The Supreme Court of Cassation in Italy has delivered a landmark judgment, stating that parties who divorce and have independent means or the capacity to work should not expect to receive indefinite maintenance divorce payments on the basis that they were entitled to retain the same tenor of life as when married.

Divorce should not be seen as a ‘set-up for life’, Italy’s supreme court has said, in a landmark ruling that strips divorced spouses of the automatic right to hefty maintenance payments.

Divorcees who have independent means or are capable of working will not automatically receive maintenance divorce payments that in the past were assessed on the basis that ex-spouses have a right to retain the same ‘tenor of life,’ after divorce, the judges of the Court of Cassation said.

The ruling is expected to change how family law is interpreted in the country and could herald an end to massive divorce settlements such as the €1.4 million (£1.2 million) a month maintenance cheque that media magnate Silvio Berlusconi’s second wife Veronica Lario obtained when they split up in 2009 amid the ‘bunga bunga’ sex party scandal.

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