After Richard Sides “Husband” and Barbara Sides “Wife” began dating in 1989, Wife became pregnant, and Husband agreed to marry Wife on the condition that the parties enter a Prenuptial Agreement. The parties executed the Prenuptial Agreement on September 17, 1990, and were married five days later. The parties divorced nearly twenty years later, and, following a hearing, the trial court agreed to enforce the Prenuptial Agreement and incorporated it into the parties’ Final Decree. Wife appeals, primarily contending that the trial court erred in enforcing the Prenuptial Agreement. For the reasons that follow, we affirm. The record reveals that Husband and Wife met in 1978, and, in 1989, Husband and Wife began dating. At that time, Wife was a flight attendant who lived in a small apartment and drove a car that was leased in her father’s name, and Husband owned his own telecommunications company, MIS Associates, Inc. “MIS”, and had a net worth of approximately $4.2 million. Over the course of their marriage, the parties’ estate grew in value to roughly $8 million. Under the parties’ Prenuptial Agreement, Wife would have been entitled to substantially more resources if the parties divorced after their twenty-year anniversary, and substantially less if the parties divorced prior to their twenty-year anniversary. After the parties’ child began college, on January 29, 2010, Husband filed a Complaint for Divorce and a Motion to Enforce the Prenuptial Agreement. The trial court agreed to enforce the Agreement, and Husband and Wife’s divorce was finalized sixty-two days prior to the couple’s twenty-year anniversary, leaving Wife with her car and $250,000 payable in installments of $25,000 per year for ten years, as opposed to a larger share of the parties’ estate.
1. Wife’s arguments to the contrary notwithstanding, the trial court correctly found that the parties’ Prenuptial Agreement was enforceable. Three factors are to be considered in deciding the validity of a prenuptial agreement: “1 Was the agreement obtained through fraud, duress or mistake, or through misrepresentation or nondisclosure of material facts 2 Is the agreement unconscionable 3 Have the facts and circumstances changed since the agreement was executed, so as to make its enforcement unfair and unreasonable” Scherer v. Scherer , 249 Ga. 635, 641 3 292 SE2d 662 1982. “Whether an agreement is enforceable in light of these criteria is a decision made in the trial court’s sound discretion. Cit.” Alexander v. Alexander , 279 Ga. 116, 117 610 SE2d 48 2005. Mallen v. Mallen , 280 Ga. 43, 43-44 622 SE2d 812 2005.
