Evrol Mariette Peters J:

INTRODUCTION

[1]This was a petition sought by the petitioner-wife, seeking a judicial separation from the respondent-husband, as well as spousal maintenance, division of matrimonial assets, and damages from the co-respondent for the alleged adultery between the co-respondent and the respondent-husband.

[2]Given the privacy of parties and sensitivity of issues in these proceedings, the petitioner, respondent and co-respondent have been anonymised in these grounds of judgment respectively as HAI, PAI and KAI.

THE FACTUAL BACKGROUND

[3]The petitioner and respondent (collectively ‘the parties’) were aged 72 and 74, respectively, at the time of the commencement of the trial of the petition for judicial separation. They entered into matrimony in October 1977, marking the beginning of a union that would last almost five decades. Their marriage was blessed with six children (‘the children’), whose ages ranged from 36 to 46 at the time of the trial of the petition for judicial separation, as well as three grandchildren.

[4]The petitioner, despite earning a Diploma in Business Studies from Singapore’s Ngee Ann College, chose to forgo her professional ambitions to become a