Divorce rise blamed on pre-nup deal ‘expiry dates’

A SUDDEN rise in divorce rates may have been caused by unhappy husbands and wives cashing in on pre-nup deals expiring, a lawyers’ report warns.

It found that a spate of marriage breakups has resulted from ‘loyalty clauses’ which are frequently written into pre-nups.

The loyalty bonuses allow spouses to walk away from their marriage with more money and a bigger share of the couples’ property if they stick with their husband or wife for a set period of time – often five years.

The effect of loyalty clauses, according to the Hall Brown Family Law firm, is that disgruntled wives will wait until after the fiveyear penalty period is over before they ask wealthy husbands for a divorce. In other cases, husbands who have tried to protect their property with a pre-nup have begun divorce proceedings before five years are up.

Hall Brown partner Sam Hall said that the aim of loyalty bonuses was fairness. But he added: ‘We are seeing an unintended consequence of that system in which couples are bearing those payments in mind when it comes to deciding when to leave what they regard as a failing marriage.’ Pre-nup deals were enshrined in British law by a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2010, in the case of German heiress Katrin Radmacher. Judges enforced a pre-nup designed to protect her £100million fortune during her divorce from financier Nicolas Granatino.

It meant British courts were allowed to recognise pre-nup deals. Divorce numbers in 2016 rose by nearly 7,000, to 106,959, defying a one-third fall between 2003 and 2015.