News Release
Taylor Swift could have faced multi-million-pound claim from ex Joe Alwyn under Government’s cohabitation reforms, warns charity
• Government cohabitation plans undermine marriage, says The Christian Institute ahead of consultation close
• Charity warns reforms would disincentivise marriage by creating marriage-style financial obligations for unmarried couples
Taylor Swift could have faced a potential financial claim of millions of pounds from ex-boyfriend Joe Alwyn under proposed Government reforms to cohabitation law, a Christian charity has highlighted.
The public consultation on the plans closes this Friday and The Christian Institute says the Swift/Alwyn scenario is just one of a number of ways in which the proposals would further weaken the institution of marriage.
The Government’s consultation A Fairer End to Relationships closes on Friday 14 August and proposes a new legal framework for qualifying cohabitants who separate but were never married to each other. Under the plans, courts would consider factors including earning capacity, financial resources, age, disability and the length of the relationship when deciding what constitutes a fair, ‘needs-based’ settlement.
While the proposals do not create an automatic entitlement to a share of a partner’s wealth, they would allow courts to assess whether one former partner’s financial needs should be met by the other. This would echo what takes place in a divorce – even though the couple are not married – fostering the myth of the ‘common law marriage’.
The relationship between Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn illustrates just one potential impact, says The Christian Institute, which has campaigned against the changes.
When Swift began dating Alwyn in 2016, she was already one of the world’s most popular musicians, with an estimated fortune of around $250 million. Alwyn, by contrast, was a newly trained actor at the beginning of his career with no significant known assets, having only recently graduated from London’s Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
The couple separated in early 2023 after living together for around six years, by which point Swift’s net worth was approximately $400 million. By October that year, Swift had become a billionaire. Estimates suggest that Alwyn’s amassed personal wealth amounted to around $4 million. The charity said the example highlights a wider concern about the direction of family law: whether the state should impose legal consequences similar to marriage on couples who have not made the legal commitment of marriage.
The Christian Institute argues that marriage should remain a distinct legal institution, and the Government should stop looking to create a poor replication, which lacks consent, through cohabitation laws. It warns that the reforms could weaken the incentive for couples to make the public commitment of marriage while creating new uncertainties for those who have chosen cohabitation instead.
Simon Calvert, Deputy Director of The Christian Institute said:
“Many people would feel strongly that since they did not commit to one another in marriage, Joe Alywn should not be legally entitled to portions of Taylor Swift’s wealth. But this high-profile example simply exposes one kind of injustice these proposals could create.
“Marriage is the conscious, public voluntary union of two lives – spiritually, emotionally, legally, and financially. Yet these proposals force financial and legal obligations onto people who have not made that commitment, fuelling the myth of ‘common law marriage’. This creates a very poor imitation of the marriage union, generating financial obligations without the promises and without the key benefits they bring – namely, greater likelihoods of permanence and family stability.
“Marriage is uniquely beneficial for couples, their children, and wider society. The financial and other advantages attached to it rightly reflect that. People who don’t promise to stay together shouldn’t be treated like those who do. We should be encouraging marriage, not making it look redundant.
“At a time when family breakdown is already at a record high, Government policy should focus on strengthening marriages, rather than creating alternative legal routes that replicate parts of marriage after separation.”
Research from the Marriage Foundation indicates that family stability is strongly linked to marriage. Married parents make up 84% of couples who are still together when their child turns 14.
According to the Centre for Social Justice, by age five, 53% of children of cohabiting parents experienced their separation, compared to just 15% of children with married parents.
Family breakdown carries a significant social and financial cost to society and to the taxpayer. Centre for Social Justice research estimates that the cost of family breakdown to the public purse is around £51 billion a year.
The Christian Institute urged members of the public to respond to the consultation before it closes on Friday 14 August.