Give lessons on marriage, says Prince’s divorce lawyer
Baroness Shackleton wants schools to educate pupils about relationships, and backs reform of divorce law
CHILDREN should be taught in school about how to make marriage work to stem the tide of relationship breakdowns, the Prince of Wales’s divorce lawyer has said.
Baroness Fiona Shackleton said education about marriage is “severely lacking” in schools, and urged them to “devote just a little time” to the issue.
She said that schools made time to teach children about alcohol abuse, drug abuse, sex and “goodness knows what else”, but failed to address “what is the most important decision they make – which is, basically, who they breed with”.
Baroness Shackleton, who was made a life peer in 2010, has represented a number celebrities and royals in high profile divorce cases including Sir Paul Mccartney and the Duke of York.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that it is a “mistake” to believe that marriage is “just about the heart”.
“It’s a practical arrangement which has to survive to rear children, and it’s for children, who are the very sad losers when parents are selfish and decide that their own desires override those of their family,” she said.
Children must be taught about the importance of considering the character traits of their prospective spouse, as well as realising that fundamentally people do not change.
“If they think about these things – not about the white dress, not the love element, the practicality – before they enter into it, then I would probably be doing myself out of a job more often,” she said.
Baroness Shackleton, who is a solicitor to the Duke of Cambridge and the Duke of Sussex, backed calls to reform divorce laws, labelling the current laws “archaic”. Her comments follow the case of Tini Owens, who lost her Supreme Court appeal last week in her fight to divorce her husband.
Mrs Owens, 68, wants a divorce on the ground that she is unhappy, but her husband, Hugh, has refused.
Under the current law in England and Wales, people must be able to prove their marriage has broken down due to adultery, unreasonable behaviour or desertion, in order to obtain a divorce. The only other way to get a divorce without a spouse’s consent is to live apart for five years. Specialist lawyers have called for the introduction of a “no-fault divorce”, which would have helped Mrs Owens.
Baroness Shackleton said the situation meant people had to “exaggerate” or “agree” their cases.
She was speaking after a new study on divorce was published last week by the University of Exeter which suggested that asking 10 questions before starting a serious relationship can help couples stand the test of time.
Judges said the Tini Owens case “generates uneasy feelings” and suggested that the current system is out of date.
Divorce rates in England and Wales have increased for the first time this decade, according to figures released in October by the Office for National Statistics.
There were 106,959 divorces of opposite-sex couples in 2016, an increase of 5.8per cent compared with 2015, with men and women getting divorced at a rate of 8.9 per 1,000 married people.
The most recent increase in the divorce rate was between 2009 and 2010.