A UK High Court judge has ruled that the surrogate-born son of Ceawlin Thynn can potentially inherit part of the £200 mln Longleat estate fortune, in a landmark case involving aristocratic family trusts and modern surrogacy laws.
The ruling allows nine-year-old Henry Thynn, who was born via a surrogate mother in the United States in 2016, to be added as a beneficiary of several historic family trusts linked to the Longleat estate in Wiltshire.
The case arose because the trusts relied on pre-1970 legal definitions of family relationships that did not account for surrogacy or modern fertility treatments. Justice Paul Matthews said it would be unfair to exclude Henry, describing him as the biological and legal son of Lord and Lady Bath.
Legal experts say the decision could influence future inheritance disputes involving old aristocratic trusts and children born through surrogacy.
