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There are a plethora of stories in today’s press which report on a survey carried out at tens of thousands of couples in the UK, Australia, and germany which has concluded that men who are less happy than their wives tended to have more enduring marriages, than those where the husband was the happiest.

Economists have labelled this “the happiness gap” and found that if women were lumbered with housework or if they had different social backgrounds.

The report, which has been published in Germany under the title You Can’t Be Happier Than Your Wife. Happiness Gaps and Divorce, concluded: ‘Our interpretation of these findings is that there exists a pure preference for equal distributions of well-being in couples.

‘It is possible that couples that are not able to transfer and equalise their happiness levels are more at risk of divorce.’

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What defines an Englishman?

Am I English or British is the question I often ask myself when driving the car or putting out on the 18th hole.

You see the problem I have, is I was born overseas to forces parents in Germany. I am not German as I was born on British soil but neither was I born in the UK or England. I am technically a naturalised citizen of the UK as are all forces brats born abroad.

My mother was Scottish, my father is half English and half Irish and I am technically more Scottish than any other nationality due to my Mum not being a half breed.
I have lived in England for most of my life and support the English football team. However what would would happen if Scotland split from the UK?  Would I be able to have a Scottish passport?

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The Uk’s highest court on Monday waded into a German heiress’s divorce battle, a case that could have far-reaching implications for other couples who have entered into prenuptial agreements.

At stake in the legal tussle between Katrin Radmacher, heiress to a paper industry fortune, and her French ex-husband Nicolas Granatino, is a settlement worth millions of pounds and the status of pre-nuptial agreements in English law.

The High court in 2008 awarded Granatino 5.9 million pounds, but Radmacher appealed, citing an agreement signed in Germany in 1998 before the couple married in London that stipulated he would get nothing if the pair divorced.

In a landmark decision, the Court of Appeal ruled last July that the pre-nuptial agreement was valid, reducing Granatino’s settlement to 1 million pounds.

Before that ruling, English courts did not recognise such agreements, in which couples decide before their marriage how they would split their assets in the event of a divorce.

Separately from the disputed lump sum, Radmacher has agreed to provide her ex-husband with a house until the youngest of their two daughters, who is seven, turns 22, and to pay 700,000 pounds’ worth of his debts.

But Granatino appealed against the decision validating the pre-nuptial contract and that issue will be decided by the Supreme Court. The hearing is scheduled to last two days, with a decision due several weeks later.

Family lawyers have said that if the Supreme Court upheld the Court of Appeal’s ruling, they expected a surge in the number of pre-nuptial agreements — especially involving wealthy couples.

Granatino’s lawyers have argued that he should not be held to the terms of the agreement because he did not obtain independent legal advice before signing it, and Radmacher did not disclose details of her financial situation in the contract.

Court papers showed that she earned an income of around 2 million pounds a year from her assets, which are worth more than 54 million pounds. She is expected to inherit up to 100 million pounds.

The couple’s marriage began to break down in 2003 after Granatino gave up an investment banking job that Radmacher said paid him up to 330,000 pounds a year, to become a biotechnology researcher at Oxford University earning 30,000 pounds a year.

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• UK supreme court to rule on prenups (guardian.co.uk)
• Heiress case to test pre-nup law (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Future of prenuptials at stake in Britain (cbc.ca)
• UK Supreme Court considers prenuptial agreements (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

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Katrin Radmacher, a German heiress, has overturned an earlier decision which awarded her ex-husband £5.8m of her £100m fortune despite their agreement.

Frenchman Nicolas Granatino had agreed not to make a claim if they divorced.

Such contracts are enforceable in France and Germany, but not in the UK where the couple married in 1998.

Miss Radmacher, 39, is one of Germany’s richest women and Mr Granatino is a former investment banker.

Their pre-nuptial was signed in Germany before the couple married.

The pair’s marriage was said to have broken down after Mr Granatino, 37, gave up a lucrative job in the emerging markets sector in 2003 to become a £30,000-a-year biotechnology researcher at Oxford University.

They divorced in 2006 and a High Court ruling last year awarded her ex-husband £5.8m.

Miss Radmacher appealed against that decision and her lawyer, Richard Todd QC, told a panel of three Court of Appeal judges the freedom to agree a contract was “at the heart of all modern commercial and legal systems”.

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A study has shown that newlyweds expect at least seven years before getting tired of their partners.

But the new findings that emerged in a study of divorce trends in the U.S., Scandinavian countries and in Russia, have revealed that couples begin to grow fed up with each other after just four years and are at peak risk of divorce just before their fifth anniversary.

Researchers in the US, Russia and Scandinavia investigating the longevity of relationships found that the “honeymoon period” lasts for less than five years, with most divorces likely to happen between five and 10 years into the marriage.

They said that those who manage to make it to ten years are likely to remain married for good.

Aiva Jasilioniene, an academic specialising in marriage and cohabitation studies, helped produce the report for the Max Planck Institute in Rostock, Germany.

“Crisis point for the modern marriage is arriving sooner. One of the explanations for these changes in divorce risk is that during the first decade of marriage both partners go through crucial life – course transitions and challenging experiences – completion of education, building a career, bearing children and so on,” the Daily Mail quoted her, as saying.

“During the later years, the couple have developed strategies to deal with problems they arise,” she added.

The findings also revealed that the decision to remain together could possibly have a more practical basis. They said that as people become more affluent, the cost of splitting up could be a powerful factor in keeping couples together.

The report also showed that couples who marry young and those living in urban areas are more likely to divorce; while tying the knot at an older age contributes to marital stability.

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• Should Marriages Last Seven Years? (momblognetwork.com)

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