Divorce­—Ancillary relief­—Pre-nuptial agreement

Court of Appeal, Civil Division, Thorpe, Rix and Wilson LJJ,
2 Jul 2009

The law remains that pre-nuptial agreements are at one and the same time both unenforceable and invalid as being against public policy and matters which the court is prepared to take into account (and possibly decisively) for the purposes of its jurisdiction under s 25 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 (MCA 1973).

Richard Todd QC and Geoffrey Kingscote (instructed by Ayesha Vardag) for the wife. Nicholas Mostyn QC and Deepak Nagpal (instructed by Payne Hicks Beach) for the husband.

The wife, who was born in Germany to a wealthy family, came to London in the 1990s. The husband, who was of French nationality, was educated in France but was resident in England. The parties became engaged in June 1998. At the suggestion of the wife’s family, they agreed to enter into a pre-nuptial contract. The parties married in November 1998 and subsequently