Gerry Cunningham is a lucky man. This morning his estranged lottery-winning wife Angela promised to share her winnings but under Scottish law she has no obligation to be so generous.

In Scottish family law, which is radically different from that in England, the crucial point in a marriage breakdown is the date of separation and lawyers say that what happens subsequently is “largely irrelevant”.

Although they are still married, the Cunninghams separated eight years ago and so Gerry has no legal rights to a penny of the £35 million his wife won in the Euromillions draw.

Leonard Mair, an expert in Scottish family law at Morton Fraser, said: “When a couple separates in Scotland a list of assets and liabilities is drawn up and divided between each side. After that neither has any claim on the other’s future income or assets regardless of whether their situations change before they get round to actually divorcing.”

“Divorce in Scotland is simply an administrative step rather than a platform to squabble about money and children,” Mr Mair added.

While it was not immediately clear today whether the Cunninghams did draw up a formal separation agreement to divide their assets, lawyers said that even if they had not, Mr Cunningham would struggle to convince a court he was entitled to a share of the jackpot.

Scott Cochrane, a family law partner at Brodies, said: “Scottish law takes the concept of a clean break on separation very seriously. Even if the Cunninghams did not formally divide their assets on separation, if they now decided to divorce the courts will use the time they separated as the key point and ignore what has happened since.

“The fact that Mr Cunningham, according to reports, has not lived with his wife for several years is a slam dunk: he would have no hope.”

According to Mr Cochrane, if the Cunninghams do now decide to divorce then Mr Cunningham’s best prospect – aside from appealing to his wife’s generous side – would be to claim maintenance payments.

“He could apply for maintenance payments for three years after the divorce. But these will be based entirely on his current needs and the amounts we are talking about are hardly likely to dent his wife’s millions.”

If the Cunninghams were English and decided to fight over the money, the situation would be very different.

Tom Farley-Hills, a solicitor at Speechly Bircham, said: "In the English courts the starting point would be to divide all of the capital - including Mrs Kelly's winnings - equally between her and her estranged husband, even though they had already separated."

Since they are still married, Mrs Cunningham's lottery winnings would be considered part of the "matrimonial pot" according to Emily Watson, a family solicitor at Kingsley Napley.

“Although there is recent case law indicating that assets acquired by one party after separation can, in certain circumstances, be kept separate, this would be entirely within the discretion of the Judge, who would consider a number of factors, including the length of the marriage and Gerry's needs, which can be generously interpreted," Ms Watson said.

"As they have been married for 20 years, his claim is stronger than if this were a short marriage. Additionally, the Court would give priority to the needs of their 14 year old son."

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