I'll say first off we're in NI incase that affects the advice.
My parents split up 17 years ago and never lived together since.
They never actually got round to legal separation or divorce.
But they've lived at different addresses since then and have only had contact for family occasions (weddings, christenings for example)
Anyway, my mother has Alzheimer's and is in a care home (which was advised by social workers as she no longer had capacity) and the whole family has had a falling out (a lot of stuff has come to the surface which I don't want to go into here, if you know me from other posts please don't 'out' me)
In recent days my father has went into the care home and asked to remove my mother. He said he wanted to take her out a drive - we can't let this happen as he treated her very badly after diagnosis and was cruel to her when they'd be in the same room.
He is telling the care home they are still married so he is her next of kin (on paperwork my sibling is)
Basically I would like to know if legally they are still married and if he pushes this is the law on his side? (Mum has no capacity and hated him for years but now forgets how he treated her. He wants to take her out to have control like he had for years)
Thanks for reading