Prenups are still common across the world, and America’s top divorce lawyer has shared the most outrageous one he’s ever dealt with.
A prenuptial agreement is a legal arrangement made between two people before they marry which states terms they must abide with.
Most outrageous prenup deal
During an interview on Steven Bartlett’s Diary Of A CEO podcast, divorce lawyer James Sexton revealed he once dealt with a crazy prenup deal where the wife would lose money if she gained weight.
“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,” he explained.
If they divorced, she was due to get $70,000 a month for alimony, but for every 10 pounds she gained from the date of marriage, she would forfeit $10,000 a month.
“It was to create an incentive that she was to remain thin,” the divorce lawyer explained. “He was concerned she was going to become less attractive and more wealthy.”
She tried to challenge the provision after signing, but the court said the contract could not be broken and the agreement was 100% enforceable.
‘Honest and upfront’
Sexton revealed it’s a very “shallow” form of love, but added that there’s something very “honest” and “upfront” about the prenup deal.
“He was making very clear and putting in writing, here’s the value of this relationship. I consider your physical appearance vitally important to this relationship,” he said.
The divorce lawyer claimed in that situation, he didn’t have a right to say it wasn’t love, but it’s not something he would be interested in.
Do looks really matter?
The prenup deal raises the question: do looks really matter in a relationship? Well, psychologist Lucy Beresford says yes. She told Metro that looks “go beyond words and are the first things we can assess someone on”.
“From birth, our brains seek out traits such as symmetry, a genuine smile, or the shapes of faces that can suggest strength or kindness, and all of this is happening on an unconscious, pre-verbal level,” she explained.
A 2017 study asked mothers and daughters to choose potential partners using photographs and personality profiles and concluded that physical attractiveness strongly influenced how both groups of women saw the target men.
The attractive and moderately attractive ones came up on top, and the men with the most most desirable personality profiles were only rated more favourably than their counterparts when they were also at least moderately attractive.
James Sexton is an American attorney practising in divorce and family law in the New York metropolitan area.
