Bigamy is the act of marrying someone while still being legally married to another person. This is a serious criminal offence which is punishable by law. Despite this, bigamy is still a problem, with many people falling victim to the deceitful acts of their partners. Here we discuss the issue of bigamy, including the example of a Wirral nurse who fought and won her case against her bigamist husband.
Bigamy is the act of marrying someone while still being legally married to another person. This is a serious criminal offence which is punishable by law. Despite this, bigamy is still a problem, with many people falling victim to the deceitful acts of their partners. Here we discuss the issue of bigamy, including the example of a Wirral nurse who fought and won her case against her bigamist husband.
What amounts to a valid marriage?
In order to be considered a valid marriage, both parties must:
- Be at least 16 years old. If they are under 18, they will need consent from their parents or guardians.
- Freely and fully consent to the marriage. Any pressure or coercion on either party to get married invalidates the marriage.
- Have the mental capacity to understand the nature of the marriage contract and the implications of getting married.
- Not be closely related to each other. For example, they cannot be siblings, parent and child, or grandparent and grandchild.
- The parties must not be married to anyone else at the time of the marriage.
- Must be conducted by an authorised person, such as a registrar, and in accordance with the relevant laws and regulations.
- Be registered with the General Register Office within 42 days of the marriage.
A marriage may be considered invalid if it is void or voidable. The difference between the two is that whilst a void marriage was never valid, a voidable marriage can be.
A void marriage is one where the parties do not have the legal capacity to marry one another. Situations where one party is already married or in a civil partnership fall into this category.
How can I find out if my partner is married to someone else?
There are several ways to find out if your partner is married to someone else. You can search the marriage records which are held by the General Register Office (GRO) for marriages that took place in England and Wales from 1837 onwards. You can request a copy of a marriage certificate, which will show if your partner is married. Some people decide to hire a private investigator who can conduct a thorough investigation into your partner’s marital status. However, this can be an expensive option.
It is important to note that marriage records are confidential, and access to them is restricted to certain individuals, such as the parties to the marriage or their legal representatives.
Can my marriage be declared invalid?
You can obtain confirmation that the marriage is invalid by applying for a petition of nullity. This must be done within three years of the date of the marriage. A nullity application is dealt with in a similar way to a divorce petition.
What happens with our finances if the marriage is invalid?
If the nullity application is successful, then you will be entitled to seek the same financial remedies as you would have done if the marriage was valid. In the case below, the wife pursued her financial claims despite the marriage being declared invalid.
The case of the Wirral nurse and her bigamist husband
In 2018, the Wirral Globe reported the case of a nurse who had discovered that her husband of nine years was a bigamist. The nurse, who had two children with him, had no idea that he was already married when they tied the knot. When she found out, she immediately sought legal advice and started divorce proceedings.
The nurse’s bigamist husband fought the divorce, claiming that he had never been married before and that the marriage was valid. Finally, in 2020, a court hearing in Liverpool ruled in the nurse’s favour, stating that the marriage was invalid due to the fact that her husband was already married at the time. The nurse was granted a decree of nullity, which meant that the marriage was treated as if it had never existed.
A further example involves a man from Manchester. He was found to be a bigamist but he claimed he was unaware this was the case because he believed he was already divorced before remarrying. His confusion, he claimed, was caused by him thinking the decree nisi he had received meant his divorce was finalised – though in fact he’d not received the decree absolute. Him being confused made no difference to the outcome of the case, he and his new partner were not legally married and he was required to pay a fine for bigamy.
What is the legal impact of bigamy?
The legal impact is significant. Bigamy is a criminal offence punishable by up to seven years in prison. It is also grounds for a nullity declaration, on the basis one party was already married.
It is important to remember that bigamy can be difficult to prove; if the bigamist has married overseas or under a different name, for example, it can be challenging to provide evidence of the previous marriage.
Legal options after discovering an existing marriage
You can apply for a nullity order asking the family court to declare the marriage void. Unlike an ordinary divorce, which ends a valid marriage, nullity confirms that a valid marriage never came into existence. Obtaining the order can be important because it provides formal evidence of the legal status of the marriage and creates a route through which financial matters can be dealt with.
Financial remedy applications may be available following nullity, including orders relating to lump sums, property, maintenance, and pensions. The court considers the statutory factors used in straightforward divorce cases, including each party’s resources and needs, their ages, the duration and circumstances of the relationship, any disabilities, contributions, and the welfare of children. A void marriage does not mean that equal sharing will apply, nor does it guarantee that the outcome will mirror a divorce after a long, valid marriage. It does mean, however, that the innocent party should not assume there can be no matrimonial claim at all.
What can an innocent partner receive on separation?
If there is a void marriage and a nullity order, the court’s financial powers can be extensive. It may be possible to seek a transfer or sale of the home, a lump sum, periodical payments, or pension provision. The fact that one party entered the marriage honestly, organised their working life around the relationship, or cared for children may be highly relevant to needs and contributions, although compensation for distress is not the usual purpose of a family financial order.
If the ceremony is treated as a non-marriage rather than a void marriage, the position may be narrower. Claims concerning a home may depend on legal title, an express declaration of trust, financial contributions, discussions about ownership, and the parties’ conduct under property and trust law. These claims are often brought under the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996 and operate differently from the discretionary redistribution available on divorce or nullity proceedings.
Where the couple have children, their marital status does not remove parental responsibilities or the child’s right to support. Child maintenance can usually be dealt with through the Child Maintenance Service, subject to its rules and jurisdiction.
Practical ownership issues should be checked separately; joint bank accounts, jointly owned property, and debts do not vanish simply because the marriage is void. Nor does one partner automatically acquire an interest in an asset simply because they believed themselves married. Documents showing deposits, mortgage payments, improvements, loans, gifts, and conversations about ownership can therefore become extremely important.
Can the innocent partner claim compensation for the wrongdoing?
People often feel that deceit of this kind ought to produce a direct award for humiliation, lost years, or the cost of the wedding. However, family proceedings do not routinely provide damages for the emotional consequences of a void marriage. The criminal offence and the civil arrangements following separation serve different purposes. A conviction for bigamy does not by itself divide the home or provide a financial settlement, while a nullity and financial remedy case does not depend on the defendant first being prosecuted.
There may occasionally be separate civil issues if money or property was obtained through deliberate misrepresentation, but such claims are fact-sensitive and should not be assumed to exist in every case. If the conduct also involved forged documents, identity misuse, or the taking of money, the facts may extend beyond bigamy and should be explained clearly when legal advice is sought.
How common is bigamy in the UK?
Bigamy attracts headlines because the facts can be extraordinary, but the available figures suggest that prosecuted cases are uncommon. Police-recorded offences, prosecutions and convictions measure different stages, and none reveals how many cases remain undiscovered or are resolved without a criminal case.
Historical Ministry of Justice figures reported to Parliament show that, across England and Wales, between 17 and 40 people a year were found to have entered bigamous marriages between 1998 and 2008, with convictions over the same period ranging from 11 to 28 a year. Police-recorded offences were higher: between 2002/03 and 2008/09, the annual totals ranged from 61 to 104. The difference is a useful reminder that a report or recorded offence does not necessarily lead to a prosecution, and a prosecution does not necessarily end in conviction.
Longer-term research published by the University of Exeter in 2026 identified around 30,000 bigamy trials in England and Wales across four centuries. Two-thirds occurred between 1900 and 1959, and prosecutions peaked at just under 1,000 in 1943. The research describes bigamy as rarer than some earlier accounts suggested and records a marked fall in the proportion of known cases prosecuted after the Second World War.
Modern statistics are also unlikely to capture every family affected; a person may discover the earlier marriage years later, decide not to report it, or find that the evidence concerns an overseas marriage whose recognition is disputed. Some situations described casually as bigamy are actually unregistered religious marriages, invalid ceremonies, or misunderstandings about whether a divorce was final.
Evidence to preserve before taking action
A person who has just discovered the issue should retain the documents and any communications they have rather than confronting their partner in case the evidence disappears. Useful material may include marriage and divorce certificates, messages discussing marital status, wedding paperwork, applications made to registrars, financial statements, property documents, and information showing what each party contributed.
It may be appropriate to notify the police because bigamy is a criminal offence, but the family-law steps should not be put on hold. Criminal investigators decide whether an offence can be proved and prosecuted; they do not secure housing, maintenance, or a share of assets for the innocent partner. In addition, beginning nullity proceedings does not require the applicant to prove the criminal case.
Early advice should identify the correct route to take; for one person that may mean nullity followed by a financial remedy application. For another, it may mean a property claim and child maintenance because the ceremony does not qualify as a marriage. Someone whose partner’s earlier divorce was already final may discover that their own marriage is valid and that an ordinary divorce, rather than annulment, is the appropriate process.
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