Help - how much is someone entitled to after 25 years of marriage?

[Putneydad7]

Are there any divorce lawyers on here who can help with some guidance?
An elderly friend is 85 and was widowed, as was her husband (95) and they both had children from former marriages. They have been married for 25 years.
Going into the marriage he was very wealthy, the house alone is £7-9m I would imagine.
She told me that his will left everything to his children/grandchildren, including the house and that she was only to be given a de minimis amount for a small cottage to live in.
The kids are the executors of the will, so it is in their best interests to push this through uncontested.
If she divorced him (which she isn't going to do) I'm guessing that after 25years she would be entitled to half or at least that would be her opening bid.
I would love any advice from someone with experience in the field to the following questions;
Is she entitled to more than just a small amount from the will and should she do anything about it now, or just wait until he dies and then contest the will?
I'm sorry if it's cheeky to ask for free legal advice, but I think she is being screwed over and I feel sorry for her and MN folks are so nice 😀
Thanks in advance.

Yep!

OP think about this from his children’s point of view. Imagine your elderly wealthy father remarried later in life. It’s not grabby of them to want to access their inheritance. The new wife is being given enough for a small home, she’s not being made homeless.

I don't really understand why people remarry in later life when there are significant disparities in wealth and children who would otherwise stand to inherit. Why on earth would you give another person a legal claim over assets that they hadn't worked for? Better to just live together and make appropriate provisions for the partner in your will.

If he's 95 then he was 70 when they married. So the majority of his wealth is likely to have been earned prior to their marriage. In which case I would say as she is unlikely to have contributed he is quite in his rights morally and legally to settle the majority on his children and provide the minimum to his wife. She would have been 60 at the time they married so should have some of her own earned wealth for her retirement already. If she failed to plan that is her problem not his. I would imagine if he is that rich she will have some personal assets from the marriage (gifts of jewelry etc.) that she could cash in if necessary.

This is why I have said to my wife that if I die I’m happy for her to find someone else but not to remarry. The financial assets we’ve accrued (I’ve been the main earner and have a lot of life assurance cover) I want to go to our kids, and not have half of it hived off to some other family who are nothing to do with me.

I agree.

Well yes, but this man seems to have been able to re-marry, but also not disinherit his children so it's apparently not inevitable.