‘Whirlwind’ wife may inherit as husband left divorce 30 years too late
A WOMAN could receive a surprise inheritance from a “whirlwind romance” almost 30 years ago after her husband failed to divorce her before his death.
In a case thought to be the first of its kind, the woman could inherit from her estranged husband’s estate despite their relationship lasting just three weeks before a separation that lasted more than two decades.
The couple, who cannot be identified, were together for less than a month in 1989, never lived together and may never have consummated their marriage, the Central Family Court in London heard.
The husband, who had become a woman since the separation, filed the final divorce paperwork just days before dying following surgery in the US.
But Judge Judith Hughes QC ruled that the couple were technically still married at the point of death because the divorce had not yet been processed.
The wife was 18 when she met her husband, then 24, in 1989. They separated shortly after their marriage and the husband became a woman a few years later. She changed her name by deed poll in 1996 and her female gender was officially recognised in 2008.
The death has triggered litigation in America and the ruling that the couple were still married may affect who inherits the estate.
Unknown to the wife, divorce proceedings began in 2009, but a decree absolute was not granted until 17 days after the husband’s death in July 2011.
The wife only learnt that her husband had died after private detectives tracked her down in the summer of 2016. The husband had made a will a few months before her death, in which she claimed that the marriage was never consummated, but the judge said that this was “irrelevant”. Although the couple had brief contact in 1990, they had not seen each other or spoken again.
In her ruling the judge said: “I find that the marriage was valid at its inception and that the wife was still married to the deceased on the date of the death. She is entitled, therefore, to a declaration that the marriage subsisted on the date of the deceased’s death.”