The most worrying process of a divorce is the children of the family. Have you separated and are you worried about what will happen to the children? Are you a homemaker and you don’t really have an earning capacity? You are not confident that you will find a job and feel you have no real prospects of earning a living? Well, rest assured!
A recent case has demonstrated how the court made a ruling taking into consideration the children of the family (who, at the time of the ruling, were of adult ages) and where the wife had no real prospects of earning a living as she had always been a home-maker.
In this case, it was reported that a 16-time world champion and Darts ace Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor was ordered to pay his estranged wife half of his estimated £3million fortune as he finalised his divorce after 26 years of marriage. He offered a package worth £830,000 but was told to make a further £400,000 payment, including his home in Tenerife, after a judge looked into his finances. The husband separated from his 54-year-old wife in early 2014 after almost three decades as a couple.
The Family Division Judge Rogers ordered the husband to pay a £780,000 lump sum payment plus investment properties said to be worth around £350,000 and a pension pot of £149,000, plus the Tenerife property.
This case became public 14 months after it was claimed that his daughters were living on benefits after he cut them out of his life. A spokesman for the husband said that he was aware his daughters were on benefits but declined to say why he was not supporting them.
In a judgment released after the divorce hearing in Nottingham, the judge said:
“They met when they were very young and began to co-habit in 1982 in their very early twenties. They were married in 1988 and the marriage has produced four adult children, Lisa, Christopher, Kelly and Natalie. The parties’ marriage continued for a very substantial period of time, although unfortunately it ran into difficulties, causing separation in 2011. At the weekend the husband became the first winner of the BBC’s Champion League of Darts with a £100,000 payday. They attempted reconciliation but unfortunately that too was unsuccessful, and their final separation occurred in the early part of 2014.’
The judge said that “the husband was criticised by his wife’s lawyers ‘as to his level of disclosure and as to the limited amount of financial support given to the wife post separation”. He added: “He said he always paid the bills and did not keep the wife short. On this point alone his evidence was less convincing. He could and should have done more. The wife’s recent life has not been as comfortable……. the wife did not work and had no realistic earning capacity as ‘she has throughout the marriage been a homemaker’”.
If you wish to speak to a family law specialist, please contact one of our expert solicitors on 0121 702 1580 who would be happy to assist.