Would a Prenuptial Agreement Help the Terminator Minimize Divorce Damage?

The Terminator, aka Arnold Schwarzenegger, former governor of California, is possibly looking at one of the biggest celebrity divorce payouts in history. At this point, there's no way to tell whether his estranged wife, Maria Shrive,r will file for divorce, but she is allegedly in consultations with divorce attorneys. The size of the assets in question here is large enough for plenty of speculation from California divorce attorneys about how much damage Schwarzenegger, the wealthier spouse here, could take.

There is no information about whether Schwarzenegger and Shriver signed a prenuptial agreement before their marriage 25 years ago. Even if there was a prenup however, there are doubts about how watertight this could be. The two have been married for 25 years and have four children together. Many prenuptial agreements contain clauses that make them invalid after 10 years.

While Shriver on her own is a wealthy heiress, it's Schwarzenegger who's the wealthier partner. He is believed to own millions of dollars worth of stock, and enjoys a continuous stream of earnings from the intellectual property rights to his blockbuster Terminator films. He also owns plenty of prime real estate, including a gym in Venice Beach, California, a Goldman Sachs fund, as well as a publishing firm that publishes a string of fitness titles. 

Schwarzenegger may be able to contain some of the damage if there was a prenuptial agreement. However, if there was no prenuptial agreement at the time of the marriage, then Shriver could walk away with as much as 50% of all his earnings during their 25-year union. Before the marriage, Schwarzenegger was a little-known bodybuilder. Since his marriage to Shriver, he has made some of his most successful movies.