Should Katy Perry Have Looked At Her Marriage With More Business Sense?

After spending the holidays apart and not wearing wedding rings the news has officially come out that Russell Brand has filed for divorce from Katy Perry. And now on top of that we have found out that they reportedly didn’t sign a pre-nuptial agreement which means Brand has the right to half of Katy’s earnings. Katy had a fantastic career year, winning multiple awards for her album Teenage Dream, being named one of Barbara Walter’s  10 Most Fascinating People and hosting Saturday Night Live. It was a very lucrative year for Katy. According to Forbes, the 27-year-old “Fireworks” singer is worth at least $44 million, but some reports suggest it could be more. Brand is reportedly estimated to be worth around $15 million. Putting $20 million on top of that will be a very nice late holiday present.

Katy Perry is 27 and has been in the music industry for quite a few years so she, or at least her managers and accountants, should know a bit more about business. Heck, these are the people that helped her get deals with Proactiv, Adidas and Ubisoft, and develop her own perfume line. But they didn’t seem to think instructing her to get a prenup was necessary after she decided to marry Brand in October 2010 after a few months of dating. It is also quite amazing that their 14 months of marriage coincided with Katy’s most successful career achievements. During that time, she had five number one hits on the singles charts and was on the road for most of the year on her sold-out California Dream tour.

Now we don’t know if Katy may have considered a pre-nup but refused and could not be convinced by her team. We also don’t know if Russell may refuse to take all this money (though based on the success of Arthur, he may want to consider it.) But what we do know is Russell could get half of her hard earned money for less than two years of marriage. She has a great fortune and a lot of career momentum but this will still be a hit on her finances. In some ways, when you are working with this much money, as unromantic as it is, women need to think of protecting their hard-earned money, regardless of whether they have kids or not. Not everything is a teenage dream.