Divorce Attorney Reveals The Most ‘Outrageous’ Prenup He’s Seen That Was Actually Enforceable — ‘This Is An Economy You Both Agreed On’
Despite acknowledging that the prenup clause was odd, he still considered the marriage a form of love.
Media_Photos | Shutterstock A divorce lawyer and expert shared that he remembered overseeing one specific prenuptial agreement that was particularly outrageous but still enforceable.
In a clip from the podcast "The Diary of a CEO" with Steven Bartlett, James Sexton spoke about his experience in exclusively dealing with divorce and how a certain prenup agreement was quite shocking to him.
He revealed the most 'outrageous' prenup he's seen that was actually enforceable.
"The most shocking prenup I've ever seen, which was enforceable, had a provision that said that for every 10 pounds the wife gained in the marriage, she would lose $10,000 a month in alimony," Sexton said. He explained that the husband was extremely concerned about staying in a marriage with a woman who was actively gaining weight, especially as he was going to become more wealthy.
The husband's solution to combat his wife's possible weight gain was to put a clause in their prenup that essentially forbade it. Sexton recalled that the husband wanted a specific clause that if they divorced, she would be given $70,000 a month for alimony, but for every 10 pounds that she gained from the start of their marriage, she would be forfeiting money each month from the overall payout.
"It was designed to sort of create an incentive that she would remain thin," Sexton continued. "That was enforceable, meaning they tried to challenge and set aside that provision. And the court said this is a disgusting provision. I don't know why you married this person, but it's enforceable."
In a survey reported by MSNBC via HuffPost, almost 50% of men said they would leave a partner who gained weight. In contrast, only 20% of women said they would end a relationship with their significant other for putting on extra pounds.
There's something incredibly unsettling about such a superficial condition attached to the idea of love. Throughout life, gaining weight is almost something that can't be prevented, no matter how hard a person works out or diets — it's sometimes genetic, hormonal, or related to health issues.
Instead of demanding that a partner should stay at a certain weight for the entirety of a marriage, there should be understanding and sympathy for the unexpected things that can happen in someone's lifetime.
Policing a woman's body, especially in the context of marriage, serves to these outdated notions and ideas that a woman's only value lies primarily in her appearance. Any relationship should be able to exist without such superficial and oppressive conditions.
He admitted that despite finding the prenup clause odd, it's still a form of love.
"Is it a form of love that I'd be interested in? No, I think it's very shallow in some ways," Sexton said. "There's something honest about it. I mean, you can't argue with the fact that there's something very upfront about it."
Sexton pointed out that this husband made it very clear before he even walked down the aisle with his new wife and wanted it in writing as well. He never lied about his intentions and made it known to his wife-to-be that this was her only value in their marriage — her physical appearance was the most important aspect of their relationship.
On the other side of the coin, Sexton insisted that the wife was also going to be receiving thousands upon thousands of dollars each month, a very impressive number that, for her, probably meant more than knowing her husband was only valuing her for keeping a thin figure. Sexton explained that she was more than aware of the value attached to the marriage, just in the way that her husband was.
"Do I have a right to say to someone that's not love? I don't think I have the right to say that to someone," he continued.
At the end of the day, as a divorce lawyer tasked with representing, Sexton remarked that he doesn't look at it through a moral lens but rather how he can help each person in the relationship achieve what they want out of the prenuptial agreement, even if it's something as ludicrous as making sure one person stays within a certain amount of pounds.
Nia Tipton is a Chicago-based entertainment, news, and lifestyle writer whose work delves into modern-day issues and experiences.