Kelly Stafford got candid about how she and her husband, Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, decided on an amicable prenup agreement before they tied the knot.
“I had been with my husband for a while, but I was still young and very naive of this whole situation,” Kelly, 36, said on her podcast, “The Morning After,” on Monday, July 7. “We had talked about prenups even before getting engaged. I was very naive and was like, ‘I feel like we’re planning our divorce before getting married. I don’t really love the idea.’”
Kelly, 36, and Matthew, 37, got married in April 2015 after meeting during their time at the University of Georgia. They began dating in February 2009.
“But then again I had to look at the other direction and say, ‘Well, if we never get divorced, we’ll never need it anyway,’” Kelly continued. “So why wouldn’t I?”
As for the prenuptial agreement itself, Kelly said, “It was very fair. He was obviously generous in it all.”
Kelly and Matthew’s wedding came roughly six years after Matthew was drafted with the No. 1 overall draft pick by the Detroit Lions. He subsequently signed a six-year, $72 million contract with the franchise in April 2009 before signing a three-year extension worth $53 million in July 2013.
Kelly acknowledged that prenups often come with a “negative connotation,” but she learned to look at things in a different light, arguing that the legal agreement is an opportunity to allow “you and your significant other decide the terms if a divorce does happen.”
“I don’t think anybody thinks about it like the state has control, but they do,” Kelly explained. “At the end of the day, the government controls that contract. So to make your own seems way smarter.”
Kelly explained how drafting the prenuptial agreement became a collaborative exercise for her and her husband.
“Something that really helped us was, the minute we got engaged, we were working on it,” Kelly said. “I told him, ‘I don’t want to get near the wedding. I don’t want to have to think about it.’ Again, at this moment I had such a negative feeling about it.”
Kelly added, “I knew that I loved this man and he loved me. This is what had to happen. And that’s totally fine.”
Since getting married, Kelly and Matthew have welcomed four daughters: twins Sawyer and Chandler, 8, Hunter, 6, and Tyler, 5.
Matthew was traded to the Los Angeles Rams in January 2021.
In May, the quarterback signed a revised contract with the team that will see him get paid $44 million for the upcoming season.
