Before the law changed in April 2022, although rare, it was possible for an individual’s partner to be named in a divorce petition. This could happen where there was evidenced “adultery” (which was then one of the “facts” that could be relied upon to evidence to the court that a marriage had irretrievably broken down).
However, in April 2022 the old law was completely abolished, with the “facts” needing to be relied upon to show irretrievable breakdown of marriage being removed.
Under the new system, within a Divorce Application (as it is now named), individuals simply need to confirm to the court that there has been “irretrievable breakdown” without having to explain why that is the case.
This means that even if a person’s spouse believes the breakdown of the marriage to be because of there being a new relationship, there is no longer the opportunity to state this within the Divorce Application, or name the individual involved.
The whole purpose of the new system was to reduce acrimony within divorces, preventing to-ing and froing on the wording of petitions which was increasing the emotional temperature and costs unnecessarily.
Is having a new partner relevant to the financial matters?
The existence of a new partner can be relevant to the financial matters more generally. This very much depends on the circumstances of each and every case. Relevant considerations would be how stable the relationship is, whether the new partner is living with the individual and if so, whether they can provide an additional financial resource that is realistically available (or potentially whether the new partner is even a financial drain) on their resources.
The existence of a new partner does not mean that there will be less of a right to a fair outcome upon divorce. The court has to assess each and every case on the basis of fairness and need. As such, the court would not expect new partner to financially support somebody at the expense of their former spouse, particularly when there are children and where there are assets/income that can be used to meet those needs.
Within court proceedings, there is an obligation for full and frank financial disclosure. If somebody is living with their new partner (cohabiting) then there is an obligation to disclose details of their partner’s income and assets but only as far as “they are known”. To that extent, a partner could be referred to within the court process/financial matters more generally.
