Growing numbers of people are divorcing because of “mid-life crisis”, a survey of 100 leading divorce lawyers in England and Wales reveals.

Extramarital affairs were the most common cause of marriage breakdown for the survey’s fifth year running, accounting for 29% of divorces in 2007, down from 32% the previous year. But mid-life crisis took second place for the first time, rising from only 2% in 2006 to 14% last year. Family strains were the third most common cause, at 11%.

The report, from chartered accountants Grant Thornton, found that two out of three lawyers surveyed had a least one client in 2007 who hired detectives to shadow a spouse suspected of cheating.

Tamara Mellon, founder of the Jimmy Choo shoe empire, was spied on by private investigators hired by her husband, Matthew, during an acrimonious divorce last year. But in 64% of cases the suspicious spouse was the wife.

“While it might seem like an extreme length to go to, people just want to know the truth —even if it hurts,” said Andrea McLaren, head of Grant Thornton's London matrimonial practice.

Husband the culprit

Wives are right to be suspicious, according to the survey findings. In marriages which broke down because of affairs, the straying spouse was usually the husband (78%). The percentage of cases in which the wife was the guilty party dropped from 31% in 2006 to only 22% in 2007.

In the majority of mid-life crisis cases - 93% - the partner having the crisis was the man. Mark Harper, a partner at the London law firm Withers, which handles “big money” divorces, said it was hard to distinguish between divorces precipitated by affairs and those which resulted from a mid-life crisis. “They have affairs because they’re having a mid-life crisis. How do you distinguish the two?”

He also questioned whether hiring a private eye to find out if your partner was seeing someone else was worthwhile. A spouse who wants a “quickie” divorce has to allege either adultery or unreasonable behaviour, but Harper said a behaviour petition citing “improper association” was an alternative if adultery could not be proved.
But, he said, it might be worth hiring a detective if you believed your other half was hiding assets. “If you have a suspicion that your spouse has an undisclosed Swiss bank account, an inquiry agent might well be worthwhile. But usually we advise against it.”

Harper acts for John Charman, the insurance magnate whose ex-wife Beverley was awarded £48m, the biggest divorce payout ordered by the courts so far in England and Wales. Much of Charman’s wealth is tied up in a Bermuda trust and the battle to try to disgorge the assets from the trust has now moved to the Bermuda courts.
Sir Mark Potter, president of the high court's family division, acknowledged last year that London had become “the divorce capital of the world”.

Some 94% of the family lawyers polled by Grant Thornton named England and Wales as the best place for a wife to have her divorce dealt with.

Only 5% cited the US, where prenuptial agreements are legally enforceable. In England and Wales prenups are not binding, although there is a growing trend for the courts to give greater effect to them.

One in five divorces involves a foreign national and a common ploy is for a husband with a link to a country with less wife-friendly laws to try to launch the divorce there before his estranged wife petitions in England.

Highlight:

*Adultery is still most common reason for split

*Courts in England and Wales give wives best deal

*Detectives commonly hired to spy on cheating spouses and their hidden assets