Harold Hamm is losing billions of dollars. The fracking king has lost about $7 billion since the oil market reached its top in June. Perhaps that puts his nearly $1 billion divorce settlement with his ex-wife Sue Ann Arnall into perspective. The former couple made waves earlier this year when Hamm wrote his ex-wife a check for $975 million and she refused to cash it. Instead, she demanded more from the man who was worth a then-estimated $13.5 billion. Eventually, Arnall had a change of heart and cashed the check.
Hamm’s isn’t the only high profile divorce in recent years. Listed below are some high-profile divorces that broke the bank. Did somebody say prenup?
Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren
Golfer Tiger Woods married Elin Nordegren in 2004. The former model was a babysitter for fellow golfer Jesper Parnevik when Woods started courting her. According to The Parneviks, Woods wanted to meet Nordegren for a year, but there was “a big line of single golfers wanting to meet her. They were gaga over her," they told People Magazine in 2010. Eventually the pair met in 2001 and were married in Barbados three years later. The couple had two children.
In 2009, Woods was caught in a very public affair. It was later alleged that Woods was a 'serial cheater' with as many as 12 women stepping forward and saying that they had also been romantically involved with the athlete. In the midst of the media frenzy surrounding these revelations, Woods crashed his car while driving at a very low speed, and Nordegren then broke a window in the car with a golf club. This event just served to fuel the fire.
The couple divorced in 2010, and Nordegren was awarded custody of the children as well as an alleged $750 million, later negotiated down to $100 million.
Rupert Murdoch and Anna Maria Torv
Media magnate Rupert Murdoch’s second wife, Anna Torv married him in 1967. Before that, Murdoch had been married to former flight attendant, Patricia Booker, for 11 years. The couple met when Torv was 18-years-old and working for Murdoch’s newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, in Sydney. The couple remained married for 31 years and had three children, but Torv reportedly wanted Murdoch to retire and spend more time at home, Murdoch did not. Murdoch denies reports of an affair but married his third wife, Wendi Deng just 17 days after his divorce was finalized.
The couple filed for divorce in California, where local laws gave Anna Torv potential access to half of his then-$7.8 billion fortune. Instead she was rumored to have won $1.7 billion in assets and $100 million in cash.
Murdoch has since divored Deng. Because they never went to court, the settlements from Murdoch's other two divorces are undisclosed.
Mel Gibson and Robyn Denise Moore
Actor and director Mel Gibson met Robyn Moore, a dental assistant, in Australia in the late 1970s, before his career had taken off, and therefore didn’t sign a prenup. The pair had a 30-plus year relationship and seven children together but the marriage ended messily when Gibson dated and had a child with another woman, Oksana Grigorieva.
The couple had been estranged for a few years prior to the divorce. However, after photos emerged of Gibson and Grigorieva together and he was arrested for a drunk driving incident during which Gibson made anti-semetic remarks, she officially filed. Moore received half of Gibson’s acting, producing and directing fortune valued at $425 million.
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