When Princess Kate walked down the aisle to marry Prince William in April 2011, there was no prenup in place – despite warnings in some circles.
Thirteen years on from their Westminster Abbey wedding, the couple are stronger – and happier – than ever, bucking a trend which has seen multiple royal marriages end in divorce, including Prince Charles and Princess Diana, and Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson. Indeed, shortly after William and Kate announced their engagement in November 2010, Princess Diana’s former private secretary Patrick Jephson remarked: “If she was my sister, I’d tell her to get a good prenup.” He further warned: “Kate’s not just going into a marriage, she’s going into a business.”
But according to senior royal sources at the time, no legally binding document was drawn up before the wedding to safeguard the future King’s wealth or ensure Kate is maintained in a certain lifestyle if they do ever split. And they outright dismissed reports that William was advised that a legal agreement would be a good idea but that had refused to sign one.
One source told the Daily Mail: “For him to refuse, it would have had to have been suggested to him by someone and it was not. There is no prenuptial agreement in place for this wedding.” In keeping with tradition, neither Princess Diana nor Sarah Ferguson signed a prenuptial agreement before their own royal weddings – but with differing results.
The Duchess of York received £15,000 a year from Prince Andrew when their marriage ended after ten years in 1996. But Princess Diana’s lawyers got her a £17 million pay-off when she divorced Prince Charles. Before her royal wedding, Kate was already relatively well-off, not least because her family reportedly inherited a trust fund estimated to be worth more than £3 million in 2014.
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