out of wedlock
Of parents not legally married, as in Over the centuries many royal children were born out of wedlock. The noun wedlock, for the state of being married, is rarely heard today except in this phrase, first recorded in 1675; its converse, in wedlock, dates from the 1300s and is even more rarely used.
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The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
Examples from the Web for out of wedlock
Contemporary Examples
Divorce, out-of-wedlock births, and low labor force participation are expensive.
What caused the schism over the out-of-wedlock birth was never explained.
Why, exactly, are the media outing the woman who gave birth to the out-of-wedlock son?
From time to time, rumors of an out-of-wedlock child made their way into print.
Now his divorce and out-of-wedlock child are getting more attention than those accusations ever did.