UK divorce laws are 'outdated'

Divorce laws in the UK are outdated and may unfairly favour wives over husbands, a newspaper writer has claimed.

Liz Hunt of the Telegraph reported that the current laws surrounding divorce stem from the "landmark" White vs White ruling in 2000, which specified that legal biases should not exist "in favour of the money-earner and against the homemaker and the child-carer".

She noted that while the law is well-intended - as it is designed to compensate and recognise women who put the needs of their children and husbands ahead of their own - it also may have "opened the floodgates" for large divorce payouts that do not reflect a number of other factors, such as the absence of children.

Ms Hunt made her comments in the wake of news that the ex-wife of actor John Cleese, Alyce Faye Eichelberger, will receive a total of £8 million in assets and cash, as well as an estimated £600,000 a year for seven years.

The ex-couple were married in 1992 and the Mirror wrote that John Cleese's total fortune will drop to around £10 million as a result of the settlement.
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19/08/2009 10:30

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