Case No. NP20D02617

8.W is aged 59. She has 4 children by her first marriage, this being a second marriage for both parties. She is by occupation a film maker. Both prior to her marriage to H and following its breakdown, she has lived at her home in Wales.9.She has a relevant medical history. She has been assessed at the end of last year as suffering from Complex PTSD (“CPTSD”) and a depressive disorder. It is material to note that at the end of both her first marriage and a subsequent relationship she suffered from reactive depression. 10.H is aged 68. He retired from practice as a barrister in August 2021. He remains in part-time employment. He lived before this marriage in his former matrimonial home about 1.5 hours away and he remains living there now. He has two grown-up children by his first marriage.11.The parties met and began a relationship in 2008. They commenced cohabitation in summer 2012, when W moved into H’s home. She was accompanied by her 3 youngest children, who were all in education. 12.The parties married on 6 January 2013. Both had considerable doubts about the prospective marriage and there had already been arguments and an incident between the parties, to which I will return. They had each both separately seen and confided in a priest.13.In summer 2013 W purchased a small home and moved there with her youngest daughter. She says that her primary reason was H’s intolerable behaviour and that her daughter’s unhappiness in her new school was only a secondary motive. She could not move back into her former home because that had been rented out. Her middle two children remained living with H in his home and attending school locally. The parties continued to spend weekends together, normally at H’s home, and during the school holidays W returned to his home. This situation continued until summer 2016 when W moved back full-time to H’s home. 14.There was a further separation in early 2018 and W petitioned for judicial separation. The judicial separation application was never progressed and was ultimately dismissed on 22 July 2020. 15.In May 2018 the parties entered into negotiations in relation to the execution of a separation agreement. As time went on the parties ultimately instead executed the PNA on 4 November 2018. Notwithstanding these legal manoeuvres, the parties had in fact reconciled to the extent that W resumed her residence with H in June 2018.16.They remained living together until either February or March 2020. There is a minor disagreement between the parties on a number of dates but none of them make any difference to the outcome of the case. 17.On 22 July 2020 W issued her divorce petition and the Form A followed on 13 October 2020. That was countered by H’s notice to show cause application on 25 November 2020. A decree nisi was pronounced on 10 February 2021 and the decree has not yet been made absolute.