Why at 25, like so many different Gen Zs, I’m contemplating a pre-nup earlier than saying ‘I do’… although I used to be livid when my fiance first advised it!

A few weeks ago, out of the blue, my fiance Archie asked me whether I would consider a pre-nuptial agreement.

My immediate response was one of shock and outrage.

Why would this man ask to marry me, then only a few months later, suggest planning for the possible breakdown of our relationship? Was he ­anticipating a divorce?

How could he even be thinking about how our things would be divided up should we split? I was focused only on our wedding next summer and our future together.

Unsettling thoughts came flooding into my head. Did I know this man as well as I had once thought? And in the event of a divorce, would things go sour as we battled over our combined assets, modest as they might be?

And would he try to ensure I got as little as possible? As he, an investment banker, makes four times what I earn as a journalist, was he trying to ensure he got his fair share if we broke up?

Archie saw my fury and hastily explained that it would be a good idea for both of us. He suggested a pre-nup could ensure that if we separated, our combined assets could be split 50/50.

Why would Archie ask to marry me, then only a few months later suggest planning for the possible breakdown of our relationship, asks Charlotte Ambrose

Some 46 per cent of Britons aged 18 to 24 believe that pre-nuptial agreements are a good idea

‘I wanted to make sure we were on the same page and shared the same emotional and financial ­security,’ he told me. It began to sound like a good idea.

Archie and I, who are 27 and 25 respectively, have been together for three years and lived together for two. We’re transparent about our finances and split our rent, bills and household costs fairly.

We talk about our goals, with our main dream being to save for a home, which actually feels near impossible at the moment. So why not think about a pre-nup and plan for the worst scenario possible, while our relationship is in the best place it’s ever been?

You might ask what is the point of embarking on a marriage if you’re already thinking about a pre-nup. But Archie and I are not alone – a flurry of Gen Zs are turning to them.

According to the most recent YouGov poll conducted in March 2023, 46 per cent of Britons aged 18 to 24 believe that pre-nuptial ­agreements are a good idea. This is a 12 per cent increase from the 34 per cent of Brits in the same age bracket who said they would sign a pre-nup in January 2013.

Pre-nups are no longer the prereserve of celebs and the ultra-rich, like Kim Kardashian’s agreement with Kanye West that in the event of divorce, she should receive $1 million for every year of their ­marriage, or Brooklyn Beckham and heiress Nicola Peltz, for whom lawyers drew up a rigid agreement to protect the Peltz family assets, said to be worth upwards of $1.6 billion.

Beyond the realm of celebrity, savvy entrepreneurs have spotted a gap in the market and launched start-ups offering cheap, digital solutions for such agreements.

These include Wenup, launched in Britain in 2023, which draws up around 70 agreements a month, at the cost of £690 per partner.

Similar apps have launched in the US too, such as the HelloPrenup app, which creates pre-nuptial agreements in 90 minutes for $599 (around £443, although they don’t yet offer services under British law). Since it was founded in 2021, HelloPrenup has drawn up hundreds of thousands of agreements, covering assets worth $27 billion (£19.8 billion), it says. By comparison, a typical pre-nuptial agreement drawn up by a British lawyer can cost over £3,000 and take months to finalise.

With such simple online solutions it’s no wonder so many young people believe it’s a no brainer to spend an hour and a half thrashing out their post-divorce demands.

Is this a sign that romance is dead? I think not – it’s just yet another sign of my generation’s changing attitudes towards romantic relationships.

Around 42 per cent of marriages end in divorce, according to the Office for National Statistics. After the Divorce Reform Act of 1969, Britain reached a divorce boom in the 1990s, hitting a peak of 165,000 in 1993, as divorce changed, divorcees lost the stigma and women gained more ­financial independence.

So it’s no wonder Gen Z, born between 1997 and 2012, feel divorce is a real concern. Some 36 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds said they wouldn’t feel differently about their relationship if their partner asked for a pre-nuptial agreement.

Couples are also marrying later: in the 1970s, 77 per cent of people were married by the age of 25 – no wonder, perhaps, so many of these marriages failed.

Today, only 2 per cent of men and 4 per cent of women are married by the age of 25.

The current average age for a Brit to marry is 33 for men and 31 for women, meaning by the time the wedding rolls around, couples are more likely to have bought assets such as property or have other investments they might feel inclined to protect before saying: ‘I do.’

They’re also more mature and more likely to know who their partner really is. Before I met Archie, I never thought I’d get married, as I viewed it as outdated, transactional and pointless. This was partly influenced by the fact that I come from a family where both my grandparents and parents divorced, so I didn’t see marriage as any ­guarantee of permanence.

Yes, my views on marriage have changed over the course of my ­relationship with Archie and I plan for us to stay together.

But having seen so many ­marriages fail, I wonder if a pre-nup might be essential to protect my own interests. Nobody wants to build a life and then be left with nothing after a nasty divorce.

And while I don’t intend to stop working, I think many women feel vulnerable and afraid that in the event of ­stepping away from their careers to look after children, their partner might suddenly turn around, boot them out, and claim they aren’t entitled to any money as they haven’t been earning. Unfortunately, this does happen.

Yes, a pre-nup may feel unromantic, even sacrilegious. But I want to protect my half of the assets my partner and I will build during our life together.

What I do know is that I’m happy with the man I’ve decided to marry and feel open to having these difficult, and sometimes awkward, conversations.

Ultimately, I don’t think Archie would divorce me and leave me with nothing, but my own family experiences have taught me that people can change in an instant and act in a manner that makes them completely unrecognisable.

But, to be honest, when I tot up what I have now, I’m not sure that Archie would find much use in an array of ­leopard-print clothes, ­vintage heels and £75,600 worth of student debt anyway…