Getting divorced is never easy, but when celebrities, fame and enormous bank accounts are involved, splitting up can get really difficult.
Family law attorney Laura Wasser has helped many stars—including Britney Spears, Ashton Kutcher, Christina Aguilera, Kim Kardashian, Angelina Jolie, Ryan Reynolds and Heidi Klum—through the process of divorcing a spouse. She dropped by E! News on Tuesday, Oct. 9, to talk about her book, It Doesn't Have to Be That Way: How to Divorce Without Destroying Your Family or Bankrupting Yourself, and explained why she treats every divorce "like a business transaction."
"[I tell clients] let's do this in a way that we can keep your sanity and your bank accounts intact," she said. "There's no reason to turn this into some kind of a melodrama—particularly if you're a famous person, because we know it's all going to get played out through the media."
As for why some celebrity divorce cases seem to take forever to play out? "It takes a while because you have to compile information and exchange it, and then you have to make a deal," Wasser said. "I will say, when things take a long time, often it's because one party or another is not really ready to cut the cord."
And—brace yourself—any sort of "cheating clause" you throw into a prenup to protect yourself is "not enforceable!" She explained, "You cannot force someone to agree to certain kinds of behavior or to refrain from it."
Wasser's handled a wide variety of divorce cases, but she won't work with just anyone. "I would not represent someone that came to me with very unrealistic expectations," she said. "And I have sent people away if they've said, 'I don't want my husband to have any custodial time with our kids,' or if they say, 'I understand I'm required to pay child support, but I'm just not willing to do that,' and I say, 'You know what, you should find another attorney and they can blow sunshine and they can tell you all kinds of things.'"
"And in the end," she said, "What I'm telling you Is you are going to share custody, you are going to pay child support, so let's cut to the chase and make the best deal that we can given the circumstances we have."