FABULOUS Associate Editor Jess Wilson, 34, is finally happy with co-parenting her poodle with ex-boyfriend, James, 32. But she says . .
. Two months after buying a puppy together in 2018, my partner James and I split up. While there were difficult conversations about who would move out of our one-bed flat and who should keep the knife set or 42in TV, the only thing we never managed to agree on was who would keep the dog.
And six years on, we still haven’t decided. The long custody battle over our poodle cross breed Honey has caused us both extreme levels of heartache. Just like TV presenters Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford, who are currently having “difficult conversations” about who will keep their collie cross Maggie, when we ended our three-year relationship after a string of rows, it was the conversations about Honey that were hardest to navigate.
And we are not alone. Ant McPartlin and his ex-wife Lisa Armstrong have shared pooch Hurley since their 2018 divorce, with Lisa this week vowing to fight Ant for full custody. In fact, one in four divorces now involves a dispute over a pet.
As a result, the Law Society has suggested that couples consider entering “pet-nups” — an agreement much like a pre-nup, which would decide the living arrangements of pets in the event of a separation. Legally, pets are categorised as property — much like a car or house — so the person who purchased it is generally considered to be the owner. But if you bought the animal toge.
