The parties, Dr Johann Fölscher Potgieter and Mrs Ilse Potgieter, were divorced by the Port Elizabeth High Court on 26 October 2004. Custody of their two minor children, Engela (then 15) and Johann (then 11), was awarded to Mrs Potgieter, with reasonable access to Dr Potgieter. Dr Potgieter was also ordered to pay child maintenance and rehabilitative maintenance to Mrs Potgieter for 12 months. During the divorce proceedings, extensive expert evidence was led, including reports from psychologists, a social worker, a psychiatrist, and the family advocate, most of whom recommended that custody be awarded to Dr Potgieter, largely based on diagnoses of Mrs Potgieter’s mental health and the (incorrect) assumption that the domestic worker was the children’s primary caregiver. The trial court rejected much of this expert evidence, found that Mrs Potgieter had been the children’s primary caregiver throughout their lives, that the children were doing well, and that their best interests required custody to remain with her. Dr Potgieter’s appeals to the Full Court and thereafter to the Supreme Court of Appeal challenged the custody order, rehabilitative maintenance, and costs.