The rise of the prenup – and why so many of us are now getting one

Published

2 months ago

June 2, 2025

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The number of couples deciding to get a prenup is increasing, with one law firm telling Money it has seen requests double in the last year.

It is estimated that more than 20% of all married couples in the country have signed one of these agreements.

So, what are they, and why are so many of us opting for one? The Money team took a look…

A quick rundown of what a prenup is

A prenup is a legal arrangement made by a couple before they marry or enter a civil partnership, which sets out plans for how their assets should be divided if they divorce or have their civil partnership dissolved.

They are not legally binding, but thanks to a landmark ruling in 2010, courts are expected to uphold prenups that have been entered into freely.

However, courts are still able to make decisions on a case-by-case basis, meaning prenups that appear to have been entered under pressure or written up particularly unfairly might not be given as much weight.

Four reasons why they have become more popular

The landmark ruling

Prenups used to be associated with the ultra wealthy and famous, but after the Radmacher v Granatino ruling, people became more aware of them, Charlotte Lanning from Edward’s Family Law told Money.

After that decision, prenups agreed by celebrity couples made headlines across the country, making them appear “glitzy” and desirable, she said.

“When I was first starting out, I would do prenups on the odd occasion, whereas now we always have a couple on the go each,” the associate solicitor said.

Getting married later

While the ruling was a factor, Lanning thinks the more recent increase in prenups has been driven by changes in society. People are getting married later and are less worried about looking unromantic.

“The fact that people are getting married a lot later in life… means there is more to argue over,” Lanning said, explaining that the older people are, the more likely they are to own businesses, properties or other assets.

The bank of mum and dad

A lot of her clients were also relying more on the “bank of mum and dad” to fund big purchases, such as the deposit on a first home.

Lanning said this made wealth inequities more obvious, putting prenups at the “forefront of people’s minds” before they get married.

Changing attitudes

The Marriage Foundation thinktank has been looking at prenups for years, and its founder and former judge Sir Paul Coleridge told Money that changing attitudes were a big driver in the uptick.

“The old Victorian view was that it was wrong to have people talking about what should happen when a marriage broke down when the clear intention was to stay married for life,” he said.

“I’m a convert. I felt quite strongly that it was wrong to start discussing divorce before marriage, but I have completely changed my mind.

“People do quite often want to have a discussion about what should happen in the worst case.”

He explained that despite the stereotype of a rich man paying off a younger, poorer wife, that was no longer the case either.

“You find people getting married now are very established financially and have made a great deal of money on their own, and this is men and women,” he said.

“It’s certainly not only applicable to men paying women. Nowadays, it’s very frequent to be the other way around.”

Who is signing them?

Lanning said a typical client was often a high net worth individual, but it was becoming more common for young people who are in line to receive a large inheritance to get a prenup.

“A lot of the ones I have done recently have been quite interesting because it is more to do with future inheritance,” she said.

“One of the parties that is getting married won’t necessarily have the money yet, but the prenup is to make sure that if they do receive it during the marriage, that it is protected.”

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She explained that parents can be the driving force of these agreements, with many wanting to make sure their child keeps hold of their inheritance.

Then there are divorcees. Lanning said people who used her firm for their divorce proceedings will return when they’re considering getting married for a second time.

“We see it often with second marriages, particularly if the parties have children from a previous marriage or relationship. Obviously, the older you are, the more money you’ve got because you’ve had longer to build it up.”

Sir Paul stressed that prenups were not necessary for every couple, so people should consider them carefully before signing one.

What do they include?

A prenup can cover a range of topics, with Sir Paul saying he has seen some in the US that set out bizarre requirements such as the number of times a couple must have sex.

Typically, it will cover property, savings, inheritance, stocks and shares, income, business interests, pension pots, and premium bonds.

In the UK, a prenup cannot include child custody arrangements, personal matters, illegal activities, or lifestyle issues.

When writing up a prenup, Lanning said property was the most common point of contention.

“It might specify that a home becomes joint property or it will stay separate,” she said.

“When there’s not a lot of money involved, the court will normally be looking at what the weaker financial party needs in order to rehouse.

“You will quite often have a clause in there that says after a certain number of years, you can have a specific amount to rehouse, or you can have a property in a certain area, with a set number of bedrooms.

“It just provides a bit of structure to try to temper down people’s needs,” she explained.

“There is a broad spectrum of what you can assert. The whole point of it is to try to stop arguments later down the line.”

How long do they take and how much do they cost?

The simple answer to both questions is that it completely depends on how complex the agreement is.

Lanning said the general rule is that a prenup should be signed 28 days before a couple gets married.

She said it’s “absolutely great” if people contact a solicitor about a prenup around six months before their wedding.

“That way, you can get the advice on what they do, what the process is, and then a lot of couples discuss it among themselves to decide what they want to achieve. Then they come with their practical realities, and we basically make it legal,” she said.

“Any earlier and you risk the financial disclosure then being out of date, which doesn’t help.”

Sir Paul said that when dealing with a high net worth family, the whole process could cost upwards of £10,000.

But in typical cases, people should be thinking “in terms of thousands” for the final cost.

How should you handle having the prenup conversation?

While people are less likely to find conversations around prenups uncomfortable nowadays, talking about money can still be difficult.

Amy Harris, legal director at advisory firm Brabners Personal, said having a chat about prenups tends to be easier when the issue is family money or inherited wealth.

“A prenup is sometimes a condition of them receiving any gifts or inheritance at all; it therefore comes across less personal between the couple themselves,” she said.

“We find that having full and frank financial discussions at the start of marriage can be enlightening and a good basis upon which to start their future together – with openness and transparency and a commitment to dealing with separation as amicably as possible.

“It is also important to remember that these agreements often work both ways in terms of any provisions that protect the prior assets of one party, which can also protect the prior assets of the other.”

UK

Lucy Hargreaves was shot dead in 2005 – her home set on fire. A suspect in her murder is still at large

Published

3 hours ago

August 2, 2025

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Lucy Hargreaves was shot dead in 2005 - her home set on fire. A suspect in her murder is still at large

Britain’s most-wanted fugitive is still on the run – exactly 20 years after the fatal shooting of a young mother of three.

Kevin Parle is a suspect in the murder of Lucy Hargreaves, 22, who was shot dead at her home in Liverpool before the house was set on fire on 3 August 2005.

Since then, after many appeals for information, there has been no confirmed sighting, word or trace of him.

Two decades on, Ms Hargreaves’ family have had no justice. Two young men prosecuted for her murder had charges dropped when a judge ruled there was insufficient evidence against them.

In a statement marking the anniversary of her death, they said: “The way we lost Lucy is not something families can ever truly come to terms with – it is still incredibly difficult and painful to think about.

“Over the past 20 years, people will have talked with family and friends. A number of people were contacted by males using a phone that was stolen along with a vehicle used in Lucy’s murder.

“We appeal directly to them to please come forward. Now is the time.”

Three men burst into Lucy’s home 20 years ago today, shot her dead as she slept on a sofa, and set alight the duvet she’d been sleeping under.

It’s believed the gang were looking for her boyfriend Gary Campbell, who was upstairs. He fled from a window with their two-year-old daughter and then tried in vain to save Ms Hargreaves.

Mr Campbell had allegedly been a passenger in a stolen car that had hit and killed a young boy 12 years earlier, supposedly the motive for the shooting. He denied he was in the car at the time.

Howard Rubbery, head of the Serious Crime Review Unit at Merseyside Police said: “The family remain absolutely devastated by Lucy’s death.

“It’s important to note Lucy is an absolutely innocent victim. She’s not from a family of criminality. She wasn’t involved in criminality.

“The hunt for Kevin Parle is very much on, and we ask anybody with information, anybody who is close to Parle and knows where he is, to please come forward.

“There were three males responsible for this offence and we are looking for justice for Lucy’s family in relation to all three.

“I do believe that there are people out there who have yet to speak to the police, even though it’s 20 years on, who hold information that’s absolutely vital to our investigation.”

Police believe Parle, now in his 40s, fled to Spain where he hid among the vast expat community with criminal help.

Several years later, I tracked his movements to a holiday complex near Torrevieja, where staff convinced me he had stayed there for several weeks.

‘Huge value to organised crime’

Former Scotland Yard detective Peter Bleksley, who recently spent four years on a personal hunt for Parle, also visited the complex and said: “He was bold and he was brash and he had a girlfriend at one point.

“The police actually should have captured him there, but they were too late.”

He claimed he nearly caught up with Parle at a villa elsewhere in Spain, but spooked him into disappearing again.

Mr Bleksley hosted an award-winning podcast and wrote a book in which he chronicled his manhunt.

He said: “Kevin Parle has remained hidden because he is funded, protected, looked after and of huge value to global, serious and organised crime.”

Parle can’t be hard to spot – he’s well-built, 6ft 5in tall, red-haired with a face scar and, originally at least, has a Liverpool accent. Of course, he might be dead.

Mr Bleksley said: “I can think of many reasons why certain criminals would want to get rid of Kevin Parle because he could, in terms of evidence about the cases that he’s wanted for, should he flip and become a witness for the Crown, be highly damaging for a lot of very tasty criminals.”

Parle is also wanted in connection with the murder of 16-year-old Liam Kelly, who was shot dead over an alleged £200 debt in June 2004, a year before Lucy’s death. Parle was arrested and questioned, but then freed on bail.

There have been reports of the fugitive in Australia and Dubai, but nothing to corroborate any of them.

If he’s alive and if no one is prepared to shop him, what might lead to his capture?

“I think when he has a fallout with those who have guarded him, funded him, fed him, put a roof over his head and all of that, maybe even paid for his plastic surgery that could have altered his appearance,” Mr Bleksley said.

“When he finally has a fallout, when he’s no longer of use, then perhaps that will be the day that somebody goes, Peter, he’s here.”

UK

Rival groups face off outside migrant hotel – as asylum seekers ‘blow kisses’ at protesters

Published

9 hours ago

August 2, 2025

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Rival groups face off outside migrant hotel - as asylum seekers 'blow kisses' at protesters

Several demonstrators have been detained after rival groups faced off over a hotel accommodating asylum seekers in north London, with police breaking up brief clashes.

The Metropolitan Police has since imposed conditions on the protest and counter-protest outside the Thistle City Barbican Hotel in Islington.

The protest was organised by local residents under the banner “Thistle Barbican needs to go – locals say no”.

The group of several hundred people waved union flags and banners, and one man chanted: “Get these scum off our streets.”

A larger group staged a counter demonstration to voice support for asylum seekers, bearing a banner that read: “Refugees are welcome.”

People inside the hotel, believed to be migrants, watched on, with some waving and blowing kisses from the windows.

A man wearing an England football shirt was detained by police after getting into an altercation with officers.

There have been nine arrests so far, seven of which were for breaching conditions police put on the protests under the Public Order Act.

Rival groups separated by police

Another protest was scheduled in Newcastle on Saturday, outside The New Bridge Hotel, as anti-migrant sentiment ripples through some communities around the country, also flaring up recently in Epping.

The counter-protest in London was organised by local branches of Stand Up To Racism, and supported by former Labour leader and Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn.

Other community groups including Finsbury Park Mosque and Islington Labour Party were also involved.

Groups online that backed the original protest include “Patriots of Britain” and “Together for the Children”.

At one point, a large group of masked protesters dressed in black, calling themselves anti-fascists, appeared from a side street and marched towards the rival group outside the hotel.

The two groups briefly clashed before police rushed in to separate them.

Why are asylum hotels used?

The government is legally required to provide accommodation and subsistence to destitute asylum seekers while their claims are being decided, most of whom are prohibited from working.

A jump in the use of hotels since 2020 has been attributed to the impacts of the COVID pandemic, a backlog in unresolved asylum cases, and an increase in the number of migrants crossing the Channel in small boats.

However, the number of asylum seekers living in hotels has fallen recently, from 38,079 at the end of 2024 to 32,345 at the end of March 2025, according to the Refugee Council.

How police tried to keep groups apart

The police imposed conditions on both groups in London to prevent “serious disorder” and minimise disruption to the community.

Those in the anti-asylum hotel protest were told to remain within King Charles Square, and to gather not before 1pm and wrap up by 4pm.

Those in the counter-protest were to required to stay in an area in Lever Street, and assemble only between 12pm and 4pm, but were still in eye and ear shot of the other group.

Chief Superintendent Clair Haynes, in charge of the policing operation, said: “We have been in discussions with the organisers of both protests in recent days, building on the ongoing engagement between local officers, community groups and partners.

“We understand that there are strongly held views on all sides.

“Our officers will police without fear or favour, ensuring those exercising their right to protest can do so safely, but intervening at the first sign of actions that cross the line into criminality.”

Meanwhile, the protest in Newcastle was promoted by online posts saying it was “for our children, for our future”.

The “stop the far right and fascists in Newcastle” counter-protest was organised by Stand Up To Racism at the nearby Laing Art Gallery.

UK

Jon Ruben remanded into custody on child cruelty charges after children fell ill at summer camp

Published

15 hours ago

August 2, 2025

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Jon Ruben remanded into custody on child cruelty charges after children fell ill at summer camp

A man has been remanded into custody charged with child cruelty offences after allegedly lacing sweets with sedatives.

Jon Ruben, 76, of Ruddington, Nottinghamshire, appeared at Leicester Magistrates’ Court on Saturday after youngsters fell ill at a summer camp in Stathern, Leicestershire.

He has been charged with three counts of wilfully assaulting, ill-treating, neglecting, abandoning or exposing children in a manner likely to cause them unnecessary suffering or injury to health.

The charges relate to three boys at the camp between 25-29 July.

Ruben spoke only to confirm his name, age and address.

Police received a report of children feeling unwell at a camp being held at Stathern Lodge, near Melton in Leicestershire, last Sunday.

Officers said paramedics attended the scene and eight boys – aged between eight and 11 – were taken to hospital as a precaution, as was an adult. They have since been discharged.

Police said the “owners and operators of Stathern Lodge are independent from those people who use or hire the lodge and are not connected to the incident”.

Leicestershire Police has referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct, after officers initially reported the incident as having happened on Monday, only to later amend it to Sunday.

It is still unclear when officers responded and whether that is why the watchdog referral has been made.

Ruben will next appear at Leicester Crown Court on 29 August.