IC v AD

Facts

The applicant husband, in his early 40s and Head of Investor Relations at an investment equity finance partnership, and the respondent wife, also in her early 40s and largely a child-carer and homemaker who is now studying at a London university, began cohabiting in January 2010 and married in February 2012. Some seven weeks before the marriage they signed a pre-nuptial agreement negotiated between solicitors on both sides, with mutual disclosure appended. Two children were born, both at a fee-paying IB day school in London. The husband applied for divorce in May 2024, physically separating in January 2025, and a conditional order followed in August 2025. Forms E were exchanged voluntarily in July 2024; the husband issued Form A in July 2025 together with an application for notice to show cause why the pre-nuptial agreement should not be converted into an order. A private FDR before Sir Nicholas Francis in October 2025 failed to settle matters. The wife had for a time declined to accept that a signed agreement existed, the signed copy having disappeared from the husband's study. The total assets were some £26.6m, of which £18m was deferred or non-realisable, and the parties' combined legal costs exceeded £1m. The matter came before the Central Family Court for a five-day final hearing in July 2026.