In the week the governor of the Bank of England warned that the UK might be heading for protracted economic hardship, divorce lawyers have reported a surge in trophy wives - and husbands - asking whether now is the time to cash in their chips.
'When money looks like flying out of the window, love walks out the door,' said Sandra Davis, head of one of London's leading legal firms, Mishcon de Reya. 'Redundancies are still only being whispered about in the big City firms, but already we have never been busier with stay-at-home spouses asking what their options are.'
Miles Geffin, the professional support lawyer at Mishcon, which initially represented Heather Mills in her divorce from Paul McCartney, identifies three waves of interest: when rumours of job cuts start, when they take place and a month or so afterwards, when stay-at-home spouse realises the new reality is here to stay.
But he said the momentum could come from either partner: 'A trophy wife is aware she needs to get proceedings moving before he spends his redundancy and all the capital he has built up. But businessmen who lose their job often see it as an opportunity to head straight off to the divorce courts before they find a new job so alimony payments will be based on their unemployed status.'
James Stewart , a matrimonial partner with law firm Manches, said he has never been busier, but it is not just wives coming through his door. 'In the last week alone, I have had two stay-at-home husbands inquiring about claiming the assets of their high-earning wives,' he said. 'They are just as concerned as the trophy wives about what will happen when their spouses can no longer meet their own financial expectations.'
Stewart's experience mirrors research by law firm Pannone, which has seen a 300 per cent increase in the number of such inquiries since rumours of redundancies started to sweep the City. 'When there are mass redundancies, I brace myself to receive a high level of instructions within a very few months,' he said.
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