Ruling would have cut Paul McCartney payout

Today's ruling would potentially have transformed the outcome of several previous divorce cases if the couples had signed a pre-nup.

The most striking example is Sir Paul McCartney's settlement with Heather Mills, which gave her and their daughter Beatrice an overall payment of £24.3 million.

Sir Paul had reportedly rejected a pre-nuptial agreement as unromantic. But legal experts suggested that if had signed one, Ms Mills would have received a fraction of the money.

Although she would have still received a significant sum to pay for the upbringing of her daughter, any pre-nup designed to protect Sir Paul's wealth from before they married would almost certainly have been accepted by the court.

Impact on pre-nups in other cases, such as that of the Arsenal footballer Ray Parlour — whose wife Karen won a third of his future earnings after a Court of Appeal ruling in 2004 — is likely to be less, however, when the couple's wealth is established primarily after their marriage.