A Singapore court has determined that a 97-year-old businessman is mentally fit to marry the woman with whom he has maintained a long-term relationship for decades. This ruling comes as the man’s son attempted to prevent the union by seeking to declare his father legally incapacitated.
The elderly gentleman, whose name has not been disclosed by the court, was married in 1950 and has three sons from that marriage. In 1971, he began a relationship with his secretary, which lasted for half a century and produced another child. Despite being aware of the affair, his wife reportedly chose to stay with him until her passing in 2014.
After becoming a widower two years later, the man invited his longtime companion to live with him. Family tensions significantly escalated in 2021 when he announced his intention to formalize their relationship through marriage.
In response, his second son petitioned a family court to have his father deemed mentally unfit, arguing that a fall in 2017 had resulted in dementia, making the elderly man susceptible to manipulation by his partner. The son sought to prevent the marriage and take control of his father’s affairs.
This prompted a contentious legal battle. The nonagenarian businessman—founder of a chemical company established in the 1960s—updated his will to exclude the son and a grandson, and he filed a counterclaim for the return of 3.8 million Singapore dollars (approximately $3 million) along with company assets. Additionally, he aimed to evict his grandson from his property.
Medical experts testified that although the man displayed mild, age-related cognitive decline and some short-term memory loss, he was entirely capable of making decisions about his marriage and property. Audio recordings presented as evidence demonstrated that he was lucid, coherent, and fully conscious of his actions.
In a notable observation, Judge Shobha Nair pointed out that despite claiming dementia, the son had supported his father’s appointment as chief executive officer of the family company in 2019—two years after the fall he argued rendered his father incapable.
The court rejected the son’s case, emphasizing that the relationship in question had endured for roughly 50 years and that there was no evidence of deceit or exploitation by the woman seeking to marry the elderly man.
The son has since filed an appeal, meaning the 97-year-old will have to wait a bit longer before walking down the aisle. For now, however, the court has upheld his right to choose—regardless of age—whom he wishes to marry.
