Basic Trope: One half of a couple asks the other to sign a prenuptial agreement, upsetting their partner by implying a lack of trust.
- Straight: Charles and Darcy are engaged. Charles asks Darcy to sign a prenuptial agreement. Darcy, outraged, accuses him of not trusting her and threatens to break off the engagement.
- Exaggerated: When Charles proposes to Darcy, he presents her with a ring and a prenup, in hopes of getting it all out of the way in one go.
- Downplayed: Darcy briefly gets angry, but signs the prenup anyway.
- Justified:
- Charles is much richer than Darcy, and/or he's concerned that she might be a Gold Digger.
- Charles personally doesn't care, but his business partners and/or family do, and they insist on him having a prenup.
- Charles has a lot of debt, such as student loans, that he doesn't want Darcy to be burdened with or have to worry about, should the worst happen.
- Charles was married before, and doesn't want this new marriage complicating whatever settlement may have occurred the first time around.
- Darcy gets upset because some of the terms of the prenup are unreasonable, such as a stipulation that she can't gain weight (with the exception of pregnancy weight, which she must lose as soon as the baby is born) or get wrinkles.
- Inverted:
- Darcy and Charles have a smooth and drama-free divorce due to the prenup they signed before being wed.
- Not only does Darcy not get upset about the prenup request, it was her idea.
- Charles asks Darcy to sign a postnuptial agreement after the wedding.
- Charles and Darcy have a Divorce Assets Conflict, seeing as they never had a prenup.
- Gender Inverted: Charles and Darcy get engaged. Darcy asks Charles to sign a prenup. Charles gets upset, and accuses her of not trusting him, threatening to call off the engagement.
- Subverted: When Charles presents Darcy with the prenup, she signs it without a fuss.
- Double Subverted: Charles gives Darcy the prenup, she signs it... and then gets upset afterwards, as the thought that he might not trust her sinks in...
- Parodied: Charles has prenups for anyone he's dating.
- Zig Zagged: Charles introduces the prenup expecting Darcy to be upset, but she agrees to sign it without a fuss. However, when she tells her friends about it later, they decry it as unromantic and a sign that he doesn't trust her. Charles, meanwhile, wavers back and forth between viewing it as a logical extra bit of insurance and a potential deal-breaker. They argue about it, then Darcy changes her mind and goes to apologize, only for Charles to offer to null the prenup and simply trust her.
- Averted:
- Charles never brings up the idea of a prenup, or it's handled offscreen without any drama whatsoever.
- Charles and Darcy aren't engaged.
- Enforced: "We need a way to break up Charles and Darcy and mantain the status quo, so let's have Charles pressure her for a prenup!"
- Lampshaded: "Women seem to think prenups take all the romance out of marriage!"
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: ???
- Defied:
- Charles' best buddy Richard thinks that Darcy and Charles make the perfect couple and convinces him to not ask Darcy for a prenup, assuming she would take it the wrong way.
- Charles donates most of his money before the wedding so he doesn't have to worry about losing it.
- Darcy is irritated by the prenup, but chooses to think rationally about it and not blow up over it.
- Discussed:
- "Charles, don't ask her for a prenup. She will explode."
- "Well Darcy, do you love me or did you just want my money?!"
- Conversed: "So, ever notice how nobody in TV-Land is able to handle the very reasonable subject of possible divorce without throwing a fit?"
- Deconstructed:
- The presentation of prenups as something "evil" and "a sign your partner doesn't trust you!" by the media leads to unneeded stress in Charles and Darcy's relationship, as Charles is torn between wanting the protection "just in case" and not wanting to lose Darcy over something he hopefully wouldn't even need.
- Darcy refuses to sign the prenup on principal, thinking it means Charles doesn't trust her or have faith in their relationship. Meanwhile Charles has a hard time trusting others because his first wife tried to murder him for his money, so all he wanted was a little piece of mind so he could enjoy his marriage without a voice of doubt in the back of his head. When Darcy refuses to sign it he assumes it's because she was just after his money after all, accuses her as such, and kicks her out. Preconceptions on Darcy's part have left her and Charles heartbroken and embittered.
- Reconstructed:
- Howard Stern recommends prenups on a segment of his show, which Charles listens to, and it gives Charles the confidence to ask for one. Darcy considers this shallow and calls off the marriage, saying she will look for another rich man to marry. Later on, Charles is engaged to Alice who is reasonable enough to agree with the prenup.
- Darcy takes a moment to reflect and decides that after what Charles has been through she shouldn't blame him for being cautious. She tells him that if it means so much to him then she'll sign it, and they marry.
- Played For Laughs: Charles fears there will be an argument, but Darcy is fine with it ... because it turns out she is the more affleunt of the two. She just doesn't like to flaunt her fortune, and Charles never asked.
- Played For Drama: Charles and Darcy's relationship has weathered several storms, with one of their greatest hurdles being his reluctance to trust somebody after having his heart broken too many times before. Now the two of them are finally engaged, but this argument puts one last hurdle between them and their Happily Ever After.
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