The High Cost of Celebrity I Don’ts

This has been quite the year for celebrity divorces.  Jon and Kate just recently called it quits.  Billy Joel’s wife filed for divorce earlier this year and it appears that Elin has had enough of Tiger’s jungle safaris.  While the exact settlement for Jon and Kate isn’t know to me it probably will be small potatoes compared to some of the real biggies.  Tiger’s divorce is expected to cost him in the neighborhood of $500 million.  That’s a pretty ritzy neighborhood.  However,there have been larger settlements. 

Many consider Tiger to be the Michael Jordan of golf and now they may soon have a pricey divorce in common, too.  In 2007, Jordan divorced his wife of 17 years and had to pay Juanita $168 million.  That was the most expensive celebrity divorce in history at the time, just barely beating out a popular crooner. 

In 1996, Neil Diamond divorced Marcia MUrphy and was forced to pay her around $150 million.  He apparently didn’t regret his decision.  According to TheInsider.com Diamond said that Marcia was “worth every penny” of it.  Very smooth, Neil.

He may not be a household name in the U.S. but wherever Roman Abramovich goes, dollar bills fly.  He’s a Russian billionaire and one of Forbes riches people in the world.  Like Tiger, his wife Irini, doesn’t like his penchant for models.  Some thought he would have to cough up a billion bucks but he got off with a measley $300 million.  He had to give up four valuable properties in addition, though

Steven Speilberg’s divorce settlement was one for the record books back in 1989.  He paid his wife, Amy Irving, a whopping $100 million.  That was about half of the amount of money he had earned up to that time in his career.  I have a sneaking suspicion he’s made that back and then some since then.  What do you think

Bernie Ecclestone is in charge of Formula One racing but his good times made a pit stop when Slavia filed for divorce.  According to CNBC, the final payout was one billion pounds sterling.  Recently Slavia was listed as one of the most wealthy people in the U.K. thanks to that settlement

Earlier this year Mel Gibson’s wife Robyn filed for divorce.  The settlement has not yet been revealed.  There was no pre-nuptial agreement so she gets half of it all.  She’s still trying to figure out what “all” is.  It’s estimated to be around a billion dollars worth.  Meanwhile, Mel is gallivanting about with a Russian musician with whom he recently had a child.

One thing we’ve learned from all this…all the former wives were excellent “house keepers.”