Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos recently announced that he and his wife Mackenzie are getting a divorce. This immediately ignited a fire of rumors and speculation on how spouses would share their rather big (to say the least) property. After all, Bezos is the richest man in the world according to Forbes magazine.
Although there are no details about Bezos’s divorce proceedings yet, the tech magnate may be on a long list of celebrities who cost millions or even billions of dollars to divorce, including Paul McCartney, Madonna, Tiger Woods and others. We present to you the most expensive divorce proceedings of all time.
10. Mel and Robin Gibson - $ 425 million
Mel Braveheart Gibson bravely parted with half his fortune, estimated at $ 850 million when he divorced his wife. Robin is entitled not only to 50% of the ex-husband’s wealth, but also to half of any future income from his films.
9. Craig and Wendy McCaw - $ 460 million
Businessman Craig McCaw is the embodiment of the American dream of a man who "made himself." At the age of 19, he headed the rock and roll radio station, which belonged to his deceased father, and a few years later managed to turn it from a "provincial" with 4 thousand subscribers into one of the country's most famous cable television operators.
For a long time, he was included in the list of the richest Americans according to Forbes, having left there only in 2016. But who knows, this would have happened if Craig’s welfare had not shaken the divorce from his first wife, Wendy. They broke up in 1997, after a 23-year marriage. Craig gave almost half a billion dollars to his ex-wife.
As part of the divorce settlement, Wendy received most of her payments in the form of Nextel shares. This allowed her to buy the Santa Barbara News-Press from The New York Times.
8. Dmitry and Elena Rybolovleva - $ 604 million.
It’s bad if you owe your former 604 million “evergreen” American presidents. But it’s good that the amount of "repurchase" did not amount to 4.5 billion dollars. Exactly such an astronomical sum was to be received by the ex-wife of the Russian oligarch according to the decision of the Geneva court.
Of course, the businessman challenged this decision, and the second instance reduced the amount of payment to Elena to 604 million dollars. In addition to this woman, two houses went to Switzerland. As they say: a trifle, but nice.
7. Stephen and Elaine Wynn - $ 741 million
In March 2009, Las Vegas gaming tycoon Stephen Wynn filed for divorce from his wife Elaine and had to pay her about $ 741 million.
In fact, this is the second time the couple divorced - the first of them was in 1986. And five years later, the Vinnas remarried, and divorced again in 2009. It is curious that, despite family squabbles, Elaine remained a member of the board of directors in the company of her husband until 2015.
6. Adnan and Soraya Khashoggi - $ 874 million
In 1961, a young 20-year-old Englishwoman Sandra Daly (converted to Islam and the name Soraya) married international arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi. Not only did Soraya become the mother of five children during their 13-year marriage, she was also Adnan's business partner. However, their marriage ended abruptly in 1974, while Khashoggi promised to continue financially supporting his ex-wife and children's lifestyle after the divorce. Adnan lost his status as a billionaire, and Soraye went on a nearly $ 1 billion bill.
5. Harold and Sue Ann Ham - $ 1 billion.
The oil tycoon, the owner of Continental Resources and his wife, have never had a cloudless relationship. In 1998, Mr. Ham filed for divorce. And in 2005, Mrs. Ham intended to break the marriage bond.
Both times, the marriage was saved, but in 2012 the couple nevertheless began the divorce process. Sue Ann motivated this by cheating on Harold. In 2014, the couple finally reached an agreement on the division of property. Freedom cost the businessman $ 1 billion (this includes the company's shares and regular payments to the ex-wife).
4. Bernie and Slavika Ecclestone - $ 1.2 billion.
After a divorce, many women change their hairstyles or update their wardrobe. Former Armani model Slavika Ecclestone, parting with her husband, bought a private plane for $ 60 million. In 2009, after the dissolution of a 23-year marriage with the Formula 1 racing director general, Slavika received more than $ 1 billion under a divorce agreement. Something tells us that she can afford this plane and there will still be money for a couple of the most expensive cars in the world.
3. Rupert Murdoch and Anna Torv - $ 1.7 billion.
One of the most expensive divorces in the world occurred in 1999. 32 years after walking on a wedding march and having three children, Australian media mogul and founder of News Corp and 21st Century Fox media holdings received a court order to give Anna's ex-wife $ 110 million in cash along with News Corp. shares.
17 days after the divorce, Rupert led down the aisle of Wendy Deng, who is now part of the leadership of News Corporation and is one of the richest and most influential women in the world. However, she also divorced Rupert.
And Anna married an investor, William Mann. Divorce is never fun, but given the new love and huge bank accounts, we do not mind these two.
2. Rupert Murdoch and Wendy Deng - $ 1.8 billion.
To get into the list of the most expensive divorces in history twice you need to have a very big fortune. Well, the owner of "factories, newspapers, ships" in different countries of the world can afford such a luxury.
The happiness of the elderly billionaire and the Chinese beauty lasted 13 years. In marriage, they had two daughters, the eldest godfather is the former English Prime Minister Tony Blair, to whom the press attributed the affair with Deng.
In February 2014, The Daily Telegraph published an article claiming that Deng fell in love with Tony Blair, leading to her divorce from Murdoch. An article in The Economist claimed that as a result of Murdoch’s suspicions of his wife’s infidelity, he ended his long-standing relationship with Blair in 2014. Be that as it may, the scandal in the noble family ended with the breakup of Wendy and Rupert. And she and he quickly consoled themselves in the arms of their new lovers.
1. Alec and Jocelyn Wildenstein - $ 3.8 billion
Secular lioness (who actually turned her face into a likeness of a lion's face) and her husband, a passionate lover of big cats and part-time billionaire, lived happily ever after until 1997. While Jocelyn did not find the missus in bed with the Russian model Elena Zharikova. Between the spouses there was a stormy scene during which Alec, according to Jocelyn, pointed a gun at her. Because of this incident, he had to spend the night in prison.
In the same year, the “lion” and “lioness” fled, but the divorce process took two years and was extremely dirty. Alec said that his former "kitty" moonlighted in an elite Parisian brothel. But Jocelyn sued the ex-husband for almost $ 4 billion, hitting him in the most painful place - the wallet. However, the judge stipulated that not a cent of this money go to further cosmetic operations.
But perhaps the most expensive divorce in the world awaits us ahead when details about the divorce proceedings of Jeff and Mackenzie Bezos are announced. The couple, which joined the year before the founding of the giant retail company, according to media reports, have no prenuptial agreement. And the native state of Jeff (Washington) is one of the few remaining so-called states of "communal ownership", where marriage assets, as a rule, are divided equally.
