A German paper heiress's prenup held in London, and her French ex-husband's £5.85 million award was cut to £1 million

Katrin Radmacher, heir to a German paper-industry fortune reported at about £100 million, married Nicolas Granatino, a French banker, in London in 1998. Before the wedding they signed a German marriage contract barring him from financial claims on her if they divorced. There was no disclosure of her wealth, and he refused independent legal advice. He later left banking for academic research at Oxford^†. On divorce the High Court awarded him £5.85 million. The Court of Appeal reduced it to about £1 million, plus housing provision for the time the children lived with him. On 20 October 2010 the UK Supreme Court dismissed his appeal by 8 to 1. It held that a court should give effect to a prenuptial agreement freely entered into with full understanding of its implications, unless it would be unfair to hold the parties to it. Before this ruling English courts generally gave prenups little weight.