to ask several questions—she presented ten questions, Your Eminence the Shaykh. In his first question, he says: Is this wife considered defiant? And does she have the right to financial maintenance—given that she is pregnant—because I am not satisfied with her travel, and I tried to prevent her, but I could not?
This is his first question.

Answer:
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Praise be to Allah, and may Allah send blessings and peace upon the Messenger of Allah, and upon his family and his Companions, and upon those who follow his guidance. As for what follows:
If the situation is as the questioner described, this woman is considered defiant, and she has no right to financial maintenance, because she traveled without your consent and without your choice, but rather due to her persistence and her harm to you, as you mentioned in the question. She has no right to financial maintenance. Some scholars hold that she has a right to maintenance on account of the pregnancy, but the correct view is that as long as she is in this state, she has no right to maintenance either, even if she is pregnant. Yes.

The presenter: May Allah reward you with good.

The presenter: If I divorce her, will I have wronged her?

The Shaykh: There is no harm in divorcing her, but we advise you not to divorce, and do not rush into divorce if she is good in her religion, because her character may have worsened due to the pregnancy and the moodiness that affects a pregnant woman. So do not rush into divorce if she is good in her religion, in her prayer, in her character, and in her privacy. Do not rush into divorce, and perhaps Allah will guide her and improve her condition afterwards. If you divorce her with one pronouncement, there is no harm.
As for divorce with three pronouncements, it is not permissible. If you want to divorce, it should be only one pronouncement. We advise you not to rush and not to divorce at all.

The presenter: May Allah reward you with good. If I divorce her, what are her financial rights that are obligatory for me to pay?

The Shaykh: If you divorce her, you are obligated to provide financial maintenance for the waiting period if she agrees to come back, but you do not want her. However, if she remains insistent, does not agree to return, and continues in her defiance, then you have no obligation to provide maintenance, even after the pronouncement of divorce. But if you divorce her and she wants to return to you and retracts her initial opinion, then you are obligated to provide financial maintenance for the waiting period until she gives birth, and then you are obligated to provide maintenance for the pregnancy after delivery. Yes.

The presenter: Is it permissible for me to consider the cost of the return ticket as her financial maintenance for several months? The travel costs amount to approximately one thousand riyals.

The Shaykh: As long as you volunteered to give her the ticket, you have no right to take it back. Yes.

The presenter: If I send her a letter informing her of her divorce, is the divorce valid?

The Shaykh: You should register it with the court, or a notary public, or a licensed marriage officer who is approved by the court, so that it is considered valid and relied upon there. Yes.