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For Valentine's Day, 5 Legal Lessons We've Learned From Celebrities

By Aditi Mukherji, JD on February 13, 2014 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, so let's talk about love -- legal love, that is. When it comes to love and law, there's no better source of inspiration than celebrities.

Whether it's about prenups or paternity, celebrities seem to have a special affinity for marrying the concepts of love and the law.

Here are five legal lessons on love that we've learned from celebrities:

  1. Prenups. This is officially the first Valentine's Day Lamar Odom and Khloe Kardashian will be spending solo since they met. But back in 2009, Lamar Odom and Khloe Kardashian signed a prenup before getting hitched. Albeit a difficult holiday for heartache, Valentine's Day won't be a day to brood about the legal logistics of their divorce thanks to their prenup, which may have spelled out issues regarding property, retirement, spousal support, bank accounts, and taxes.
  2. Paternity. From Khloe Kardashian's sister, Kim, we can learn the "law of baby daddy." Kim became pregnant with Kanye West's baby before she was officially divorced from Kris Humphries, making for a sticky scenario because California law presumes the husband to be the father. As a result, Kimye had to jump through a few legal hoops to establish paternity and overcome the presumption of parenthood.
  3. Name changes. As we learned from Chad Ochocinco, who reverted to his birth name for his fiancée's sake: many people change their names in the name of love. Just got married? Just got un-married? Just can't stand your given name? Rest assured, you can likely change your name.
  4. Domestic violence. Chad Ochocinco changed his name for his love, but he was also arrested for head-butting his wife. Valentine's Day is a challenging holiday for many domestic violence victims. As we learned from "Teen Mom" star Amber Portwood, DV victims can be men, too.
  5. Stalking/cyberstalking. Like the movie "Swimfan," celebrities know the ugly side of love: obsession. Alec Baldwin went on one date with a Canadian actress who then stalked him for years. She's spending Valentine's Day in jail. From Ashley Tisdale's "Super Tweeter" fan to Alexa Ray Joel's frightening Facebook fan, we learn a lesson on cyberstalking: creepy social media messages are not OK.

Ah, love.

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