How many parents really understand what their children want and what they need?

Perhaps it was my reaction to the McCartney divorce that prompted me to take some time out for a week’s vacation with my son. At the request of a journalist, I had been considering what Beatrice McCartney’s feelings may be if, when she reaches an age to understand, a kind “friend” shows her a copy of Mr. Justice Bennett’s gruesome judgment of her mother. At the very least, it could cause her a lot of pain. And how will her psychological development be affected by such turbulence within her family?

People talk a lot about the impact of divorce on children. Even so, when I listen to some of them, I have the feeling it is only lip service. How many parents really listen to their children, to try and understand what they want and what they need?

 I am not divorced myself, but I do have a child. On an impulse, I decided to whisk my son away to the heat of the desert in Eilat, Israel for a week. I hoped to find out how he was faring in his student world. He has certainly been working very hard. As it turned out, he wasn’t the only one with plenty on his mind. Continue reading »

“The Courts have been waiting eagerly for a pre-nup test case like this…”

Pamela Harriman the late daughter-in-law of Winston Churchill was as renowned for her political foresight in supporting the then unknown but coincidentally charismatic and good looking Bill Clinton for the US Presidency - as she was for her string of incredibly rich lovers and husbands.  Although she sometimes ended up apparently poverty stricken, she always managed to find someone else to bank-roll her lifestyle.

It may be wrong to place the undeniably stunning Susan Crossley, nee Sangster (racing magnate), nee Lilley (of Lilley and Skinner shoe empire fame) nee Nicholson (Kwik Save co-founder) into the same category. However, this serial divorcee who is seeking a share of her last husband’s reputed £45million fortune despite signing a pre-nup agreement - has just found out to her cost that the Courts are not impressed with this conduct.

We may be witnessing a change in the Court’s approach to wealthy wives who have made little or no financial contribution to a short, childless marriage. I never understood why such women walked away with great riches, and I still maintain that the House of Lords award last year to Melissa Miller - who in her early 30’s reaped a £5million settlement for a two-year marriage to which she had not contributed financially - was wrong and excessive.

I hear ‘on the lawyer’s grapevine’ that the Courts have been waiting eagerly for a pre-nup test case like this - and voilà! ­ Continue reading »