Someone pointed out to me that Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift are engaged and will get married. Great news! Of course, that brings up the prenuptial agreement issue. Will they have one or not?
They probably will, but hopefully it will be a Marriage Friendly one.
He’s a tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs.(I had to look up what a tight end was.) He has a nest egg of $90 million. She’s a singer songwriter who, by dint of her talent and good heart, has captured the imagination of millions of fans. Her nest egg is about $1.6 billion. (I had to write out the zeros to figure out how big that is.)
They probably will and should have a prenup. But will it be the right prenup, using the right process?
Yesterday, Jennifer Graham, journalist with The Deseret News, interviewed me on what I think the terms of their prenup should be, to make it a Marriage Friendly prenup.
Jennifer is a talented and seasoned reporter with over 30 years of experience. She’s worked for a number of major publications aside from The Deseret News, including The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Boston Globe and The Wall Street Journal. Based in Boston, she is the Ideas and Culture editor for Deseret and writes on culture, faith and politics. She authors the “Right to the Point” newsletter.
Here’s a link to her article on the Travis/Taylor prenup, entitled “Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce and the Prenup of the Century.”
https://www.deseret.com/entertainment/2025/08/27/taylor-swift-travis-kelce-prenup-marriage-advice/
Here’s some of what Ms. Graham said:
“It’s been said that America doesn’t have royalty, it has celebrities, and none are more celebrated right now than Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, who announced their engagement this week to the delight of the world — and the legal community.”
“Speculation is rampant that a prenuptial agreement is forthcoming, or maybe even already drafted, given the estimated net worth of the bride ($1.6 billion) and the groom ($90 million). Some attorneys are making suggestions on social media about what such an agreement would look like.”
“In another era, such a document might be seen as evidence that the relationship is already on shaky ground. Why would a couple about to vow “until death do us part” need to contemplate what will happen if they split up? Whatever happened to “divorce is not an option”?”
Jennifer goes on to say,
How a prenup can be ‘marriage friendly’
“Laurie Israel, a Massachusetts attorney who specializes in mediation and prenuptial agreements, believes that the collaboration involved in preparing a prenup can benefit the marriage.
In an interview, Israel, the author of “The Marriage-Friendly Prenup“ among other books, offered advice for Swift and Kelce, who are both 35 years old and have never been married.
They both have plenty of money — so much so that at some point they will likely have to give much of it away. “If they keep it all separate and don’t share money at all, I think it will weaken their marriage,” she said.
So, Israel recommends what she calls a “snapshot” prenup. She describes it this way on her blog, when looking at The case of LA Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford and his wife, Kelly.
“At the time of the marriage, a ‘snapshot’ is calculated of all the asset values of the premarital property. This amount remains the separate property of the spouse who owns it. But any gain in this property, plus all other property accumulated during the marriage, will constitute marital property (called ‘community property’ in California and the several other community property states).”
In other words, Swift would own her $1.6 billion, Kelce his $90 million, but everything else they earn within the marriage would become their money together — what the court calls “marital” or “community” property if a division should ever be necessary.
“If they don’t share money, they’re going to lose a lot of the connection of a marriage, I think,” Israel said. “If they stay married, they’re probably going to give away money and start foundations which they can do together. They’ll be true partners in each other’s careers and everything else. Marriage is about so much more than money.”
“Israel said a good prenup should also encompass estate planning for when either the wife or husband dies, and stipulate that if the marriage fails, the couple doesn’t go to court, but instead goes through mediation and collaborative law to end the marriage and then, if needed, binding arbitration, which is confidential, quicker and less expensive than a court-ordered divorce.”
Mediators should also be used to start a prenup, she said, because done poorly, and in an adversarial manner, prenups can destroy a relationship.
“I’ve seen it happen over and over again. I’ve had people come to see me because they broke up their engagement because of (a prenup), and now they want to try again.”
“Prenups can be very dangerous. Partly it’s the process — two attorneys duking it out, usually not caring about the marriage, but caring about money and getting the best deal for their clients and having the other person give up as much as possible. That’s not a good way to start your marriage,” she said.
“And what’s in the prenup can be very problematic, too,” she added.
When I spoke with Jennifer, I also suggested in order to create a generous prenup that perhaps Travis and Taylor should vest or transmute their separate property (their premarital nest egg) into marital or “community” property over a period of years on a daily vesting schedule (daily, so there are no trigger anniversaries where there would be huge vesting events) over a period of time — say 15 or 20 years. They both have substantial resources and strong potential for future earnings.
If there is a divorce, it should be dealt with in a noncontentious manner by setting a robust Alternative Dispute Resolution clause in the prenup (no litigation, go to mediation first, then Collaborative law, then binding arbitration). And as part of their settlement, they should each be able to retain their business interests, intellectual property and “brands.”
But hopefully they won’t get divorced. They need to think and plan for what happens to their assets upon their deaths and provide some sort of template in their prenup.
They are mature, well educated, talented, and fit the profile of people that can have a successful long- term marriage — an invaluable relationship. Money isn’t everything. Hopefully the prenup process and its result will not diminish their love.
#marriagefriendlyprenup #generousprenup #mediatingprenups
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