Rupert Murdoch appears on this list twice! Over the span of forty years, Murdoch made his fortune by acquiring news outlets such as, the Chicago Times, New York magazine, and Century FOX Film Corporation; which he later consolidated with several independent television networks, making FOX, Inc.
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All of his hard work created an obscene amount of cash for Murdoch and his wife of 32 years, Anna Torv. Murdoch was reported to have a net worth of roughly $8 billion. Together, the pair had four children, and in 1999, the couple divorced. As a result, Torv was given a whopping $1.2 billion for the settlement.
Frank McCourt was the former owner/chairman of the LA Dodgers baseball team and a lot of his wealth came from real estate development. He is the president of the McCourt Global group, a real estate company that he founded. Unfortunately for him, he lost a big chunk of his money when he divorced his wife, Jamie of 30 years.
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Jamie was fired from her position as CEO of the Dodgers and eventually, she gave up her claim on the team, but she did receive a $131 million payout! It was said to be the most expensive divorce in California history!
This divorce is said to be the largest to ever happen in Asia. Samathur Li Kin-kan is the heir to Hong Kong’s real estate fortune, Prudential Enterprise but lost a lot of money when he and his wife, Florence Tsang Chiu-wing divorced. The cause of the divorce wasn’t exactly clear but rumors said it was because Florence refused to have an abortion and/or someone cheated.
The settlement ended up being $154 million or $1.2 billion in Hong Kong dollars. Not bad!
This is the UK’s largest divorce settlement and it ends with a death. Boris Berezovsky was a millionaire in Russia and an industrial tycoon. When he divorced his wife Galina of 18 years, he lost about 1/5th of his net worth as the settlement was $163 million and ended up living in exile in the UK after falling out of favor with Vladimir Putin.
Then in March 2013, Berezovsky committed suicide and it was said that at that time, he was heavily in debt.
This couple managed to hold the record for most expensive divorce settlement in history for about two decades! Adnan Khashoggi is a billionaire entrepreneur in Saudi and also a arms dealer. In 1974, Adnan and Soraya filed for divorce but it took two years for the ex-wife to sue her husband for the rights to cash.
Soraya ended up getting $874 million when the divorce was finalized!
