With pantomime season coming to a close, we examine the story of Beauty and the Beast, and the rights Belle would have as a cohabitee if the Beast were to die before the last rose petal fell.
Beauty and the Beast is a classic tale of love and redemption, perhaps most famously told in Disney’s 1991 Oscar-winning animated film. It’s also a popular inspiration for pantomimes across the UK, with 2024 and 2025 performances being no exception.
For those unfamiliar with the story, Beauty and the Beast concerns Belle, a beautiful heroine held prisoner in an enchanted castle by a hideous Beast. The Beast is, in fact, a human man cursed by a witch to live in his current form forever unless he can change his selfish ways and find true love before the last petal of a magical rose falls.
From a legal perspective, Belle eventually becomes a cohabitee of the Beast, learning to love him and living with him in his castle. The story has a happy ending, but Belle’s status as a cohabitee does place her in an insecure position, were the Beast to die before the spell was broken and the couple got married.
To explain why, this article takes two forms of creative licence: 1. that the story is set in England, not France (where laws concerning cohabitation are different); and 2. that from the beginning Belle lives with the Beast as his partner, not his prisoner.
What is a cohabitee?
Cohabitees are couples that choose to live together in an intimate relationship, without getting married or entering into a civil partnership.
Cohabitation is increasingly common in the UK. According to the latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the number of cohabiting couples increased by 144% between 1996 and 2021 to around 3.6m.
Despite its increasing prevalence, however, cohabitation continues to offer fewer legal rights and protections compared to couples who are married or in civil partnerships.
Furthermore, 46% of people continue to assume that couples form a so-called ‘common law marriage’ after a certain period of time, despite the fact that neither ‘common law spouses’ nor ‘common law marriages’ are recognised by law in England and Wales. This misapprehension leaves many cohabiting couples at financial risk, should the relationship break down or one of the partners die.
How do legal protections differ for cohabiting couples?
It’s a tale as old as time: cohabiting couples do not get the same protections concerning property and assets as their counterparts in marriages and civil partnerships.
In Belle’s case, this would mean that she would have no automatic claim to the Beast’s castle or his wealth, were he to die before they got married.
For Belle to benefit from an automatic right to inherit the castle, or a share of the equity, after the Beast’s death, she would have to jointly own the castle with the Beast. If the Beast was the sole owner of his castle, however, Belle would have no rights to inherit it, or even to continue living in it, unless the Beast had made provision for such in his will.
While Belle would possibly have the option to claim a share of the property via the courts, she would only be successful if she could prove that she had made significant contributions to the deposit, the mortgage payments, or any renovation or improvement projects. This would also be highly complex, and Belle would need to seek legal advice, leading to expensive legal costs.
Other assets owned by the Beast would also not automatically pass to Belle after his death unless left in his will. Even then, any assets exceeding the £325,000 nil-rate band (the level of tax-free gifts a person can make) would be subject to inheritance tax, something for which married couples and those in civil partnerships are not liable to pay.
How can cohabiting partners protect themselves?
One of the most effective ways to ensure a fair distribution of assets and property is to prepare a Cohabitation Agreement. Ideally completed before a couple moves in together, this agreement should set out what happens if the relationship breaks down or a partner dies. As well as covering a wide range of assets, Cohabitation Agreements can also extend to parenting arrangements if the cohabitees have a child together.
To carry as much legal weight as possible, cohabitees should each seek independent legal advice when drafting Cohabitation Agreements and ensure that the agreement is tailored to their specific circumstances. Preparing such agreements should also be considered alongside provisions in a will, as well as nominating beneficiaries for private or company pensions.
While surviving partners can sometimes make claims through the courts, this is only possible if they can demonstrate that they had been living with the deceased for more than two years and were financially supported by them during this time. These types of claims are often referred to as Inheritance Act Claims. Having a legally binding agreement in place avoids the courts, as well as the associated costs.
Unlike Belle and the Beast, many cohabiting couples will choose to neither get married nor enter into a civil partnership. In these cases, it is important that they understand how their legal positions will differ and work with a legal specialist to protect themselves and any dependants if the relationship should change.