Prenups, or pre-nuptial agreements, don't always have the most positive connotation. 

While they are legal agreements entered into by couples before marriage — often to keep finances separate despite being otherwise legally joined  — they can be a touchy subject for couples starting to build a life together.

But that stigma seems to be fading away. A new report from The Harris Poll said that this year, 15% of U.S. adults surveyed signed a prenup, which is up from just 3% in 2010. It also found that 35% of unmarried people say they're likely to sign a prenup in the future.

In the Americas, prenups go back to 17th century Canada, when French colonist men married women who came to the country with financial assistance from King Louis XIV. These women were so highly sought after that they were able to convince their husbands to sign prenups. This came at a time when men outnumbered women, so women had a leg up. Eventually that gender ratio evened out, and prenups went away.

They got popular again in the U.S. much later. A 1970 Florida case Posner v Posner ruled that prenups should be a standard practice.

One big possible factor in their usage today is the fact that millennials now have more debt than previous generations. One survey found that nearly three quarters of millennials have over $100,000 in debt on average, not including mortgages. 

The most common debt is credit card debt followed by student loans. There's also medical debt and personal loans. 

Prenups can protect your partner from taking on your debt in the case of death of divorce. In some states, your spouse can be held accountable for all of your debt acquired during the marriage.

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Kelly Chang Rickert is a family law attorney in California who specializes in prenups, and she sees debt come up in divorce cases all the time.  

"It's not unusual for me to have a divorce where one side has a Neiman Marcus card and charged up $70,000, and the other side... they are responsible for half the debt because it was acquired during the marriage," Chang Rickert said.

But the breakdown of who's responsible for what differs from state to state. For instance, some states are community property states, meaning unless you sign a prenup, everything acquired during the marriage must be split 50/50. That's how things work in Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin.

In other states, laws differ. There can be different rules around what makes prenups enforceable. For example, in Connecticut there's a specific window of time between when the prenup is presented and when the marriage happens for it to hold up. So, it's important to see what a state requires beforehand.

Another reason more people could be getting prenups is because they're getting married later in life and have more assets to protect coming into the marriage. According to Pew, in 2019 the average age a man first got married was 30, and for women it was 28. That's three years later for both men and women compared to 2003 and four years later than 1987.

"These days, a lot of people work for themselves," Chang Rickert said. "If you're a social media influencer or you're an artist or you're a writer, a lot of people make money off their creative efforts. So if they have a business coming into the marriage, a lot of them don't want to share that in case it doesn't work out."

This leads to the question of how finances are split. This determines what a prenup could look like. In the 70s and 80s, it was common practice to put all your money into shared accounts with your spouse. But over the past several years, the number of married couples who keep some of their finances separate has risen.

Experts say if couples have a joint account for things they share, they can opt to keep everything else separate, and in the case of divorce, they'll only have to worry about dividing the joint account. But it's important to note that separate accounts won't stay separate unless a prenup is signed stating that.  

"Even if you don't have a prenup, you kind of do: It's called the law," Chang Rickert said. "So if you don't have a prenup, you're just going by what your state law says. California says community property, so your debt is my debt. That's what the state law says. So if you don't like that, then you should craft your own."

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Rickert Chang recommends getting a prenup ideally a year before your wedding. She also points out a few pros of prenups. For one, the stereotypical scenario we see in movies where a rich guy asks his fiancé to sign a prenup — it could actually be a good thing.  

"If you were smart about it, and the guy's like, 'I want you to sign a prenup saying I don't want community,' then what you could do is you can negotiate it," Chang Rickert said. "You could be like, 'Fine, I won't touch your stuff, but in lieu of that, I would like 50,000 a year or 1,000, 100,000 a year,' and that way you can negotiate, and you can actually get money by agreeing to sign a prenup."

There's also certain professions where it's strongly encouraged to protect the other person. 

"Definitely lawyers or doctors, I think you should always get prenup," Chang Rickert said. "Not just only because it's my business — I don't want you taking half of it, but also it's a business that I can get sued on. So, I would like to protect you from any lawsuits that I might get."

As prenups have become more common, more people have dug into this topic on social media platforms like TikTok. Chang Rickert has an account of her own where she educates people on prenups to help break down myths and stigmas, including that they aren't just for rich people and not just in case of divorce.

Now, there aren't necessarily more divorces now. CDC data shows that divorces declined between 2000 and 2020. 

However in the case of a divorce, not signing a prenup could really pile on to the cost of divorce, which can already be pretty high, costing between $15,000 to $20,000 on average.

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Nearly 17 years after being sentenced to die, Scott Peterson was resentenced to life without parole Wednesday during an emotional hearing in which family members of his slain pregnant wife, Laci, called him out for the killing in 2002 and his apparent lack of remorse.

“I still feel the grief every day, after 19 years,” said her mother, Sharon Rocha. “Your evil, self-centered, unforgiveable selfish act ended two beautiful souls. And for what reason? There was no reason other than that you just didn’t want them anymore. You didn’t want a baby nor the responsibility of being a father. You’re a coward."

“I have dreams about her,” she added about her daughter, who was 27 and eight months pregnant when she was killed carrying the boy the couple planned to name Connor. “And sometimes when I wake up, I cry because they’re so realistic and I know I’ll never see her again.”

Laci Peterson's brother and sister, Brent Rocha and Amy Rocha, added their own emotional comments during the hearing.

The California Supreme Court ruled a year ago that Peterson's jury was improperly screened for bias against the death penalty. Stanislaus County District Attorney Birgit Fladager, who came to fame as one of three prosecutors in Peterson’s trial, opted this time to settle for life without parole.

Peterson’s attorney, Pat Harris, said his client has shown no remorse because he’s not guilty. He said, as he has in the past, that the defense can now prove that burglars were nearby on the day Laci disappeared — though investigators say they were ruled out as suspects.

Peterson was uniformly described as a loving husband and expectant father, Harris said, until it became public that he was having an affair at the time of his wife’s disappearance.

Then “he quickly became the most hated man in America,” Harris said, with a billboard outside the courtroom asking if he was a “man or monster.”

Peterson was prepared to speak, something Peterson didn’t do during his initial trial and sentencing, Harris said, but Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine Massullo didn't allow it.

Peterson’s supporters were in the courtroom to show their support, but they were not allowed to speak.

Massullo resentenced Peterson without adding her own significant comment. She is separately considering if Peterson was prejudiced by juror misconduct.

But she opted to resentence Peterson first, over the objections of his lawyers, to resolve a problem with his status.

He had been in San Quentin State Prison, home to California’s death row, since he was condemned to death in March 2005. That followed his conviction in November 2004 during a trial that was moved 90 miles to San Mateo County because of worldwide publicity.

But Massullo said he couldn’t stay on death row once prosecutors said they would not again seek his execution. He was moved to the county jail for resentencing and is expected to remain there until Massullo decides on whether he should get a new trial.

She plans about a weeklong hearing from Feb. 25 through March 4 to hear defense claims that the woman known as Juror 7 falsely answered questions during the selection process.

They say she actively sought to join the jury and later co-authored a book on the case. Richelle Nice has not been named in court papers but co-authored the book with six other jurors.

Defense lawyers contend she was biased because she had been a crime victim, which she did not disclose during jury selection. They learned only later that she had been beaten by a boyfriend in 2001 while she was pregnant. She obtained a restraining order during another pregnancy against a boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend because she was fearful the woman would harm her unborn child.

Nice said in a court filing that she didn’t think the restraining order was a lawsuit that she had to disclose on her jury form, nor did she “feel ‘victimized’ the way the law might define that term.”

Massullo will have 90 days after next year’s hearing to decide if Peterson should get a new trial.

Prosecutors say Peterson took his wife’s body from their Modesto home on Christmas Eve 2002 and dumped her from his fishing boat into the San Francisco Bay, where they washed ashore in April 2003.

Defense attorneys say new evidence points to nearby burglars, though investigators say they were ruled out as suspects.

Supreme Court justices said in their August 2020 decision overturning his death sentence that there was considerable circumstantial evidence incriminating Peterson in the first-degree murder of Laci and the second-degree murder of Connor.

It included that the bodies washed ashore near where Peterson admitted he was fishing on the day they disappeared. He had researched ocean currents, bought a boat without telling anyone, and couldn’t explain what type of fish he was trying to catch that day.

Also, in the weeks after Laci disappeared but before the bodies washed ashore, he sold his wife’s car, looked into selling their house, and turned the baby nursery into a storage room.

Peterson was eventually arrested after Amber Frey, a massage therapist living in Fresno, told police that they had begun dating a month before his wife’s death, but that he had told her his wife was dead.

Related video above: Man wins the lottery with a ticket he forgot he even bought A Missouri couple is $2.4 million richer thanks to a persistent wife."My wife forced me to pull over and buy a Lottery ticket because I was wanting to get home and watch the football game," her husband told Missouri Lottery officials on Thursday. "So I pulled over and bought the Lottery ticket out of frustration."The lucky couple, from Jackson County, purchased a Lotto Quick Pick ticket from Casey's General Store in Grain Valley. They matched all six numbers in the Oct. 23 drawing and were the sole winners.The odds of matching 6 of 6 numbers is 1 in 3,529,526, according to lottery officials.Of course, the chances of your spouse pestering you are much higher. But sometimes it pays to listen.

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – A camera captured the heartwarming moment a 90-year-old woman reunited with her husband after overcoming COVID-19.

Hooverwood Living in Indianapolis says Joyce spent about a month away from her love Don as she battled the coronavirus in their COVID-19 unit.

“I have to cry from happiness,” said Don as he reunited with his wife.

During the emotional reunion, staff helped Joyce get out of her wheelchair to give Don a long overdue hug.

In the video posted by the nursing home, Joyce can be heard saying “I look so terrible,” but her husband reassures her that she “looks so beautiful.” Joyce responds with, “how can you be so cute?”

The couple’s grandson, David Klaus, wrote in a Facebook post that Don is Joyce’s “true love of 67 years.”

“She and her beloved husband Don have been separated this whole time, which proved heartbreaking for us to witness their resulting loneliness and loss of hope at times,” wrote Klaus.

Klaus says his family lives down the street from the nursing home and they ride their bikes most days to speak to Joyce and Don through the windows to keep them company.

HAMILTON, Ohio —

The West Chester man accused of murdering four family members will not stand trial in May, as planned.

The coronavirus pandemic has caused the capital murder trial to get pushed back to October.

Gurpreet Singh is accused of murdering his wife, Shalinderjit Kaur, and her parents, Hakiakat Singh Pannag and Parmjit Kaur. Shalinderjit Kaur's aunt, Amarjit Kaur, was also killed inside a West Chester apartment in April 2019.

The trial would require selecting 12 jurors and a handful of alternates.

"I just don't see us being able to get 16 people to sit with us for three weeks, away from their families, sitting next to strangers," said Butler County Common Pleas Judge Greg Howard. "Further complicated by the fact, if we are able to do that, what happens if in the middle of trial, a juror says, 'I'm not feeling well. I've lost my sense of taste and smell,' and we have to quarantine everybody."

Howard said in other cases, jurors have expressed concerns with coming into a courtroom during a pandemic, even with safety protocols in place.

Since the rollout of the vaccines isn't going as quickly as people hoped, he said it might be better to move the trial date.

Neither prosecutors and defense attorneys objected to postponing Singh's trial.

"We echo the same concerns where if we have a juror or a family member of a juror or one of the litigants get sick or contract COVID, what would happen to the trial?" said assistant prosecutor Josh Muennich.

Defense attorney Neal Schuett said, "We too don't want some mistrial or to get halfway through and have to take a break and all quarantine."

Singh maintains his innocence. He is now scheduled to stand trial on four counts of aggravated murder on Oct. 18.

This is the second time the trial was delayed because of the pandemic.

It was originally scheduled for last September.

Family members of the victims previously told WLWT, they didn't like the delays but have confidence in the American justice system.

BOSTON (AP) — A memorial honoring Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King, is moving forward in Boston.

The civil rights couple met and studied in the New England city in the 1950s.

Organizers say fabrication of a towering bronze sculpture depicting arms embracing is expected to start in March.

The monument would be entitled “The Embrace” and would consist of four 22-foot-high intertwined bronze arms. Organizers hope to place it at the site of a 1965 civil rights rally that MLK led on the city's historic Boston Common.

Imari Paris Jeffries, executive director of the group King Boston, says the effort also includes an economic justice center and annual racial equity festival in Boston.

Jeffries hopes to demonstrate how public works can serve as a call to action following the national reckoning on racism sparked by George Floyd's killing last year.

Organizers also want the memorial to be the largest in the country dedicated to racial equity.

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Jacqueline Jackson, the wife of civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson, was released from a Chicago hospital Friday as she recovers from COVID-19.

Her husband remains hospitalized at a rehab facility, the family said in a statement.

"Our mother is leaving the Northwestern Memorial Hospital and coming home," Jackson's son Jonathan said in a written statement. "Our family is grateful to God and the medical team that treated her and that is allowing her body to continue to heal from the Covid-19 virus."

A family spokesperson confirmed to CNN on Friday night that Jacqueline Jackson, 77, had arrived at home.

"Our father remains at The Shirley Ryan AbilityLab where he is continuing to receive intensive occupational and physical therapy," Jonathan Jackson said. "We urge all who have not yet been vaccinated for the COVID-19 virus to do so immediately."

The couple was hospitalized last month at Northwestern Memorial in Chicago. The reverend, 79, was subsequently transferred to a rehab hospital to focus on treatment for his Parkinson's disease.

Jackson received his first COVID-19 vaccine dose in January at an event to promote African American confidence in vaccinations, according to a statement at the time from the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.

Due to the more dangerous nature of the delta variant, breakthrough infections for those who are vaccinated have been reported, largely among those who are older or immunocompromised.

Although Jackson was vaccinated against the virus, he previously told The Associated Press that his wife had not been vaccinated because she has a "preexisting condition" that worried them.

In February, the civil rights leader underwent successful surgery after being hospitalized for abdominal discomfort. In 2017, he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, a neurological disorder with no cure.