4 Costliest Divorce’s in the World till Date
Ever thought that a fairy tale wedding would be just too darn expensive, but decided to have it anyway? Your wedding might’ve been worth it, but divorce? Now that’s a messy affair, if you’ll excuse the pun. Not only that, it’s also a very expensive affair, as some of these way-too-rich people seem only happy to demonstrate. If you’re thinking career path, divorce lawyer might actually be the way to go!
JORDON’S MISSED GOAL
Starting off with someone we’ve all heard of, the legendary basketball player, Michael Jordan and his first wife Juanita Vanoy split up in 2006 after 17 years of marriage in a divorce settlement that estimated to about 168 million USD. Yes, you read that right. 168 million. The couple that got married in 1984, in Las Vegas with only 4 guests had actually filed for a divorce in 2002 due to irreconcilable differences but decided they wanted to try to make things work and withdrew the petition. 
However, in December, 2006 their lawyers formally announced that they would divorce, which came as no surprise as they’d been separated since February of the same year. What happened after that? Obviously, a very expensive settlement, looking at the figures. But Juanita also got the custody of their three children and their seven acre mansion in Chicago. But I guess Michael Jordan was okay with all that because apparently the decision for divorce was “mutual”.
ARNIE KNOWS THE BEST…REALLY??
And while speaking of marriage and divorce, and more particularly, expensive media-inflated divorces, how can we go without mentioning the very sought after Arnold Schwarzenegger?
Another legend and another long marriage that ended up making it on the “most expensive divorces” lists that go around. Arnold and his wife, Maria Shriver split in the year 2011 after a 25 year long marriage, which was by the way, after a relationship of eight years! They even have four children together.
What happened? Well we all know the story of the rich man who slept with the housekeeper. And then she had his kid. Well, oops. What happened to birth control? What happened to self-control? Maria Shriver separated from Arnold on grounds that he had an affair with their housekeeper and also had a son with her. Arnold has since then, only expressed the deepest regret for causing such hurt and pain to his close friends and family. And possibly for the public humiliation he had to face because of the whole matter.
Even the divorce has not yet been finalized it is estimated to cost Arnold 250 and 375 million USD. Now Arnold may be loaded, but that definitely is a burn in anyone’s pocket!
GIBSON’S APOCALYPTO
But even Arnold Schwarzenegger, with his scandalous separation from Maria Shriver did not make the mark as the largest divorce settlement in Hollywood history (but maybe, since its not finalized yet, they still have hope of making that record!). That place is still held by the divorce of Mel Gibson and Robin Moore, which took place in 2006.
Their story is different from your average celebrity infidelity or claims of “irreconcilable differences” but reeks of domestic violence and mismanaged anger. Who’d have seen that coming from the old Braveheart star.
The divorce, which was finalized after 28 years of marriage cost Gibson about 425 million USD apart from a sentence of 3 years unsupervised probation, a domestic violence fine, and compulsory anger management classes. That divorce sure did not go down easy, or cheap.
MARRIAGE IS NOT THE END
THERE’S ALWAYS DIVORCE TO LOOK FORWARD TOO…
Although, if you’re planning on taking up divorce law as a career path, and I would urge you to since it seems to be an upcoming field, you should try and work with Rupert Murdoch, who has not made it to the list of most expensive divorces just once, but twice!
The first time he made it on the list was in 1998 with Anna Maria Torv in a divorce settlement that cost 1.7 billion USD. After a 32 year marriage, the couple ended their marriage in a divorce that, taking into account the inflation rates, would be worth 2.42 billion USD. No, I’m not joking about that. Taking into account the inflation rates and the equivalent value today, his divorce in 1998 was more expensive than his latest divorce in 2013 from Wendi Deng which is estimated to be around 1.8 billion USD.
Murdoch, who married Deng only 17 days after his first divorce finalized, was ready to repeat the whole process all over again 13 years later, once again having a divorce which was just too expensive. He sure as hell needs new divorce lawyers. And better divorce lawyers. But one would think that at his age, which is 82, you wouldn’t need divorce lawyers at all. Of course you can never tell with rich people.
To top off this list is the divorce of Alec Wildenstein, a French businessman, and Jocelyn Perisse in 1997. She received 2.5 billion USD (which amounts to almost 3.62 billion USD today!) in a divorce when she caught Wildenstein in bed with his 19 year old mistress, a woman who was almost 42 years his junior back then.
So well, if you thought marriage was expensive, divorce is obviously much more expesive! Maybe some of these rich people should’ve saved some on their marriage so they’d have more during their divorce!
Author: Namrata Nesarikar
