Experts weigh whether her new husband has signed a marriage contract.
Former Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg married sweetheart Tom Bernthal at a wedding in Wyoming over the weekend. The big question is whether Sandberg got Bernthal. A former news producer Facebook billionaire who founded marketing and consulting firm Kelton Global, to sign a prenup.
“Facebook billionaire would be surprised if they did not,” said Debra Schoenberg. A San Francisco divorce attorney and founder of the Schoenberg Family Law Group, Forbes.
A spokesman for Sandberg, who stepped down as a chief operating officer of Meta Platforms on August 1 but will remain with the company as a board member. Declined to comment on whether she and her husband currently have a prenup.
Premarital marriages are prevalent among wealthy couples because “you want to have a plan to protect what you have,” says Brent Kaspar. Founding partner of the law firm Kaspar & Lugay, based in Marin County, California. However, since they’re both older. Sandberg will turn 53 later this month, and Bernthal turns 50. They may be a bit more strict about distributing their wealth, Kaspar added.
“You can come in and say, ‘Whatever I earned during the wedding, I’ll keep.’
A prenuptial agreement serves as a roadmap for the distribution of assets in the event of a divorce. Sandberg is married to a Forbes-entered fortune of $1.5 billion in this case. It’s rare for a billionaire woman to get her new husband to sign her claim to half of his wealth if they divorce.
Sandberg spent 14 years as Facebook’s COO. A pivotal role that has sometimes put him at the center of controversy within the company. He announced his retirement in May also said he would focus on philanthropy and raising his five children with Bernthal. Sandberg had 2 children with her late husband, Dave Goldberg, while Bernthal’s three children came from his first marriage. Goldberg, CEO of SurveyMonkey, died suddenly of a heart attack in 2015.