In an action for divorce and ancillary relief, the plaintiff husband appeals from an order of the Supreme Court, Westchester County (Marbach, J.), entered January 15, 1986, which denied his motion for summary judgment with respect to the issue of the validity of an antenuptial agreement and to strike the defendant’s second affirmative defense and counterclaim, and third affirmative defense and counterclaim, or, in the alternative, for a stay of discovery and other proceedings, pending an immediate hearing to determine the validity of that agreement, and for a protective order with respect to the defendant’s discovery demands.
Ordered that the order is reversed, on the law, with costs, the plaintiff’s motion is granted, it is declared that the ante-nuptial agreement is valid, the second affirmative defense and counterclaim and third affirmative defense and counterclaim are stricken, and the defendant’s discovery demands are vacated, without prejudice to the defendant making such new discovery demands as may be appropriate.
The plaintiff and the defendant were married on August 15, 1982, and ceased living together in November 1983. No children were born of their union, although both parties have children from prior marriages. Each of the parties seeks a divorce on the ground of cruel and inhuman treatment.
A duly executed antenuptial agreement is given the same presumption of legality as any other contract, commercial or otherwise, and is not, regardless of the fairness and reasonableness of the agreement, burdened by a presumption of fraud arising from the subsequent confidential relationship of the parties (see, Domestic Relations Law § 236 [B] [3]; General Obligations Law § 3-303; Matter of Phillips,
