When Love Meets Legal Documents: The Prenup Revolution

50% of American adults are now open to signing a prenuptial agreement. That's not a typo—and it's not just billionaires driving this trend.

Gone are the days when prenups were the exclusive domain of celebrities and tech moguls protecting their fortunes from gold-digging spouses. Today's prenups are being drafted by HR managers, theater actresses, and recent college graduates who might not even own a car, let alone a mansion.

The numbers tell a striking story. According to a 2023 Axios/Harris poll, 41% of Gen Z and 47% of millennials who are engaged or married have entered into prenuptial agreements. That's nearly half of an entire generation treating marriage contracts like rental agreements—with terms, conditions, and exit clauses clearly defined upfront.

The New Face of Prenups

This isn't your parents' prenup. Modern agreements include clauses that would have seemed absurd just a decade ago. Social media image clauses impose financial penalties for posting disparaging content about an ex online. Embryo clauses determine who gets the frozen embryos from IVF treatments—and who pays the storage fees. Some even address relationships with AI chatbots, which lawyers warn could violate infidelity clauses.

Jennifer Wilson, a New Yorker staff writer who investigated this phenomenon, noticed the shift when prenups started appearing on reality shows like Love Is Blind. "I expected people to make fun of it," she recalls, "but everyone was saying, 'This is just financial hygiene. This is just being responsible.'"

The driving force behind this cultural shift isn't cynicism—it's pragmatism. 25% of millennials are children of divorce, making them statistically more realistic about marriage's potential outcomes. They're also marrying later, often with established careers, student debt, and complex financial situations that traditional marriage laws weren't designed to handle.

The App-ification of Marriage Contracts

Technology has democratized what was once an expensive legal process. Apps like Hello Prenup and First (launched by Sheryl Sandberg's former chief of staff) allow couples to draft basic prenuptial agreements for a fraction of traditional legal fees. These platforms use "lean in" language, positioning prenups as career advancement tools rather than relationship insurance policies.

Vivian Tu, known online as Your Rich BFF, went viral with a TikTok video titled "What's in my prenup and in my purse?" treating prenuptial agreements with the same casual confidence as discussing skincare routines. The response was overwhelmingly positive, with comments like "every woman should push for a prenup."

This represents a significant gender flip. Historically, prenups were tools for wealthy men to protect assets from potentially opportunistic wives. Now, many advocates are women encouraging other women to negotiate their "marriage compensation packages" with the same vigor they'd bring to salary negotiations.

The Optimism Bias Problem

But experts warn of a troubling paradox. Research shows that prenup signers often suffer from "optimism bias"—they don't actually believe they'll get divorced, which can lead to agreeing to unfavorable terms just to prove they're "not in it for the money."

Wilson interviewed a theater actress who insisted on a prenup that would give property to whoever paid the down payment—despite being the lower-earning partner. Her reasoning? "What if I book a show? What if I get a movie?" This kind of magical thinking, lawyers warn, can leave people vulnerable in ways they don't anticipate.

There's also the question of whether app-generated prenups can handle life's complexities. These are legal documents with serious consequences, yet many users are essentially clicking through terms and conditions without fully understanding the implications.

The Cultural Divide

The prenup revolution reveals deeper tensions about modern relationships. Supporters see it as realistic planning in an era where 50% of marriages end in divorce. Critics argue it represents a fundamental shift away from the "for better or worse" commitment that marriage traditionally represented.

Some divorce lawyers worry that prenups are becoming a privatized solution to broader social problems—rather than improving divorce laws or supporting struggling marriages, we're simply making it easier to divide assets when relationships fail.