Dear former wife's broody (9)
I believe the answer is:
expensive
'dear' is the definition.
('expensive' can be similar in meaning to 'dear')
'former wife's broody' is the wordplay.
'former wife' becomes 'ex'.
'broody' becomes 'pensive' ('pensive' can be a synonym of 'broody').
'ex'+'pensive'='EXPENSIVE'
(Other definitions for expensive that I've seen before include "Pricey" , "not going for a song" , "Highly-priced" , "High in price" , "Costing a lot of money" .)