Sydney  - Mistresses and their offspring are to get a share of the family fortune if unfaithful husbands die without making a will specifically denying them an inheritance, an official in Australia's largest state said Monday.

New South Wales legal officer Ruth Pollard said legislative changes to take effect next year recognized that some people had "multiple spouses."

She said the amendments would cover same-sex partnerships in which the deceased might have been involved with more than one person and by religious and cultural groups in which men have more than one wife.

Pollard told The Daily Telegraph that the changes would also apply when a married couple had split but were not divorced and the dead spouse had been having a relationship with a new partner.

Pollard said the length of the relationship and public acceptance in the community would determine a person qualified as a "domestic partner." (dpa)