'Don't wait until you want revenge' - why prenups are on the rise

Celine Tsoi and Charles Mock met two years ago in Goleta, California when she was just 23 and he was 27. Eight months later they were engaged.

"A lot of things could happen in a marriage and you want to discuss them when you still love each other rather than when things go bad and you want to take revenge," says Celine.

These days its not just the rich and famous; more of us are deciding it makes sense to have a legal agreement that sets out what happens to the money if the marriage ends, with younger couples particularly likely to sign one, even when there aren't great wealth differences to consider.

Charles, a nurse, earns more than Celine does as a PhD student, but she had a bit more saved, so the disparities weren't big, but they wanted to face up to important financial questions from the start.

She was particularly touched that Charles wanted the prenup to say if they split up, she should have the house.

Just having the conversation "can show you what the person you're going to marry is like", she says.

There are no official figures, but in the US, where divorce courts have always tended to uphold prenups, nearly half of married millennials and more than one in three Gen Z report that they have a prenup. Overall in the US around one in five married couples has a prenup.

In the UK research suggests around one in ten couples now has a prenup, following a legal shift in England towards greater recognition.

Here too it is younger couples leading the way, with around one in three married under-35-year-olds having signed one, according to surveys.

London lawyer Mark Gilmartin at JMW Solicitors says in the past 18 months he has seen a big increase in demand for prenups, with the billionaire-and-barmaid stereotype fast giving way to demand from "start-up professionals" including entrepreneurs and influencers.

"It's the attempts to protect the fruits of what's going to be, rather than what is," he says.

But beyond the would-be TikTok stars, he sees a significant trend towards "every-day you and I" couples wanting them, often in order to protect inherited wealth.