The Summer Of Love Was Fun — Now, Pete & Ariana Should Be Drafting A Prenup

If this was the summer of love, then this fall will be the autumn of lawyers. Of the three A-list engagements that sprang up this year — Priyanka and Nick, Hailey and Justin, and Ariana and Pete — all will likely be mounting prenuptial agreements before officially tying the knot. Or postnuptial agreements, depending on their timeline.

“In these types of situations, whether it be a Justin Bieber-Hailey Baldwin situation or whether it be an Ariana Grande situation, I would bet in both marriages that there will be prenups,” says matrimonial lawyer Robert Wallack, whose NYC-based firm repped Gossip Girl star Kelly Rutherford during her very public custody battle.

A quick recap for those who were, until now, oblivious to prenuptial agreements: They are contracts, drafted by matrimonial lawyers, that stipulate how a couple’s assets will be divided if they divorce. They detail what spousal support will look like, and they ensure that both parties, in the best case scenario, don’t end up destitute. Still, they can’t dictate child custody rules, and — sorry, tabloids — can’t really enforce lifestyle stipulations. There are rumors that Beyonce has a cheating clause in her agreement with Jay-Z. This is cool, but, er, if that ever made its way to a court, a judge could easily dismiss accusations of cheating.

“People can agree to anything,” says Laura Wasser, a divorce lawyer so seasoned she has a podcast called The Divorce Sucks Podcast. She’s handled everything, from Kim Kardashian’s split from Kris Humphries to Charlie Sheen to Angelina Jolie’s separation from both Brad Pitt and Billy Bob Thornton. (She and Jolie recently parted ways — Wasser was previously working on Jolie’s split from Brad Pitt.) She’s a favorite of the Kardashians, having handled Khloe’s divorce from Lamar Odom and Kris Jenner’s as well. (She recently had Jenner on her podcast.) “But if somebody agrees to an infidelity clause,” she says, “and then they cheat, and then the spouse says, 'There's this infidelity clause' — in California at least, the court is not going to uphold them. They can't uphold things that have to do with people's behavior.”

California is a sticking point here. It’s a “community property” state in terms of divorce, which means, unless there’s a watertight prenuptial agreement, state law splits all things evenly. For our young engaged couples, this is a big deal. Justin Bieber is worth an estimated $265 million dollars, Ariana Grande a slightly slimmer $50 million to Pete Davidson’s reported $2 million and both Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra are both sitting pretty on about $25 million dollars. And they should all expect to make more in the next few years.

Things can change, though. What if Justin Bieber takes time off, and, during that time, Hollywood scion Hailey Baldwin becomes Forbes’ next self-made billionaire? What if Pete Davidson becomes the next comedy blockbuster superstar a la Jerry Seinfeld? Wasser says this type of shortsighted view can ruin an agreement.

“It's interesting — I've done some prenups for people where one person is more famous than the other, and so they're kind of shielding their assets and making agreements about not having to pay any spousal support if and when the parties when they split up,” Wasser says. “Then they're married for five or six years, and the person they were trying to make more assets from is making more money than they are. The tables turned!”

"My goodness does feel good to have our future secured!"

The fact is, celebrities have a lot of money, and that money needs to be protected. Nashville-based business manager Mike Vaden — who Billboard named as one of the music industry’s top managers in 2017 — says that, in general, pre-nuptial agreements are more important when the marriage occurs between a celebrity and a non-celebrity.

“A marriage is hard enough for most people to maintain,” says Vaden. “But, for an entertainer, who's on the road all the time, it's doubly hard. Unfortunately, they get into marriages quickly, and they get out of them quickly. Everybody needs to be protected.”