No mother-in-law sleepovers. Only one football game per Sunday. Mandatory sexual positions. With celebrity marriages often shorter than Jessica Simpson's Daisy Dukes, the power of the prenuptial agreement cannot be denied.
Simpson and soon-to-be-ex-husband Nick Lachey didn't have a prenup -- he actually had more earning power than she did when they got married three years ago -- so Simpson could have to part with half of the $30 million she earned last year. That's a lot of Chicken of the Sea.
Other recent breakups include Valerie Bertinelli and Eddie Van Halen and Christina Applegate and Jonathon Schaech. Prenups are the norm for most stars -- even regular folks should have one, if you listen to Kanye West -- and these documents can dictate far more than who gets what.
Attorneys say some recent celebrity prenups include:
- Limiting the wife's weight to 120 pounds or she must relinquish $100,000 of her separate property.
- Allowing a spouse to perform random drug tests, with financial penalties for positive results.
- Requiring a husband to pay $10,000 each time he is rude to his wife's parents.
- The previously mentioned rules regarding mothers-in-law, football and sex.
"Everything is legal unless you're dealing with custody of children or child support," said Los Angeles divorce attorney Robert Nachshin, who has represented Barry Bonds (his ex signed the prenup the day before their wedding) and author Terry McMillan (who discovered the young hubby who brought her groove back was gay). "Everything else is up for grabs.
" So if Simpson had planned ahead, she could have limited Lachey's football-watching plus protected her "Dukes of Hazzard" and Dessert cosmetics dollars.
From the Chicago Sun Times.
Jeffrey,
I enjoy reading your posts on celebrity marriages and prenup agreements. It shows that anything that can happen, will happen to someone's marriage. Thanks for keeping your blog current on these important issues.
Posted by: Jen Sawday, TLD Law | February 17, 2006 at 02:24 PM