Does an annulment affect the legitimacy of the children?
No. An annulment in no way affects the legitimacy of the children. It was decided long ago that under canon law, children of a putative marriage are legitimate. A putative marriage is one that is believed by at least one of the partners at the time to be a real marriage. Almost all annulled marriages fall in this category. The same rule of the legitimacy of children holds true, incidentally, in civil law annulment cases. And in any event, a church annulment does not even attempt to speak to the issues of legitimacy, laws of inheritance, and other civil domestic issues.
