Elizabeth Petrakis Gets Prenuptial Agreement Overturned: How Much Does The Millionaire's Wife Get?

Elizabeth Petrakis, 39, is a Long Island mother of three who has won an "unprecedented" case, overturning a prenuptial agreement with her millionaire husband.

The New York Post reported that a Brooklyn Appellate Court threw out the agreement she signed with Peter Petrakis, four days before their extravagant 1998 wedding. The premarital agreement stated that Peter, who turned smoke shops into a $20 million commercial real-estate empire, would keep everything in his name if they divorced and Elizabeth would get $25,000 for every year the couple was married.

However, Elizabeth attests that the agreement included promises Peter never intended to keep. One promise Peter told the then naive 24-year-old was that he would add her name to the deed of their Old Brookville mansion.

As the wedding day continued to approach, Peter had another promise to ease Elizabeth's worry and ensure that she would sign the prenup.

"He told me he would rip it up as soon as we had kids," Elizabeth, who has since had twin sons and a daughter, told The Post. "But he never did. The reason this happened was I was an advocate for myself and I didn't give up.''

Dennis D'Antonio, the attorney for Elizabeth Petrakis, stated that Peter, 41, is currently worth between $20 and $30 million. Peter never made good on his promise about the prenup, and his failure to do so was enough to convince the courts that fraud had occurred, said D'Antonio.

And on Feb. 20, a Brooklyn Court agreed with D'Antonio and the panel unanimously affirmed two Nassau County court decisions, saying Peter "fraudulently induced" Elizabeth to sign the prenup and found Peter's "credibility to be suspect."

Now that the prenup has been overturned the two will push forward with their divorce proceedings that originally began in 2010, for which she has spent nearly $475,000 in lawyers' fees over the years, and her husband has paid more than $600,000. Elizabeth now may be entitled to half of her ex's worth when their divorce becomes final.

"I'm not a lawyer, but I think I have advocated for myself better than any lawyer has," she said. "My mission is to empower and protect anyone in this position. I know what to look out for, and I bring reputable professionals together to help," stated Elizabeth.