1700-0689-0107-3484 - [2025] EWHC 1696 (Fam)

I will turn first to the background. M is 45 and F is 36. Both are French nationals. They met in August 2015 in Country X, when M was 35 and F was 26. The information I have about the parties’ lives prior to this is very limited. I believe that F had been working in some branch of finance and was living in Country Y. M had been in a relationship with a wealthy man, living in the South of France . F suggests that he was by that stage already relatively rich. M disputes this and says he made all his money during their time together. I need make no finding on that issue as nothing turns on it. The parties’ relationship blossomed. They began spending time with each other in the South of France and Paris. By 2016, M was pregnant and at some stage that year the parties began to cohabit on a more formal basis in Country Z. M says this was for reasons connected to F’s business dealings and tax affairs. I have no reason to doubt that. In 2016, the parties travelled to Country Y. As a result, C was born there in 2016 and has citizenship there in addition to his French nationality. Soon after the birth, the family moved back to France.

Earlier in 2016, F set up a business to which I will refer as ‘his business.’ He set it up with a partner. He now owns it outright. F described his business as an application, or app, for business startups and it has been phenomenally successful. His business is incorporated outside of the UK. For the first year of C’s life, M says the family were struggling to pay bills. It does not seem to be disputed that the family economy was somewhat tight during this period. In 2017, the family moved to London. The decision appears to have been largely based on F’s need to be working in London. The family rented an apartment in Central London. In 2019, the family moved to another apartment in Central London, the family home. From about 2017, F’s wealth grew exponentially and, alongside it, the family’s standard of living evolved, seemingly in parallel. The family began to enjoy a fabulous standard of living with all the usual markers: private jet charters, helicopter rentals, yachts in the summer, wonderful villas, fine dining and expensive clothing to name but a few.

The parties’ relationship ended either in September 2023, according to F, or October 2023, according to M. Nothing turns on this date but the dispute shines a light on F’s personality and lack of insight. M says that the relationship broke down because she saw F in his Ferrari with another woman in October 2023. F says that M already knew the relationship was over and that it had been over since September 2023. Miss Bangay asked F how M would have known the relationship was over at that stage. He told me that M would have known because C had drawn a picture of him and M in which they were separated. In my opinion, F had convinced himself of the truth of this proposition to excuse the fact that he had brought his (secret) partner to the parties’ home and introduced her to C, when M was away for the weekend in late September. To put it bluntly, this was an impetuous thing to do and which was plainly not in C’s best interests but I remind myself that none of this has anything to do with the decisions that I must make.

Since the breakdown of the relationship, M and C have remained living at the family home and F lives in rented accommodation with his new partner.