Last week Family Legal Assistant, Georgia Oliver was chatting to a colleague when the news came out about the split of arguably the most successful stars of ITV’s hit reality show, Love Island - Molly-Mae Hague and Tommy Fury. In this article, Georgia applies here legal knowledge and experience to advice she would share if the couple came to Dutton Gregory Solicitors for advice.
Having spent five years together after coming second place on Love Island in 2019, fans of both the show and the couple were in shock to learn that Molly-Mae and Tommy were no more. The couple, both 25 years old, were living together and have a one-year-old daughter, Bambi. Both stars took to Instagram to announce their breakup and highlight that taking care of their daughter was their number one priority.
It is a lot more common nowadays for couples to choose not to get married before moving in with each other – like they say, you never truly know someone until you live with them!
The number of couples that are living together without getting married increased by 137% between 1996 and 2020, so it is important to understand the implications of cohabiting in the event of a relationship breakdown, and unfortunately there are many widespread misunderstandings regarding the legalities or such a living arrangement.
The most common misconception we find is the belief that you can be a ‘common-law spouse,’ when in actual fact there is no such thing. In Molly-Mae and Tommy Fury’s situation any financial claim would be dealt with under ‘Trust Law’, whereby it would be necessary to look at the conduct and intention of the parties in respect of assets. This is often a difficult and complicated area of law.
Though Tommy and Molly-Mae recently got engaged, they were not yet married, so any financial claims against each other are limited.
There are rumours circulating that the £3.5-million-pound mansion that the couple lived in is solely in Molly-Mae’s name, and, as a hugely successful social media influencer, entrepreneur and creative director of fashion brand ‘PrettyLittleThing’, she has financial independence. However, many individuals are not in this situation, and they can be faced with financial challenges when going through a separation, which is why it is so important to understand the legal obligations of a cohabitating relationship.
A question I would ask The Love Island couple is whether they had a Cohabitation Agreement in place? Many couples choose to create this legal document to memorialise a discussion around the finances of living together. As there are no set of rules when you split with someone you are living with and, without a Cohabitation Agreement, you are not necessarily entitled to a financial settlement. It would determine who gets certain assets following a breakdown of the relationship, but when a couple has children, things get more complicated.
The couple will have to figure out an arrangement that fits around both their busy working schedules to allow each parent to spend time with Bambi, which could be achieved through Family Mediation if necessary.
Both parties are financially independent and successful in their own rights, and so would be unlikely to need to make any financial claim, however if one of them had been financially reliant on the other and would be unable to meet Bambi’s needs then they may potentially be looking at a claim under Schedule 1 of the Children Act for capital or income to meet Bambi’s needs. In the absence of any marriage a financial claim will be limited to what is necessary for a child, and not for the needs of the other party, as would be the case if they were to marry.
Both Molly-Mae and Tommy have stressed their number one priority is children, and in the event of separation it is key to put the needs of any children first. The law is very clear the welfare of any child will always be the court’s paramount consideration. If I was advising Molly-Mae or Tommy then I would be encouraging them to try and reach a decision between them around co-parenting Bambi, and CAFCASS has a number of useful tools on their website, including parenting plans which they can complete to discuss and hopefully agree arrangement for Bambi.
The same law applies to both celebrity parents and everyday parents, so if you need specialist family law advice regarding child arrangements, cohabitation and prenuptial agreements or general advice, please contact one of our Family Law Solicitors at Dutton Gregory Solicitors.
