High Court rules surrogate-born son can inherit £200m aristocratic fortune
A son born via surrogacy has been granted the right to inherit his father’s £200m fortune in a High Court ruling.
Ceawlin Thynn, the 8th Marquess of Bath and owner of the Longleat estate, sought the court’s "blessing" to allow his second son Henry Thynn, nine, to inherit from three family trusts after uncertainty regarding whether he met the historical definition of a legitimate child.
Henry is the second biological child of the marquess – also known as Lord Bath – and his wife Emma Thynn, the Marchioness of Bath. He was born via a surrogate mother in the US after the marchioness experienced serious health issues during her first pregnancy.
There was a risk he could miss out on his share of the family fortune because the trusts relied on pre-1970 common law definitions of “children” that pre-dated modern fertility treatments. In 1978, a child was born as a result of in vitro fertilization for the first time and seven years later, the first baby was born via gestational surrogacy.
Mr Justice Matthews stated he was “satisfied” the court should give Lord Bath the power to add his second son as a beneficiary.
He added: “Henry is the son of Lord and Lady Bath. Not only is he treated by them and will be treated by the world in general as a child of Lord and Lady Bath’s marriage but he is also their genetic child. It would be unfair on Lord Bath and on Henry to treat Henry as if he were not Lord Bath’s son.”
Parental orders, which transfer legal parentage from the surrogate, have risen from around 100 in 2011 to more than 500 last year, according to court records.
Surrogacy can cause inheritance issues for families, although the risk is greater with older trusts and wills.
Joe Cobb, of law firm JMW, said: “The issues encountered in this case were caused largely by the age of the trust deeds and are unlikely to cause as many difficulties with more recently drafted wills.”
The marquess runs the 9,000-acre Longleat estate on the Wiltshire-Somerset border, home to the UK’s first safari park. He was worth an estimated £215m in 2020, according to the Sunday Times Rich List.
His father, Alexander Thynn, who died after contracting coronavirus during the pandemic, was known for his flamboyant dress sense and relationships with women he referred to as “wifelets.”
Technology & Business Editor
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