Well, at least we can sleep well knowing that Kaley Cuoco isn’t a total idiot, right? As it turns out, Kaley did have a valid pre-nup. We know because Kaley officially filed for divorce on Monday (after announcing her split on Friday) and she informed the court that she and Ryan had a valid pre-nup in place, signed a month before their December 2013 wedding. Apparently, they already know how they’re splitting up their assets.
Kaley Cuoco has officially called it quits on her marriage to Ryan Sweeting. The Big Bang Theory actress cited irreconcilable differences in divorce documents obtained by Us Weekly on Monday, Sept. 28. According to the filing, the couple’s date of separation is listed as Sept. 3. Cuoco, 29, and Sweeting, 28, who were only married for 21 months, had a prenuptial agreement. Both spousal support and property assets, according to the documents, were agreed upon in their prenup, one month before they said “I do” on Dec. 31, 2013.
Cuoco, who had taken her husband’s last name, is also requesting her name be restored to Kaley Christine Cuoco.
Cuoco, for her part, has remained in high spirits despite the end of their relationship. With her gal pals by her side, she dined at The Village in L.A.’s Studio City neighborhood Friday night and three days after Us confirmed their plans to divorce, Cuoco was all smiles on Sunday, Sept. 27, at the Bryan Bros. Tennis Festival in Camarillo, Calif.
Kaley is currently the highest paid actress on TV – she inked a deal last year that will see her rolling in dough for years to come, and I really do believe she makes more than Sofia Vergara now (given Kaley’s profit-sharing on TBBT, etc). So… I’m glad she got a pre-nup and I’m glad she’s using it. I feel like Kaley has a good team of agents/lawyers around her and they probably insisted on it, and good for them. I wonder what Ryan walks away with? My guess is his car and maybe a modest cash settlement (like, $200,000).
Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.
$200,000 for 21 months of laying by the pool…..
get money b*tch. *khia voice*
😂
Well, good for her! She has a brain after all! After I saw how Giada got taken to the cleaners by her ex and some other stars, you do wonder what people with means are thinking of when they get married without protecting themselves. Well, actually it’s rather obvious. They’re thinking with a very optimistic heart, and not a sensible brain.
Giada deserved to be taken to the cleaners because they were married for 10+ years, he helped her build up her empire, and they have a kid together.
never stop bringing up khia to any given thread, i’m yours
I’m genuinely surprised by this, but also relieved.
Me too. I’m glad she was smart enough to protect herself. Or at least she listens to her advisors
Yes, I am sure after impetuously marrying, and seeming so desperate to do so, someone must have grabbed her by the reins first, and told her to protect herself. Maybe a family member?
I literally blurted out, “Oh thank god!” at my desk.
wow, you must have been so worried.
I said to myself, “looks can be deceiving bc she isn’t as dumb as she looks.” Idk how any rich person in this day and age can take the risk of marrying w/o a prenup.
LOL. I did something similar
This is great, but in a recent case where an actor was the one with the great prenup Kaiser and Lainey/Sarah both seemed to think he should pay an additional lump sum to keep his ex-wife happy. Yes there was child and the wife’s tactic seemed to make things as unpleasant as possible and tried to deny shared custody in order to up the payments, but why is it fine to protect yourself effectively from a male gold-digger, but not a female one.
Even with an ironclad prenup, sometimes it’s a trade-off: stand firm with the prenup at the possible cost to your reputation and having all of your dirty laundry aired, OR pay extra and have the whole thing done. It may not be right, but it’s the easiest and quickest.
I think you should stand by what is right and draw a line. If you don’t they will come back again and again for more and that is just the sort of person who will continue to use a child to their advantage. It is blackmail and anyone who uses a child like that is beneath contempt.
That’s fine, as long as you don’t have any dirty laundry you’d rather not have aired publicly. Because again, it’s a trade-off. And a lesson in life that you need to choose wisely when it comes to who you marry and pro-create with, and make sure that you treat them well. You can draw all the lines in the sand you want, but better hope that you have nothing to hide.
For whatever it’s worth, I would also say that a female actor with a prenup, a child with her soon-to-be spouse, and some ugly things that she’d rather not have in the press would be wise to make an additional payout.
Kaley may also be wise to make an additional, but far smaller, payout in exchange for her ex agreeing not to badmouth her in the press. That’s good sense the way getting a prenup in the first place is.
But you don’t have to have to have any dirty laundry to be ripped apart in the press, a little insinuation is all that is required for the internet and gutter press to label you. Also, years of being nice to your spouse means nothing once the worst types of celebrity lawyer gets involved, it is all about the money. If you have been pressurized or tricked into signing an unfair prenup then there are legal steps you can take to challenge it. Beyond that, an agreement was made in good faith and it worries me that some people seem to think it is reasonable to expect a handout in return for acting like a decent person, or at least pretending to act decently.
Yeah shocked actually. Disappointed that she’s the highest paid woman on TV. Most people couldn’t pick her out of a lineup until she went on famewhore mode to get attention so I don’t know how she’s a standout on her show. Tried watching it several times but it was so unfunny, just like friends was to me. So I’m assuming she’s going to be the next Jen Aniston mediocre actress switching to movies and thus the famewhoring. I bet she will get a similar fan base of women.
Well now she’s free to try and “romance” a big name movie actor. Hopefully she learned from her Henry Cavill disaster to make the fauxmance more believable this time.
Although I don’t really like that show or Kaley, I would never begrudge her getting her piece of that pie. The network producers and production company are making a ton of money on that show, and as a sitcom in syndication, they will continue to take it in. The actors should get their share and good for her for taking that.
So she’s not a total imbecile. Good to know.
She’s been on a hit TV show before this, so of course she ain’t no dummy, she has a solid team of money people. They hold the keys.
there are so many people with so much money going broke, being on a hit tv show is really not sign you are not a dummy.
I’ve noticed that actresses tend to avoid going broke more than actors. I don’t know why that is, but it’s usually the men who seem to live large.
Perplexed, I’ve read it is because of a psychological difference…….that many women have a “bag lady fear”, that something horrible will happen and all their money will go away and disappear and they will be dirt poor. While I am not wealthy, I worked hard and had an executive career and was able to retire last year right before I turned 56. If I live modestly …..I’m OK for life. But I still have that crazy fear too.
Even Oprah admitted to having it, which tells you how crazy it is.
I would love, love, love to see a study done on this, Perplexed. Are women in general more cautious with their money? Is it because they work in Hollywood, where their career will likely not last as long as a man’s will, so they put money aside and save for the future because they know it’s not going to last forever?
Yes, I’m another single professional woman with Bag Lady Fear.
Only…it’s not just a fear is it? It’s a reality for some women. That’s why I can’t just dismiss it. It’s not just a silly fear, like being afraid of the dark. It’s a genuine possibility; it could happen.
Good for you @Dirty! Enjoy retirement or shall we say the your next adventure.
Sadly I’m a single professional too but a bit of a shopaholic…. therefore retirement will kick in when I’m 65+ 🙁
As someone who does not have much in the way of a retirement fund or a well-paying career, I am deeply fearful that I will end up homeless when I am old. My future is pretty bleak to be honest, so I TOTALLY get the bag lady terrors.
It baffles me that she makes more than all the other actresses on tv because she’s not that good and neither is her show. So weird.
I think she’s good in what she does. She’s perfect for the show she’s in.
Wasn’t Jon Cryer the highest paid actor and he wasn’t even good in the role?
I like Kaley, she had some dubious statements, but all in all, she seems like a good person.
Yeah, I think she’s a nice person and I like the show. If Friends could earn that kind of dough, so can TBBT.
No, Charlie got paid a lot more than the Sponge.
The show is Sheldon and Amy, Howard and Bernadette, her character is the least interesting of all.
Word. She could be replaced with anyone and people would keep watching.
You say that, but the pilot didn’t get picked up the first time. It was recast with Kaley and reshot (the rest of the cast remained the same), only then did the network pick it up, so she must add some value not just anyone could bring.
Yeah, the first girl they cast as Penny really wasn’t as good as Kaley.
If you want to see screen shots from the unaired pilot, I found them here:
http://bigbangtheory.wikia.com/wiki/Unaired_Pilot
According to the article, the only characters from this unaired pilot that made it to the series are Leonard and Sheldon. They had a character named Katie who was described as “street smart” and “tough as nails” , and a character named Gilda who has a crush on Leonard. The character Katie was cut because the audience thought she was too mean, Rajeesh and Howard were not in this original pilot.
I agree. I tune in for Sheldon, and now Sheldon and Amy. Out of all the four guys, Leonard is my least favorite, but they could get rid of Penny’s character and I would still tune in. Get rid of any of the others? Nope.
I think that in any comedy it’s hard to play the striaght person the rest of the “weirder” characters can bounce off. And she plays the straight character well.
I think she makes her job look easy, when in fact, it isn’t. Before the other women joined the cast, it was only Kaley, and she kept that whole thing together by grounding those nerds. We need Penny to play the ‘Everywoman” character in a sense–the one who responds to the scientists the way we probably would, only she has to be funnier, cuter, and sexier.
like Transformer is not good but it brings in money. TBBT theory brings in money. Breaking Bad for example was not really a profitable show, it was only for prestige.
so in terms of the market she is in its fair that she makes more.
The show has high ratings. That determines market value more than anything else.
Two and a Half Men always struck me as a pretty dumb show, but I know it had high ratings — hence, that little kid on the show making some decent money.
It’s all about ratings. It doesn’t matter if it’s good or not as long as people are watching. High grossing movies aren’t necessarily good, people just paid money to see them and that’s all the studios care about. If she’s an integral part of a hit show (again, hit doesn’t automatically equal good), then she’ll get paid a lot, especially if she or her team is good at contract negotiation, which it sounds like they are.
It not about how good an actor she or her fellow actors are. Infact that part is almost irrelevant. It’s about the fact that the show is a hit and it generates a lot of revenue which means the actors can be paid more.
If you think about it, David Hasselhoff was once the highest paid actor purely because ‘Baywatch’ was a hit show, generating a shed loads of money worldwide.
There are some very good shows, populated with actors with serious acting chops, that aren’t generating money and so they aren’t paid as well eg ‘Breaking Bad’ or ‘The Sopranos’
Plus tbbt you can safely watch in front of young children
Smart move.
I really dislike the idea of prenups, because – in my opinion – it almost seems like you’re expecting a premature end to what is supposed to be a permanent commitment.
I know x% of marriages end in divorce now, but I’m probably just a hopeless idealist.
Either way, I’m glad for Kaley that she did protect her assets – with the amount of money she’s making (I think I heard she’s one of the highest paid women in television of all time, someone feel free to correct me on this), even for a rose-tinted romantic like myself I can see that it was a sensible decision.
I don’t much like the idea either, but celebrities aren’t normal people and they have the kind of assets I can only dream about. If I had that kind of cash I’d want to protect it too, since I’m not stupid enough to believe that a Hollywood marriage would last forever. If it did, hey, cool, that piece of paper can just gather dust. But in the overwhelmingly likely case that it would not, well, it’s a nice safety net.
That’s the attitude that led to Paul McCartney having to pay Heather Mills to go away.
It may not be romantic, but marriage isn’t all romance anyway. If you can’t talk about worst case scenarios when it’s good, how are you going to be able to plan for the future? Estate planning, guardianship of children?
@ Amelia
Pre-nups are a really good idea for everyone, regardless of net worth. You can do a lot of estate planning in a pre-nup, setting up guidelines for situations other than divorce (like if one of you dies suddenly). It also forces couples to talk about money, one of the biggest things couples fight over that results in divorce. A pre-nup can get everyone on the same page about how assets and income will be divided and shared in a relationship. They’re really useful tools once you get into writing wills and trusts, too, because a good pre-nup will have already laid the groundwork and then you build from there. They are not sexy or romantic, but more people should have them because you never know what’s going to happen in life, and the more legal protection you (and your potential children) have, the better off you will be, whether it’s through divorce or because your spouse died suddenly without a will. (Also in the case of wills, if a will is challenged a pre-nup can be used to determine support for a spouse while the probate is settled, which can be a lifesaver in protracted battles among families.)
I see where you’re coming from but what if you have nothing? No real estate, no kids, old cars, no money to speak of. No inheritances either. We don’t have much debt, but we don’t have much else either. Does one write a pre-nup based on potential?
(Obvs this doesn’t apply to Kaley.)
You can. You write it in percentages, like “50% of earnings” and “30% of assets,” so that whether or not your net worth grows, the percentages hold up regardless. God willing and the creek don’t rise, you never need it, but even if you think you have nothing, you never know what will happen, and a pre-nup is just another piece of estate planning.
Thanks so much for this info. Very informative.
I stand to inherit a lot of money once my father dies and for my own livelihood for my golden years, I plan to have whomever I marry sign a prenup. The money will cover me for the rest of my life (I can live off the interest) and any nursing home expenses I may have in later years. I don’t have children and am 34, I think it is the only smart way to go. Yes, it isn’t romantic, but living off of social security when I have other means that I could squander is far stupider.
I don’t like making a will or even paying for health or life insurance because it pre-empts the fact that I might get really sick one day and die. Doesn’t matter that I have children and other assets and it shouldn’t be up to my family to look after or sort out what happens to them when I’m no longer able to.
It works exactly the same way. In fact, when my husband and I signed our wills and our life insurance it made me happy that we were thinking ahead and how to deal with things more easily if something ‘went wrong’. A pre-nup is the same. If you can forsee there maybe issues with assets if you god-forbid ever split, a pre-nup can help you sort out the little details while you’re dealing with your broken heart.
So the “it’s totes true love!!! Forever! No pre-nup needed!” was just another famewhoring tactic. All about the attention. Eh, fair enough.
I don’t know, I could believe she really felt that way and would have gone in without the pre-nup, but I think all the other people who make their money off her (agents, lawyers, business managers) wanted to protect the investment.
You would have to be a moron to have that kind of money and even if marrying for love not doing a pre-nup. Statistics would be against it…and an all legal/managing team. It can still be love. What is with this girl? Yesterday people were rejoicing at the idea of she not having a pre-nup and today the opposite is also reason to pile on.
She has a career, she is filthy rich and she decided to move in and marry with someone she barely knew…no one is surprised with the divorce. But what is really the problem? Maybe she thought it was time to get married and she didn’t feel like waiting. So what? She had no child that would be caught in any mess. I have plenty of friends who once they hit a certain age they decided they would marry in less than one year of relationship…some are still solid, some not so much. Not my taste of tea but as long as people have the money to do it and at least wait until they bring a child in the picture, I don’t see the big deal.
I agree. I don’t see the big deal either.
I have friends who know him. His family is wealthy. All this gold diggerish crap is just crap because people are assuming he is just a broke injured tennis player.
Sometimes people just assign flaws to others without knowing them. Maybe he was never after the money at all, but since her salary is so huge and widely known, it’s easy for some to assume that he is a gold digger.
Actually it makes more sense now, if he was truly after her money he would have been behaved differently:-)
Who knows what happens in a marriage? It was just a quickie wedding and maybe they both realized they are not compatible. He just came off across poorly because by all accounts he has been doing nothing for two years. Whether he was relying on her money or his family’s, he still doesn’t come look like a catch, you know?
He was injured waiting on his back to heal to go back to a job he had worked his whole life to do. Should he have gotten a desk job to appease her? He couldnt play tennis. If she was out of work for a year or two and money was not an issue would we have been riding her this hard? Gender norms still have everyone messed up.
Being injured or out of work for an extended period of time isn’t license to just sit around and hang out. Someone can still be constructive with their time.
And just because his parents have one doesn’t mean that he does.
His family has money, so that’s his accomplishment? A guy who has never had to work a real job for a high-flying lifestyle wouldn’t feel any sense of entitlement or marry a wealthy woman to maintain himself in the lifestyle to which he’s accustomed without any hard work of his own? Interesting.
Never had a real job? So playing tennis professionally isnt? By that measure acting isnt a real job either. My point is that he was obviously in the midst of a pretty shitty time professionally and that is not normally something that heralds divorce unless you get married just for the good and not the bad.
Umm sorry if you are an heir family money is just that…yours eventually. Otherwise why would anyone give a crap about Parish Hilton. It isnt like he has just sat there. He went to university and trained to play tennis professional tennis and then got injured. His family has businesses, how do we know that he doesnt also provide support to them. This is all internet villification on the basis of some tabloid gossip and you are calling him the next kfed when he willingly married her with a prenup and without a hint of controversy over it.
same with Natalie Portman. that her husband is more regarded in his profession in she in hers was not of the matter for people, he is ballet K-Fed.
The guy has over $1m of his own earnings as well. Not much compared to what she gets, but he isn’t hurting.
Aren’t those lifetime earnings? And wouldn’t he have to pay for things like a coach and taxes?
Hah..for seasons 8-10, she is getting over 1M per episode, think about that added to her earnings from seasons 1-7, plus endorsement deals..her level of money FAR exceeds his. It’s laughable how much more she has in the bank compared to his measly 1M from tennis career…she is on her way to net worth exceeding 100M and she’ll be 30.
One million in lifetime earnings as a tennis pro isn’t much. i saw an article which had the costs of an ATP tour player amounting to 200k a year.
Is she really that good of an actress? I just can’t picture her as the highest earning actress on TV right now.
I don’t think so, but then again I don’t think that’s the best comedy on TV either (I hate it). But it’s drawing huge numbers of viewers and probably has giant syndication deals, so she’s going to benefit.
No, she and most of the rest of the cast just got lucky. The show is typical lowest common denominator (very simple) so it’s very popular. Unchallenging and so bland you could watch it with your great grandma.
+1 I’ve never understood the popularity of this show.
My mother’s enjoyment of that show is proof that although we have developed a very nice adult friendship, her taste in entertainment remains unbearable to me and we should not trade recommendations about shows. I do not get it and do not want to get it.
She is the younger version of Aniston. Very good in this role in which she essentially plays herself: not very smart, cute girl next door.
being good and being the best paid is a huge difference. Merly Streep is no the best paid actress. the only one who came close is Jennifer Lawrence. usually you are either financially succesful or a critical darling.
There’s a long list of thespians that are undeserving of their pay scale. It’s the public’s fault for making it possible.
I saw her in Authors Anonymous..I think on netflix..she played to type but she was really pretty good. (The movie was just so-so).. separated on Friday, files on Monday..not wasting any time.
Is Friday when they actually separated, or was it just when it was announced? Because if they actually separated a few weeks back but only announced it last week, then that’s interesting to me. It’s over and done before people really had time to speculate.
Oh phew! lol, good for her.
Good for her that she got a prenup. Although, the gossip in me kind of wishes she hadn’t, because it would have made this divorce more interesting.
I know, I know, I’m a bad kid.
When I heard about her pay raise I thought that her husband was going to clean up if they divorced. So glad she turned out to be a very smart lady.
this doesn’t mean she is smart, it means she has a smart lawyer who knows when to convince a client to preserve their own self interest. Way to go Kaley’s lawyer!
But she was smart enough to get the right lawyer.
No kidding, but God forbid she gets credit for anything.
Wish she had stayed with Johnny Galecki.
+1 Maybe now they can have a second chance!
I didn’t really get why people were assuming she might not have had a pre-nup. She’s not Britney Spears level of dumb, and even Britney probably had a pre-nup (or maybe not). Kayley seems like average intelligence to me, and average intelligent people in Hollywood who are extremely rich seem to by and large ensure that they get pre-nups.
And to think, the whole thing stemmed from her being called out for bearding for Henry Cavill. What a waste of time and energy. She’s so fake and thirsty for any kind of attention.
a prenup doesn’t surprise me …do you think Aniston didn’t get a prenup? Its BUSINESS first when you have that much money – love comes second ….do you think Salma Hayek married her billionaire without a prenup:: doubtful. To me its just common sense no matter how fast or slow you take the relationship…….
That’s an unfortunate tan line.
Poor screwed up little rich girl…
I remember a few times on the View they would ask if she was dating and she wasn’t and said she would love to meet someone.
I think it’s just a matter of you’re dating for years, a few relationships, a lot of nowhere dates, and not with anyone at times, and you’re tired of dating, of the whole scene. You want to be settled. The Henry Cavill thing happened, and she was embarrassed. So she rebounded in a dramatic way, marrying too quickly when this guy comes along and acts crazy about her and she was crazy about him. The excitement of it translated to marrying too fast. But I think it just happened because of where she was in her life and it was nice to feel like she had someone in her corner and devoted to her. Someone will say, oh, she was only 27 when they met. But when you’ve been out there dating since 18, it’s a long time. People just forget how it feels to be out there in the singles dating scene.
I agree, I am 34 and would like the next man I meet to be the one I marry. I am tired of long term dating/dating that goes nowhere and I have been at it since 18.
“I’ve been dating since I was 15. I’m exhausted! Where is he?” -Charlotte York
I totally agree. She’s been working since she was a kid and has been dating for a long time. I can totally see why she would want to be settled with a nice guy and not have to be ‘out there’.
While Kaley has always struck me as a serial monogamist who doesn’t like being alone, she is apparently also very much into having a solid domestic life: dogs, horses etc. Who can blame her for wanting to be married and out of the dating game?
Thank God she was smart enough to get a pre-nup. I still can’t believe she’s the highest paid actress on TV. She’s not that great of an actress…she just got lucky with TBBT. Same with Sophia Vergara.
She was smart to get the prenup. Her future is secure. I agree with those above, male actors seem to squander their fortunes more quickly than female ones do.
Yes because usually women don’t blow all thier cash on entourages/excess drugs ect! Lol
I felt genuine relief when I read this headline, but at the same time, everyone was mad at Jeremy Renner for having a good pre-nup earlier this year.
Oh me too. It’s the only good news I’ve seen. Lots of “Stoopid Kaley, shoulda known! Tsk tsk”. Nice to see she wasn’t. In that
I don’t think that’s why people were mad at Renner. He married someone half his age to seemingly buy a kid to have with his ‘friend’. It was a lot messier.
I know I will get hate for this but so be it… the big bang theory sucks! I’m sorry but it is not funny. And laugh tracks?? Enough! Ugh. She is not a good actress and she has a lemon in her mouth all day! She made a mistake and wanted to get married. Whatever.
So glad she DID have a prenup in place after all. I’m wishing her all the best! Life does go on and things will get better . . . your best days are still in the future! (I can relate to getting married too quickly and having it quickly unravel and everyone just looking at you like, “Duh!”)
I’m glad too! Now here’s hoping Ryan was a stupid rebound, but that she and Galeki get back together … I liked them as a couple!
They seem like buds now from what she says. He was dating the beautiful Kelli Garner for a few years. She did that fairly recent Marilyn Monroe two-part TV movie, The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe, and I have to admit that she was excellent in it. I don’t know if she and Johnny are still together or not. I know he and Kelli went to Kaley’s wedding.
no idea who these people are. just had to say that.