Divorce is never fun – but as the saying goes, mo’
money, mo’ problems! When there’s a large fortune at stake, the stakes
are raised indeed.
Glenn Duker,
lawyer and solicitor, takes a look at some of the most expensive
divorces in history and shows that the very rich are very different from
you and me!
Adnan Khashoggi and Soraya Khashoggi – $874 million
Adnan Khashoggi made a crust as a Saudi arms dealer
and entrepreneur. He and his wife filed for divorce in 1974, but it took
5 years for Soraya to sue for cash in the wake of their split. The
original figure she was aiming for was $2.54 billion, but in the end she
had to content herself with a mere $874 million. Still, there’s no
doubt this hurt her ex-husband in the pocket – he was reduced from
billionaire status to a mere millionaire in 2007.
Frank McCourt and Jamie McCourt – $130 million
McCourt, in this case, is not the Irish author of
worldwide hit Angela’s Ashes but instead an American businessman and
sports fanatic who owns the Los Angeles marathon and also has a
controlling interest in LA baseball team, the Dodgers. It seems that
sports may have come between Frank and his wife of 30 years – the day
after the Dodgers were eliminated from the playoffs in 2009, Jamie was
also eliminated as the Dodgers’ CEO. She filed for divorce soon after
and the estranged spouses argued in court over who got custody of the
team. In the end, Jamie relinquished her claim on the Dodgers for the
$130 million sum – in what ended up being, at that point, the costliest
divorce in Californian history.
Michael and Juanita Jordan – $168 million
Juanita filed for divorce in 2002. However, initially
the couple – whom reportedly had enjoyed a romantic marriage full of
roses and candlelit dinners – tried to make it work. Sadly, despite
their best efforts, the marriage ended in 2006after 17 years of marriage
and three children together. But even though the dissolution may have
proved costly to Michael, things still seemed to end on a friendly note,
with the couple leaving the courtroom together to watch their son play
in a basketball game.
Steven Spielberg and Amy Irving – $100 million
Amy Irving auditioned for Close Encounters of the
Third Kind. She didn’t get the part, but she did get a very close
encounter with the film’s director – marriage.They were only joined in
matrimony for four years before deciding to split. They did have a
pre-nuptial agreement (apparently scribbled on a napkin, so perhaps the
outcome isn’t too surprising), but Irving was able to successfully
challenge it because she had no legal representation when this
“contract” was signed. The $100 million was about half of Spielberg’s
riches at the time – today, he is worth $3 billion.
Roman Abramovich and Irina Malandina – $300 million
Abramovich is one of the business tycoons of the new
Russia, who was worth about $12 billion. Suspecting her husband of
having an affair with young model Daria Zhukova (there were multiple
reported sightings of the two together across a range of countries), she
filed for divorce after 15 years. Though the press reported she could
get up to $6 billion from her ex, she ended up settling for a mere $300
million, thanks to Abramovich’s savvy decision to divorce in Britain,
where divorcees do not have a claim on partner’s future earnings and
also have to prove their ex’s wealth.
If you’re facing an upcoming divorce and need expert advice and assistance, lawyer and solicitor
Glenn Duker has the expertise and knowledge to help – get in touch today.
