The days when every marriage could be expected to last for life are long gone. There are now over 130,000 divorces in England and Wales every year. Many divorcees form new relationships which can lead to all sorts of complications between spouses and children of either marriage. One example of this is that of the magician Paul Daniels who died aged 77 in March of this year.
Paul Daniels
Paul Daniels was divorced from his first wife Jacqueline and famously married his assistant “the lovely Debbie McGee” in 1988. He had three sons from his first marriage Paul Jnr., Martin, and Gary. Debbie is now 57, one year older than Paul Jnr. One thing everyone seems to agree on is that Paul and Debbie loved each other very much, and were very happy together. Even Vanessa Feltz in an episode of “Celebrity Wife Swap” confirmed this; although she did not see eye to eye with Paul.
Paul left a Will leaving everything to Debbie and once debts were paid this amounted to about £500,000. Paul’s son Paul Jnr. has publicly complained that he has been left nothing and that Debbie has failed to look after him however Debbie, Martin, and Gary disagree with this and Debbie has said there were good reasons for the Will saying what it did.
Paul Jnr. could contest the Will but cannot be sure of success and the legal costs to either party could be very large and in some cases even eat up all of the estate.
Be prepared…
There is never an ideal solution to situations like this but good preparation laying out the reasons for leaving or not leaving to people can help to reduce the upset to all parties.