The Court of Appeal Re H-N and Others – Considering new approach for family courts with allegations of domestic abuse

The media are currently lamenting the breakup of celebrity couple Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, ‘known as ‘Bennifer’ after Lopez filed for divorce earlier this week, exactly 2 years after their wedding. In this blog, we’ll look into how the English courts would approach their short marriage and extreme wealth if Bennifer were based in England and Wales.

In this blog, we explain how matrimonial and non-matrimonial assets are treated on divorce, and how the latter can become the former through matrimonialisation. We analyse the case of Standish v Standish, where the wife's award was reduced by £20 million as the husband's pre-marital wealth that was transferred to her was not matrimonialised.