Does Marriage or Divorce Cancel a Will?

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, getting married or entering a civil partnership automatically revokes a will you made before the ceremony¹. The will is not amended or partly overridden: it stops applying, and unless you make a new one your estate is distributed under the intestacy rules instead. In Scotland the opposite is true, and marriage does not revoke a will at all¹.

Divorce behaves differently again. It does not cancel a will, but it changes what the will does: your former spouse is treated as though they had died, so any gift to them fails and any appointment of them as executor fails with it¹. The rest of the will stands.

The practical effect is that two of life's biggest events pull in opposite directions. Marriage wipes the slate clean and leaves you without a will unless you write a new one. Divorce leaves the document in place but quietly removes your ex from it, which is not the same as putting your estate where you now want it to go.

Marriage or civil partnership cancels an existing will

The rule in England, Wales and Northern Ireland is blunt. Getting married or entering a civil partnership automatically revokes a will, and the same applies to a will made before a remarriage¹. Age UK puts it in the same terms for anyone remarrying or entering a new civil partnership: it "automatically revokes (cancels) any existing will you have, so you'll need to make a new will"⁵.

That means a will written years earlier, naming children from a previous relationship or leaving specific items to friends, simply stops operating on the day of the ceremony. Nothing needs to be torn up or formally withdrawn. The revocation happens by operation of law.

There is a narrow exception in practice, and it is worth knowing about because it is the one thing that survives. A will made in anticipation of a marriage can be written so that it is not revoked by that marriage, but this has to be built into the will itself before the wedding, not added afterwards. The wording and conditions are not set out here, so anyone wanting this needs it drafted by a solicitor.

For most people the answer is simpler: after a marriage or civil partnership, a new will is needed. The government recommends reviewing a will every five years and after major life events such as marriage or civil partnership, or the birth or adoption of a child⁴. Which? suggests a shorter cycle, reviewing every three years¹. Either way, a wedding is a trigger, not a routine date.

Divorce does not cancel a will, but it changes it

Divorce ends the marriage but not the financial connection between ex-partners⁶. It also leaves your will in place, which surprises many people. Unless you alter it, your will remains valid until your divorce is finalised, and even then some details could still stand².

What changes is your ex-spouse's position. Once the divorce is finalised, your former partner is treated as if they were deceased, meaning any gift or appointment as executor would fail¹. Which? describes the same rule: your ex-partner is automatically cut out of your will as soon as your divorce is finalised, but the rest of the will remains valid⁷.

That automatic cut-out is narrower than it sounds. It removes your ex, and only your ex. It does not redirect their share to anyone else, and it does not update the will to reflect a new partner, stepchildren, or a change of mind about which of your relatives should inherit. If a gift to your ex was one of several, the others stand. If your ex was the only beneficiary, the will may now do very little.

There is a second trap. A will made during the marriage is not automatically invalidated by divorce, but it does exclude your ex-spouse or ex-civil partner from benefiting⁵. So the document that was written to provide for a spouse now provides for nobody in particular, and the estate may fall to be distributed in ways the person who wrote it never intended.

The way to change a will is to make a new one, which cancels any previous will, or to alter the existing one by adding a codicil⁹. A codicil suits minor changes. After a divorce, a new will is usually the cleaner route, because the changes are rarely minor.

Separation without divorce: the will stays as written

While a couple is separated but not divorced, nothing about the will changes. A separated spouse can still inherit under it and can still act as executor. That is true however long the separation lasts and however separate the finances have become.

A legal separation allows finances to be divided without officially ending the marriage, and it must be applied for in writing⁶. It does not revoke a will either. Neither does a separation agreement, which is not legally binding in itself, though a court can normally take it into account if it was fair, if both people can show they understood what they were agreeing to, if it was drafted properly by a solicitor, and if both people's financial situations are the same as when the agreement was made¹⁰.

The gap between separation and divorce is where wills cause the most unintended results. Someone who has lived apart from a spouse for years, and who has written nothing since, may still leave everything to that spouse. Independent Age's guidance is direct on the point: you may also need a new will¹¹.

There is a further complication for anyone who has started a new relationship. A partner you are not married to and not in a civil partnership with has fewer rights than a spouse¹¹. If you are living with someone but not married or in a civil partnership, you will have fewer rights¹¹. A cohabitation agreement sets out what happens if a couple breaks up or one of them dies, and it does not replace a will, though it adds extra clarity¹².

Scotland and Northern Ireland: where the rules differ

Scotland is the clearest exception to the marriage rule. Marriage does not revoke a will in Scotland, and under Scottish law getting married gives your spouse legal rights to part of your estate¹. So a will written before a Scottish marriage survives it, but the spouse acquires a claim over part of the estate regardless of what the will says.

That claim is enforceable. In Scotland, married or civil partners or children of the person who died can challenge the will if they do not agree with what it says, by exerting their legal rights¹³. This is a different mechanism from anything in England and Wales: rather than the will being cancelled, it can be overridden in part by people the law protects.

Northern Ireland follows the same revocation rule as England and Wales. Civil partnership or marriage revokes an existing will in England, Northern Ireland and Wales, so a person who marries there without making a new will is at risk of dying intestate⁴. Where Northern Ireland differs is in the machinery around separation and divorce rather than in the will rule itself. The Matrimonial Causes Order sets out the range of powers the court can use when deciding how to split assets¹⁴.

The wider pattern is that legal systems across the UK diverge on family and estate matters, and the differences are not cosmetic. Power of attorney, for instance, works under different legal systems in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland¹⁵. Anyone who has moved between nations, or who owns property in more than one, is dealing with more than one set of rules.

What happens if there is no valid will

If you do not have a valid will when you die, everything is split according to the law³. That body of law is the intestacy rules, and if you die without making a will, the law of intestacy sets out who should inherit your estate¹⁵.

The consequences fall hardest on people who were not married or in a civil partnership with the person who died. Someone living with the deceased but not married to them or in a civil partnership with them may not receive anything from the estate¹⁶. The same risk applies to life insurance: assets are divided according to intestacy rules, including any life insurance payouts, which could leave out a partner if the policy was not written in trust¹⁷.

Property follows the same logic. If you do not make a will, the home will pass to your closest relatives, next of kin, when you die¹⁸. That is true whether or not someone else has been living there and paying the mortgage.

Where there is no will, an administrator takes over the estate, usually a relative or friend, or a solicitor¹⁹. In Scotland, if there is no will or no executor has been appointed, the sheriff court can appoint one, and the court will normally appoint someone with an interest in the estate, in many cases a surviving spouse or civil partner¹³.

The reform picture is worth watching but not yet relying on. Under proposals consulted on, cohabiting couples would have a right to inherit under intestacy, similar to married couples and civil partners, but that is a proposal for England and Wales and not the current rule⁴.

Where to get help

Free, impartial guidance on wills, intestacy and what happens to an estate is available from Citizens Advice, which covers dealing with an estate after a death in Scotland as well as England and Wales¹³. MoneyHelper provides guidance on dividing the family home and mortgage during divorce or dissolution¹⁴. For anyone who wants a will drafted or reviewed, solicitors in Scotland and Northern Ireland are regulated by The Law Society of Scotland and The Law Society of Northern Ireland respectively¹.