Splitting the difference
By Clare Dyer The Guardian

He was a property tycoon in his 30s, worth at least £25m and possibly as much as £150m. She was a 26-year-old former model with two GCSEs and a £1m trust fund set up by her father.

With hindsight, their marriage never had much of a chance. Both were shocked to discover, a brief two months after they started seeing each other, that she was pregnant. She said she would have an abortion unless he married her. He didn't want her to get rid of the baby, but didn't feel ready for commitment. They went on a five-week, £30,000 holiday and agreed they would let the baby be born but get to know each other better before deciding whether to tie the knot.

That was before her parents were told of the coming event. Adamant that they weren't having their grandchild born out of wedlock, they pressured him to marry their daughter. Her mother put it starkly: agree to marry her or I will take her for an abortion.

Dad, a forceful character, held out a carrot to the reluctant bridegroom. Why not draw up a prenuptial agreement? Then if the marriage didn't work out, at least his future son-in-law's fortune wouldn't be at risk. All his daughter would get would be a home for herself and the child - to revert back to her ex-husband when the youngster was grown up - and a lump sum of £100,000 plus 10% per annum for each year that the marriage lasted.

The sumptuous wedding, the day after the agreement was signed, cost more than £82,000, and that didn't include the flowers. Ten months later, the wife consulted solicitors about a divorce. She was never to move into the house bought as a joint home.

Now, in a landmark case on pre-nuptial contracts, the high court has largely upheld the agreement signed by the Ks, the ill-starred north London pair identified (as couples in divorce cash battles are) only by the initial letter of their surname. Read more