The Five Most Expensive Divorces in World History

When two people get married, they usually think that it’s something that will last forever. After all, there are relatively few people in the world that would make the decision to get married if they absolutely knew that in a few years, they would be stuck in the middle of a bitter divorce settlement. Unfortunately, things don’t always turn out exactly the way people hope they will. When it happens, it usually means that there’s a big fight over money. The more money someone has, the bigger the settlement usually becomes.

Determining why people fall out of love is something that could be cause for debate, almost indefinitely. There are all kinds of reasons that it happens. People change as they grow older. With personal traumas and other types of experiences, they might become far different than they were when two people initially met. Sometimes it comes down to the fact that many of the things you found endearing about someone has started to grate on your nerves, often a lot more than you’d like to admit. Whatever the reason might be, it seems like the fight always comes down to who’s going to get the property and the cash. It might not surprise you to know that five of the biggest divorce settlements in history involve celebrities. After all, they’re the ones that usually have the most money so there’s more money to be found in the settlement. If you want to read more about them, continue below.

5. Harrison Ford and wife Melissa Mathison – $118 million

By all accounts, it seemed as though Ford and his wife were happy as a couple, but then reports started surfacing about Ford’s infidelity. It didn’t take long before he and his wife got a divorce and he remarried. Even though this is one of the most expensive divorces in history, it was little more than pocket change for Ford, who routinely makes more than 20 million dollars for a single film.

4. Michael Jordan and wife Juanita – $125 million

Michael Jordan is a well-known basketball legend and by all accounts, it seemed as though he and his wife had something of a fairytale marriage. That is, until it all fell apart. While the details of the divorce are sketchy at best, they did indeed decide to legally separate. Furthermore, Jordan paid more than 100 million dollars in the divorce settlement. To this day, both of them are tight-lipped about the entire ordeal, basically refusing say anything about it. That includes refusing to discuss exactly why they got divorced in the first place, not to mention how they decided on the settlement amount.

3. Mel Gibson and wife Robyn – $425 million

Most people are well aware of all the publicity that surrounded Mel Gibson when he and his wife divorced. They had been married for more than a quarter of a century and had several children together. Nevertheless, there were reports that Gibson’s behavior had become increasingly erratic and then eventually, his wife decided to call it quits. No one really knows exactly what happened, but it’s clear that the couple decided it would be better to spend time apart as opposed to being together. In 2006 they got a divorce and Gibson forked over more than four hundred million dollars in the settlement.

2. Bernard Charles Ecclestone and wife Slavica – $1.2 billion

If you’re a fan of Formula 1 racing, you probably know who these two individuals are. Ecclestone is the one that’s traditionally been in control of the organization that handles this particular racing group. As a result, he’s made a great deal of money over the years. In 2009, he and his wife divorced after more than 20 years of marriage.

1. Alec Nathan Wildenstein and wife Jocelyn – $3.8 billion

Chances are you’ve never even heard of these two individuals but that doesn’t stop the divorce settlement from being the biggest in recorded history. Wildenstein and his wife divorced in 1999. He made his money as a businessman, mainly doing deals in America. Even though he was born in France, he made the majority of his money in the United States, and not just in business. He was also a lucrative art dealer and had a penchant for breeding and racing thoroughbred horses. If you were to adjust the amount of money involved in the settlement for today’s inflation, it would be just shy of six billion dollars.