The Most Expensive Celebrity Divorces (Amber Heard, Johnny Depp, Jeff Bezos & More)

Is there any such thing as a sanctity of marriage anymore? Let's be honest, with a divorce rate that's said to hover around 50% in the United States, marriage can be a risky proposition these days. Especially when you're a high earning celebrity, and when athletes, movie stars, tech moguls and musicians call it quits, they go big or they go home. So what are some of the most expensive celebrity divorces of all time? Well, to be honest with you, there's so many of them that we're gonna jump right into it on this latest episode of Famous Entertainment. To kick things off, let's take a look at the divorce of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard. Now, if you guys are viewers of this channel, then you already know that we've got a ton of content for you to check out on every aspect of this relationship and lawsuit that's captured the world's attention. Depp has now been awarded $15 million at the conclusion of their trial, with the jury believing his side of events. This means when you take into consideration the $7 million that Amber had previously been awarded in their divorce settlement, then things have swung back the other way, with her now having to pay all that back, plus another $8 million more. But while this may have been one of the most high profile divorces of recent memory, it doesn't even come close to being the most expensive. Let's move on from our current obsession to the one our parents and grandparents used to drool over, the royal family. When Princess Diana married Prince Charles, it seemed like a dream come true. Yet, it would end as anything but. Before the nightmarish crash that claimed Diana's life, this marriage hit the skids when both Diana and Charles engaged in affairs, ultimately separating in 1992. There was a brief hope for reconciliation afterwards, but by 1996, the marriage was over just one short year before Diana's death, which left her with basically no time at all to spend any of the $22.5 million settlement that the New York Times reported was given to her. How could I put together a list of the all-time most expensive celebrity divorces without including the Donald on the list? After all, Donald Trump has been married three times already and counting. But the one I'm here to talk about is his marriage to Ivana Trump, which wasn't just expensive, it was also dramatic, after he got caught cheating on her with the woman who would become his second wife, Marla Maples. Eventually, Marla confronted Ivana in the town of Aspen, and a divorce was soon to follow, costing Trump somewhere in the ballpark of $25 million. Look, when you first make it big as one of the most infamous sex symbols of all time, it's probably next to impossible to keep a marriage alive. Just ask Paul McCartney, who literally had women screaming, crying, and fainting at his feet when he showed up in North America as a member of the Beatles. And while Paul's first marriage to Linda McCartney is the whirlwind romance storybooks are written about, after Linda's tragic passing, his second 6-year marriage to Heather Mills in the 2000s would become Paul's biggest regret of the decade. In addition to the $48.7 million he was ordered to fork over, Paul would also have to continue paying Heather an additional $70,000 a month in child support for their daughter Beatrice. Remember the short-lived relationship between filmmaker Guy Ritchie and music icon Madonna? You know, the marriage that gave us one of the worst reviewed films of all time and swept away. Yeah, I don't blame you for blocking it out of your memory banks either. Unfortunately, these two can't do the same. Not After reports suggest that Madonna was made to hand over around $76 to $92 million in a divorce settlement. By the way, that makes this the only relationship on the list where money was transferred from wife to husband. In an interview with Newsweek, Madonna once said about her imploding marriage, It's not as romantic as it used to be. You think, this isn't what I thought it was going to be. And how much am I willing to sacrifice? Well, the answer is, a lot apparently. Filmmaker Guy Ritchie might've made it out like a bandit when he split from Madonna, but the world's most famous director Steven Spielberg was far less lucky. His first marriage to actress Amy Irving lasted all of four years, but would still result in a gigantic settlement. But the fun part of the story is how they got there. After a judge refused to recognize the couple's original prenuptial agreement because it had been scribbled onto a napkin, Irving was awarded a settlement estimated to be worth somewhere around $100 million. Next up is Harrison Ford, who first met his wife Melissa Matheson on the set of the seminal film Apocalypse Now. Four years later, they were married. But honestly, they probably should have taken the title of the film as a look at things to come, because when they separated many years later in 2000, it took a gigantic bite out of Harrison's pocketbook. Estimated between $85 and $118 million dollars. If only Harrison could've outrun that settlement like he did at Boulder so many years before. In one of the more recent divorces on this list, rap mogul Dr. Dre and his ex-wife Nicole Young split in the summer of 2020 after 24 years together. Dre, who's worth an estimated $820 million dollars, has agreed to hand over more than one-fifth of that fortune, alongside roughly half of his liquid assets in the divorce settlement that was announced in December of 2021. That means Dre will pay Nicole two installments of $50 million dollars each. Huh. All that money and Nicole still gets to forget about Dre? No, that must be driving him crazy. In terms of superstar athletes, it doesn't get any bigger than Michael Jordan. He even does divorce bigger than anyone else, but unlike with most other things in his life, this was one matchup where he definitely came out on the losing side. These two got married in Jordan's second professional NBA season in 1989. They stuck together all throughout the 90s, and while there were rumours of an impending split in 2002, it wouldn't really happen until 4 years later when they officially made the decision to divorce in 2006. Juanita was then awarded a settlement of roughly $160 million dollars, but despite that, these two were said to have left things on relatively good terms, and they even attended their son's basketball game with one another right after the papers were signed. The largest Hollywood divorce payout of all time would involve one of Tinseltown's formerly biggest stars. I'm talking about Mel Gibson and his ex-wife, Robin Moore. These two got hitched long before Mel's acting career ever took off, and believe it or not, but it lasted through all the good times too. The one thing it couldn't survive? Mel's infamous arrest for drinking and driving, which very well might have turned into the most expensive DUI ever, when Mel would later hand over a whopping $425 million dollars in a divorce settlement. Per the terms of their prenup, that was literally half of his net worth at the time. Considering the fact that Jeff Bezos was named the wealthiest man in the world in June 2018, I'm sure you can imagine how expensive his divorce became only a few short months later when he split from his longtime partner Mackenzie. Actually, scratch that, because when you're dealing with numbers this big, it really does help to see it for yourself. Just look at those zeros. All nine of them. And honestly, things could have been worse for Jeff considering the state in which he and Mackenzie lived, Washington, is a community property state, which means that all assets and debts accrued during a marriage are considered owned equally by both sides unless there was a prenup. Ultimately, these two worked out terms in private and came to an agreement that still made Mackenzie one of the wealthiest women on the planet. After watching Jeff and Mackenzie call it quits, Melinda and Bill Gates turned to whoever was sitting next to them at the time and told them to hold their beer. In May of 2021, Bill and Melinda decided to end their relationship after 27 years of marriage and the co-founding of the With Microsoft based out of Washington and the couple owning their home in California, both of which are community property states, if these two were to split their fortune down the middle, then Melinda will be walking away with a cool $65.25 billion dollars. Actually, that's not cool. I mean, what's cooler than being cool? I'm not suggesting that Melinda hasn't earned the right to every one of those pennies. I'm simply stating the fact that for a settlement, this is going to be an absolutely staggering sum of money, and one that might just happen to become the most expensive divorce in the history of the entire world. Alright everyone, thanks for watching this latest episode of Famous Entertainment. Be sure to like the video and drop some ideas for what else you'd like to see on this channel down below. My name is Kara, follow me on Instagram if you want to chat, and I'll see you all next time. Bye!