It seems as if the divorce of Dr. Dre and his wife Nicole Young has taken on an additional dimension. The over 2-decades long marriage seems to have come to an end right as the quarantine was settling in all over the world, and it appears that Nicole is just getting started. Originally, it was reported that there was no pre-nup but now she’s saying that there was.
Dr. Dre is a legendary producer and despite the fact that he has other children with other women from over the years, he’d been married to his wife Nicole Young since 1996. She’s been alongside him through many highs and lows, including his historic sale of Beats to Apple, making him one of the richest hip-hop artists turned businessmen in the world. Now, she believes she’s entitled to half of it.
Originally, it was reported at the end of June that Nicole was the one to file for divorce after 24 years of marriage, citing the common “irreconcilable differences” as the cause. After over two decades and two now grown children, Truly and Truice, it seemed as if Mrs. Young had had enough of their union. As part of her filing, she also indicated that there was no pre-nuptial agreement between the two to split their assets, even with all of Dr. Dre’s success.
Heads rolled at the pre-nup revelation, since Dr. Dre’s worth a lot of money. As a music producer, he’s created the sound of the West Coast with his influential hits over the decades, with him being responsible for some of the biggest acts in hip-hop. He was also one of the founders of Death Row Records and was responsible for discovering Eminem.
Music success aside, it’s been his endeavors outside of music that have minted the majority of his Forbes reported $800 million-dollar fortune. In 2006, Dr. Dre joined with his friend Jimmy Iovine to create Beats Electronics and created the uber-successful headphone line Beats by Dre – which Apple then acquired in 2014 for $3 billion dollars. All told, Dre’s fortune, according to his soon-to-be ex-wife, sits close to $1 billion dollars, and she wants her share.
Nicole Young is a lawyer herself, which is what makes her filings around the divorce and the pre-nuptial agreement even more significant. TMZ has uncovered documents in which Nicole Young claims that she was forced to sign a pre-nup in 1996 before they got married, but that Dre tore it up a few years into their relationship – making it null and void.
“I was extremely reluctant, resistant and afraid to sign the agreement and felt backed into a corner. Given the extraordinary pressure and intimidation by Andre, I was left with no option but to hire a lawyer (of course, with the help of Andre’s team of professionals) and unwillingly signed the agreement very shortly before our marriage.”
Being forced to sign a pre-nup definitely sounds like something that would matter to a judge. Young then claims that 2 years into their marriage, Dre tore up all copies of the pre-nup that she signed, therefore there she is entitled to half of everything.
“Andre acknowledged to me that he felt ashamed he had pressured me into signing a premarital agreement and he tore up multiple copies of the agreement in front of me. Since the day he tore up the agreements, we both understood that there was no premarital agreement, and that it was null and void.”
Of course, Dr. Dre denies all of this, saying that the pre-nup still exists, he never tore it up and it is very much valid. TMZ’s sources also said Nicole, in addition to being a lawyer, had her own lawyer back then and she had a choice if she wanted to sign or not.
