A city trader at the centre of a landmark multimillion divorce case says her former husband “won the lottery” by having an affair.

Julie Arnold, formerly Sharp, has called for divorce law to be modernised to better support couples who are facing divorce after a short marriage having had no children.

She said such cases were likely to become more common as couples marry later in life, noting that in such circumstances, when one partner earns more than the other, the current principle that assets should be shared equally, was wholly unjust.

Alex Carruthers said he thought the Sharp case would be used in certain cases “as an argument to muddy the waters”.

He said divorce law “evolved with the times” with a new High Court judgment almost every week, making it difficult and costly to advise on.

“It’s good to have fixed rules and we had one suggesting that assets should be divided equally,” he said.

“But then the Sharp judgment said that was not a fixed rule, just a guideline, which just provides something else to bicker about.”

Alex agreed marital law desperately needed to be debated by parliament to address many issues including the legality of pre-nups and lifelong maintenance payments for women with children as well as, crucially, the introduction of no fault divorces.

“You should not have to accuse someone of unreasonable behaviour or adultery to get divorced,” he said.

He acknowledged that the lack of any “hard and fast rules” made divorce proceedings complicated and costly but said that by looking at each case individually, judges provided a fairer result.

He suggested that marriage was such an important institution that it should not just require a “rubber stamp” to end one.

Read Alex’s comments in The Telegraph

Read Alex’s comments in The Daily Mail

Read Alex’s comments in IOL