Another day, another celebrity couple calling it quits. This time, it is Dianna Agron and Winston Marshall. In case you are not familiar with these two, Dianna Agron starred in the popular television show Glee (of which she is likely feeling none now) and Winston Marshall is a member of the British musical group Mumford & Sons. For now, the groom remains Mum-Ford about the reasons for the split.
The couple were married for four years which is, legally speaking, a short-term marriage (although it may have felt like forever to them). The couple has no children. Agron likely regrets spending $20,500.00 on her brown embellished Valentino wedding gown hot off the runway but hopefully that is her biggest financial issue that comes out of the marriage.
In New Jersey (and I would imagine other places), for a marriage of limited duration with no children and limited financial entanglements, usually the parties choose to go their own separate ways both romantically and financially. In a typical case, the parties will keep their own retirement assets, bank accounts, vehicles, and debts, and go on their (hopefully) merrier ways. There is no obligation in New Jersey to waive rights to equitable distribution or other relief no matter how short the marriage was, but typically the parties in a short term marriage have not accumulated much together and they simply want to get out of the union as financially unscathed as possible. It is, of course, up to the parties to a divorce how they want to resolve these issues.
There is no word on what this celebrity couple will do with their finances but hopefully if wedding bells ring again in their future, neither of them will choose to have another three day Moroccan wedding because after such a lavish affair, the only place a couple can go is down!
The Family Law department at Cooper Levenson has many years of experience representing couples in both long and short term marriages with or without complicated financial issues. We are here to help.