I was with my husband from 18 to 43, married for 12 years, with daughters aged 11 and 3. I left in January after years of emotional abuse and financial control.
During the marriage I was encouraged to stop paying into my pension and eventually stop working altogether - which I can now see was just another way to control me and make me even more dependant on him. I've been out of work for six years raising our children and have only recently secured a new job, earning less than a quarter of what he does.
For the first eight years of our marriage we lived with his parents. Despite earning a very good salary (around £120k before a recent promotion), he never bought a family home, even though he could have afforded to. We later rented, and we never had joint accounts or jointly owned assets.
He has a company pension, shares through work, a rental flat he owned before marriage, and previously had his own business. He currently pays child maintenance privately.
I know nobody can give legal advice, but what might I realistically expect from a financial settlement in these circumstances? Has anyone been in a similar position after sacrificing their career and pension to raise children? We're yet to start financial disclosure.