Sir Andrew McFarlane, delivering the Annual Gray's Inn Reading weeks after retiring as President of the Family Division following eight years as judicial head of Family Justice, argues that English family law needs structural reform rather than incremental fixes. He traces four decades of change since the Children Act and the Domestic Abuse Act, then turns to the government's June 2025 consultation on reforming financial remedies on divorce, prenuptial agreements, and the legal position of the 3.5 million cohabiting couples who wrongly believe in a common law marriage. He questions why a child's financial support should depend on whether parents married, reviews proposals for child focused courts backed by an 82 million pound rollout, and marks a century of adoption law built for infants now used for three year olds. A substantial section covers surrogacy, including a case of two women in their sixties stuck in a four year legal limbo over a Northern Cyprus arrangement, and closes by predicting a digital future for family justice.