Today the Judge in the Paul McCartney & Heather Mills divorce released his findings. In short, the Judge found Ms. Mills to be inconsistent and inaccurate and less than candid with her testimony. But he still awarded her $48 million as a settlement, which works out to $34,000 per day of the marriage. The amount was considerably less than the $250 million Mills believed appropriate and requested.
McCartney’s net worth was estimated to be around $800 million, much of it earned before his marriage to Mills. When the couple married, rumors abounded that McCartney’s children wanted him to have Mills sign a pre-nup. He did not have a pre-nup prepared.
What was he thinking? What was she thinking?
I know, everyone wants a marriage that will last the test of time. And some deem a pre-nuptial agreement to be unromantic, and planning to fail at the relationship.
In reality, failing to have a pre-nuptial agreement is failing to plan.
Heather Mills is a perfect example. A pre-nuptial agreement would have given her an idea how much money she would get in the event of a divorce. Instead, she’s had to wait over two years from the separation and filing of documents to find out how much she receives. How do you plan your life waiting that long? Will you get any money? How much you will have to earn on your own? The only ones who benefited from this were the attorneys, who may have taken more out of the marriage than Heather did.
A pre-nuptial agreement gives both sides a plan to follow in the event something goes wrong. And, it lets both partners know that they are not being married solely for the assets they bring to the relationship (gold-diggers beware!). An agreement will also ease the concerns of family and friends, which appear to have contributed to the McCartney-Mills problems.
Most couples think that they don’t own enough things to make a pre-nuptial agreement worthwhile, but by the time either party has hit 25, odds are good that there are significant debts and some assets that both bring to the relationship.
McCartney was already a world famous musician, and Mills was a successful speaker and model when they met. Both earned more money than the average. So what were a couple who were approximately 55 and 30 at the time doing getting married without a pre-nuptial agreement? That document would have saved a lot of people a lot of heartache and legal wrangling.
