Millie Court and Liam Reardon were crowned winners of Love Island last night - with the couple walking away £50,000 wealthier and with a string of sponsorships lined up.
But previous years have shown us that while the money usually goes 50:50, the couples don’t always work out.
Jessica Hayes, who won the show with Max Morley in 2015 famously admitted she wished she had kept the money in an interview just months after the show aired.
2019 winners Amber Gill and Greg O'Shea split the prize, but they broke up shortly after winning.
Dani Dyer and Jack Fincham won in 2018 and shared the money – but they parted ways a year after the show.
While the terms mean the couples don’t have to repay the money if they split, it does raise questions about what can be learned when it comes to break-ups and awkward conversations about cash.
So what are the financial lessons to learn from a break up?
Statistically, September is one of the peak seasons for divorce enquiries.
Family lawyers say it challenges January for the title of the busiest month of the year, and in 2019, the Ministry of Justice’s online divorce service showed its most hectic day was September 30.
“When you’re splitting up, it’s easy to feel that there’s nothing good to take away from the process. It’s emotional, stressful and expensive,” explains Sarah Coles, financial expert at Hargreaves Lansdown.
“However, when the dust settles, you can walk away having learned some key financial lessons.
“And in an ideal world, we can pick up those lessons in advance, and take some of the financial pain out of a split.”
If you’re not married, the name on the documents is key
If you’ve lived together for years you might have come to think of everything as joint property.
However, in reality, the debts belong to whoever’s name is on the credit card or loan agreement, the savings to whoever holds them, and the house to the person named on the deeds.
If you’ve both contributed to running up debts or building up assets, the only way to protect yourself is to be sure your name is on the dotted line.
If you are married, then a prenuptial agreement can make a huge difference
These aren’t officially recognized in law, but as long as you both had independent advice when it was drawn up, and it’s fair, a court will take it into consideration.
They lay out what you both enter the relationship with, and how it should be divided in the event of a split.
It can be particularly useful for protecting the rights of any children from previous relationships. If you aren’t married, a cohabitation agreement can help.
This is very similar to a pre-nuptial agreement, but is completed when you move in together.
You're about to get a lot poorer
If you’re divorcing, you need to pay for an expensive split, while simultaneously splitting everything between you, and duplicating all your expenses.
The early years tend to be far more financially difficult than living as a couple.
Knowing this in advance won’t make it any easier, but it will help focus your mind on entering into this phase of life with less debt and more savings, and reveal the importance of making quick and brutal decisions when it comes to cutting your costs.
Moral of the story? Always have your own nest egg stashed away – you never know when you might need it.
Financial blind-spots will leave you vulnerable
Around 47% of women say they take charge of day to day spending, and 49% of men say they take charge of longer term planning, according to figures by Hargreaves Lansdown.
When asked if they could take over finances from their partner, 74% of those who leave day to day finances to their other half said they could do it tomorrow, but only 56% said they could take on longer term planning.
Without your partner, you need to take it all on overnight. It’s a horrible time to suddenly get to grips with a whole new issue, so it’s vital to understand every aspect of your finances as you go along. Try and keep on top of bills and paperwork and avoid leaving it to one partner (or burying your head in the sand).
You can’t utterly rely on one another
When it comes to pensions, couples will often plan for one of them to take on caring responsibilities, and the other to build up enough of a pension for them both to draw on in retirement.
This may make perfect sense if they’re still together, but if they split up, it can leave the one without a pension high and dry.
If you get divorced, you need to ensure the value of the pension is properly reflected in how assets are divided.
If you’re not married, you have no right to the pension if you split.
If you don’t have the security of marriage, you should think long and hard before leaving your financial security in retirement to your other half.
