As a multi-millionaire is ordered to pay his ex-wife a whopping £72 million divorce settlement but he isn't the first to get stung by the courts
A successful American businessman has been ordered by a British court to pay the wife he is divorcing £72.3 million.
Randy Work, a former executive with Texas-based private equity company Lone Star, argued in court that wife Mandy Gray, 45, was only entitled to £5m after she failed to keep to the terms of a post-nuptial agreement.
But Mr Justice Holman at the High Court Family Division sitting in London told the 47-year-old: "I am not sure you and I are on the same planet."
The figure was announced after a a "very bruising and painful" two-week hearing in the Family Division of London's High Court.
Mr Justice Holman, sitting in London, also rejected Mr Work's suggestion that in any event he was entitled to more than his wife because of his "special contribution" to the marriage and making the couple rich through his exceptional business skills.
He isn't the first millionaire to get stung by the divorce courts
Dmitry Rybolovlev
Russian Oligarch Dimitry holds the record for the world's biggest divorce payout when he was ordered to pay his ex-wife Elena a whopping £2.7 billion
The six year battle saw the billionaire, who made his money in fertiliser, fight her claim for their $88 million New York apartment, £100 million Greek island plus a slice of his cash.
The AS Monaco FC owner plans to appeal the ruling which might last another ten years.
Alec and Joceylne Wildenstein
Socialite Jocelyne Wildenstein divorced her billionaire art dealer husband after finding him in bed with a 19-year-old model.
Mrs Wildenstein claimed she needed £600,000 a month to keep her in the manner to which she had become accustomed, because after years of dependence on servants she had no idea how to make toast or boil an egg.
She was eventually awarded a reported £1.5billion plus £60 million a year for the next 13 years.
That was more than enough to keep up with her fondness for cosmetic surgery which earned her the unfortunate nickname “the Bride of Wildenstein.”
Her ex-husband died in 2008.
Rupert Murdoch
The media mogul has had to pay the price for not one, not two, but three failed marriages.
His first marriage to Patricia Booker, mother of his daughter Prudence, ended in 1967.
He then married Anna Torv, a Scottish journalist who worked for one of his papers in Sydney. The couple had three children and when they divorced Anna was rumoured to have received a £700 million settlement.
Just 19 days after the divorce, Murdoch, then 68, married 30-year-old Wendi Deng. The couple split last year and are said to have reached an “amicable” divorce deal in which Wendi got to keep the couples multi-million pound Manhattan penthouse as a home for her and the couple's two young daughters.
Bernie Ecclestone
When the F1 boss and his second wife Slavica divorced in 2009, it was rumoured that she had received a bumper £700 million payout.
But the truth may not be that simple. In fact Bernie himself may actually be the world's best kept-man.
Court papers show that since the marriage ended he has in fact received £300m from his ex-wife's trust fund.
The trust was set up in 1997 and the proceeds from Mr Ecclestone's sale of F1 in 2006 went into it. The trust is thought to be worth more than £2.4 billion and its beneficiaries are Slavica and the couple's daughters Petra and Tamara.
Details of the payments emerged at Mr Ecclestone's trial in Germany where he is accused of paying a £27.5 billion bribe to a banker, which he denies.
Adnan Khashoggi
For almost two decades the Saudi billionaire arms dealer held the record for the most expensive divorce settlement in history.
When his marriage to wife Soraya broke down, she sued for £1.5 billion. While she didn't get near that amount she still walked away with a cool £500 million.
Arnold Schwarzenegger
The movie star's wife Maria Shriver filed for divorce when she learned that he had an illegitimate child with one of their household staff, Mildred Baena. The fling had been kept secret for years and the actor turned politician only admitted he was the child's father in 2011.
The resemblance between Schwarzenegger and Joseph, now 16 is uncanny.
The split was one of the most publicised in Hollywood and under California law Schwarzenegger was required to hand over half his wealth to Ms Shriver, putting the settlement somewhere between £150-£225 million.
Roman Abramovich
The Chelsea FC owner is one of the world's richest men, so when he filed for divorce from his wife Irina, experts expected the settlement to run into many billions.
Instead the former Mrs Abramovich was compensated with a rumoured £1 billion made up of cash and some property, leaving Roman free to set up home with his mistress Dasha Zhukova.
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