Divorce and Wills: What Happens to Your Will When You Divorce

Does divorce revoke a will?

No. Divorce cancels only the parts involving your former spouse, treating them as having died before you, while the rest of the will remains valid. This takes effect from the final order, not from separation or the start of proceedings.

The assets that would have gone to your ex-spouse fall into your residuary estate, or follow any backup clause the will contains. The same rule applies to the dissolution of a civil partnership. If your ex was also your executor, that appointment fails too, and your substitute executor, if you named one, takes over. A will that left everything to your spouse with no backup beneficiaries can effectively collapse into intestacy, which is why divorce is one of the strongest triggers for making a new will.

What happens if you are separated but not divorced?

Nothing changes. A separated spouse remains your legal spouse, and your will applies exactly as written throughout the separation. Only the final order changes their legal position under your will.

This is the trap that catches the most people. Separations can run for years, and throughout that time an estranged spouse remains the main beneficiary of an old will, or the main heir under intestacy if there is none. If you have separated and do not want your spouse to inherit, updating or revoking your will is the only step that actually changes the outcome. The divorce paperwork alone protects nothing until the final order is made.

Does remarriage affect a will?

Yes, completely. Marriage or civil partnership automatically revokes any existing will, unless it was made in contemplation of that marriage. This is the opposite of divorce’s partial effect, and it surprises far more people.

A will you made after your divorce is cancelled entirely the day you remarry, and until you make a new one, the intestacy rules govern your estate. For blended families this can be serious, since intestacy favours the new spouse and can leave children from a first marriage with less than intended, or nothing. The marriage-revocation rule is statutory and automatic. If a new marriage is planned, a will can be drafted in contemplation of it so it survives the wedding.

What should you update after a divorce?

Make a new will, and review everything that sits outside it: pension nominations, life insurance beneficiaries, and jointly owned property. The will only controls part of the picture.

Pension death benefits usually follow the nomination document held by the scheme, not your last will and testament, and an ex-spouse named on an old form can still receive them. Jointly owned property held as joint tenants passes automatically to the co-owner regardless of the will, so severing the joint tenancy may be needed. Gov.uk’s guidance on updating a will covers when a new will beats a codicil amendment, and after a divorce a full modification of your provision is nearly always safer than patching the old document.

Frequently asked questions

Is my will still valid after divorce?

Yes, the will itself remains valid. What changes is that gifts to your former spouse fail and any appointment of them as executor or trustee falls away, as though they had died before you. Everything else in the will continues to apply exactly as written.

Can my ex-wife or ex-husband claim my inheritance after divorce?

Not under your will once the final order removes them, but a financial claim can remain open if it was never dismissed. A clean-break financial agreement, approved by the court during the divorce, closes claims between former spouses for good. That is family law territory rather than your will, and it matters at probate too.

Which event automatically invalidates a will?

Marriage or civil partnership revokes an existing will entirely, unless the will was made in contemplation of that marriage. Divorce does not invalidate a will: it only cancels the parts involving the former spouse from the final order, as does deliberately revoking it yourself.

When exactly does divorce change my will, the conditional order or the final order?

The final order, called the decree absolute before April 2022. The conditional order changes nothing about your will or your spouse’s inheritance rights. Until the final order is granted, your spouse remains your spouse for both your will and the intestacy rules.