Here's why Meghan Markle didn't sign a prenuptial agreement with Prince Harry

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By VT

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It seems like only yesterday that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle tied the knot in front of an audience of millions, so it's hard to believe that the pair have now been husband and wife for more than three months. In that time, the Duchess of Sussex has caused a stir by wearing some so-called 'racy' outfits at royal events, put up with her sister trying to muscle in on her new-found fame, and even gone on a secret holiday with the likes of George and Amal Clooney.

As for her actual marriage, though: it all seems to be going rather smoothly.

Despite this, there are still people out there who only seem concerned with digging around in the juicy - and potentially scandalous - aspects of their relationship; namely, why didn't Meghan sign a prenup?

With so many billions of pounds in the bank, you'd think that the royal family would have been pretty pushy about getting the new Duchess to sign an agreement about what would happen in the event of she and Prince Harry getting a divorce, but that doesn't seem to have been the case.

In fact, it turns out that prenuptial agreements aren't really the done thing amongst the royals - perhaps on account of them being so traditionalist.

"It’s commonplace with celebrity marriage, but this is not a celebrity marriage, it’s a royal marriage," said Katie Nicholl, the author of Harry: Life, Loss, and Love.

However, it's not as if divorce is unheard of in the family. Almost exactly 22 years ago to the day, Harry's own parents, Princess Diana and Prince Charles, finalised their own legal separation after the pair of them agreed to split.

In that settlement, Diana was granted a huge lump sum settlement of £17 million, plus £400,000 per year for the rest of her life.

Considering that Harry is worth around £30 million himself, it is likely that Meghan would receive a similar amount should she ever decide to split from him.

That being said, there is something of a loophole that would prevent anyone who marries into the family from walking away with most of the fortune, and that's the queen. Technically, she owns all of the family's most prominent assets - i.e. Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle etc. - so it's not as if Meghan can just demand to take Balmoral with her if any sort of divorce settlement ever has to be reached.

Plus, given that prenuptial agreements aren't really legally binding in the UK, and that any divorce in the royal family would be settled outside of a courtroom, it would have been totally redundant to get one no matter what.

For what it's worth, though, the pair do seem to be absolutely besotted with one another, and we sincerely hope that they have a very long and happy marriage. And if their current track record is anything to go by, it seems as if that will certainly be the case.