The high-value divorce settlement of Michelle Young and her estranged husband Scot is currently in its fourth year and the hearing in London’s High Court has thrown more coals onto the fire of celebrity divorce news.

Mrs Young,49, claims that her husband is worth £2 billion and she has named high-profile friends of his, such as businessman Sir Philip Green and TV impresario Simon Cowell, as those who have aided him in concealing assets and wealth so as to avoid a huge financial settlement on divorce.

Mr Young claims he owes around £28 million and therefore cannot afford to pay maintenance or a lump sum settlement.

The Telegraph reports that, in court, Mrs Young told former divorce lawyer Mr Justice Mostyn, presiding, that her husband’s claim of poverty was erroneous and he had made huge sums investing in Russian and UK property.

She then claimed that restaurateur Richard Caring, as well as Sir Philip and Mr Cowell, had helped her husband to hide assets.

On announcing this in court Mr Justyn Mostyn asked, “Do you mean the Sir Philip Green? Do you mean the Simon Cowell?

“They are just some of the few,” she replied.

When asked if she realised that she was effectively accusing the men of attempting to pervert the course of justice she replied in the affirmative.

As high-value divorce settlements go this one is pretty challenging because the court must decide which spouse it believes is telling the truth about the family finances before any Order can be made in respect of financial settlement.

The increasing number of children in families where the parents have consulted divorce solicitors is revealed in a new report by the Centre for Social Justice.

It seems nearly half (48%) of under-16s will have known the upset of their parents splitting up and seeking family law advice on dividing the couple’s assets. This compares with a figure of 40% of children involved in marital break-ups ten years ago.

The researchers looked into the history of relationships in the UK and found that, contrary to some other reports, co-habitation by unmarried couples was not as common as today.

They suggest that family breakdown has such an important effect on children that the Government should introduce policies to support families, such as increased access to relationship education and couple support as well as help from health visitors, tax allowances for married couples and inclusion of marital status information on official forms.

Births to unmarried mothers are at record levels and nine out of ten couples live together before getting married, which compares with fewer than one in 30 before the Second World War. Cohabitation rights, including changes to child access law, have only become recognised in recent years.

The executive director of the Centre for Social Justice says the increase in cohabitation is a major factor in the breakdown of traditional family life with a child in a single-parent family 75 per cent more likely to struggle at school, 70 per cent more likely to become addicted to drugs, 50 per cent more likely to develop a drinking problem and 35 per cent more likely to be unemployed in adulthood.

English law recognises that child law applies whether the parents are married, in a civil partnership or co-habiting and a family law solicitor can offer advice. This will cover the child’s or children’s welfare with regard to parental responsibility, residence agreement orders and contact agreements.