Price paid in 'Hollywood divorces'

As well as the vicious custody battle looming, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’s split is likely to end in one of Hollywood’s most expensive divorce settlements. The couple aren’t just fighting over custody of daughter Suri, but also their estimated $275 million estate.

Holmes’ prenuptial agreement entitles her to the couple’s palatial Californian mansion - valued at $35 million - and $3 million for every year she was married to Cruise - up to a maximum of eleven years - an arrangement now worth $15 million.

But whatever the outcome, TomKat are far from having the most expensive celebrity divorce. Here are the top ten, in reverse order.

10. Kevin Costner and Cindy Silva, 1994, $80 million

Actor Costner was just a student when he met Cindy Silva at California State University in 1975. The pair married three years later and had three children over 15 years. But as Costner’s acting career took off his marriage suffered, and the couple eventually split in 1994. The divorce was settled privately but Silva reportedly walked away with around $80 million.

9.  Harrison Ford and Melissa Mathison, 2004, $85 million

Actor Harrison Ford split from wife of 18 years Melissa Mathison in 2004. Ford settled for $85 million with Mathison but the settlement also gave her a percentage of all future earnings on films Ford made while they were together – including The Fugitive and the Indiana Jones Trilogy - meaning Mathison ended up with much more than the initial settlement.

8. Madonna and Guy Ritchie, 2008, $90 million

Just like TomKat, this split involved not one but two celebrities. After eight years of marriage and two children Madge and Ritchie called it quits in 2008. Madonna was the one left out of pocket in the settlement, handing over around $90 million to the Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels director. Ritchie later said of the marriage: “I stepped into a soap opera.”

7. Steven Spielberg and Amy Irving, 1989, $100 million

The couple met when actress Irving auditioned for Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The pair married in 1985 but split after four years. Irving successfully contested their pre-nuptial agreement (allegedly scribbled on a napkin), arguing she didn’t have the required legal representation present, and was awarded $100 million, half of Spielberg’s fortune at the time.

6. Neil Diamond and Marcia Murphy, 1994, $150 million

Singer Neil Diamond married television producer Murphy, his second wife, in 1969, before he had released his first gold album. The pair remained together until 1994 when Murphy filed for divorce, citing ‘irreconcilable differences’. Murphy walked away with $150 million of Diamond’s fortune, but the singer later said: “She’s worth every penny.”

5. Michael Jordon and Juanita Vanoy Jordon, 2006, $168 million

Basketball legend Jordon met Juanita Vanoy on a blind date in 1984 and the pair married in 1989. The couple first filed for divorce in 2002, but managed to patch things up. In 2006 however they split for good, and Juanita Vanoy was given $168 million.

4. Roman Abramovich and Irina Abramovich, 2007, $300 million

Chelsea Tsar Abramovich met Irina in 1990, before making his fortune, and married her shortly after. Irina asked for $7 billion of Roman’s fortune when the pair split in 2007, but he managed to talk the settlement down to a mere $300 million, just 2% of his estimated $ 18.7 billion fortune.

3. Mel Gibson and Robyn Moore, 2011, $ 425 million

Actor and director Gibson lost half of his fortune to his estranged wife Moore last year. Moore, who married Gibson in 1980, had been legally separated from him since 2006, following Gibson’s arrest for drunk driving and anti-Semitic comments, but only filed for divorce in 2010. Like Harrison Ford’s divorce, under the settlement Moore also gets half of all of Gibson’s future earnings.

2. Bernie Ecclestone and Slavica Ecclestone, 2009, $750 million

 Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren, 2010, $750 million

Both Woods and Ecclestone faced huge settlements when their respective marriages collapsed. F1 boss Ecclestone’s marriage to former model Slavica ended in 2009 after she moved out of the family home and filed for divorce, while golf champion Woods marriage collapsed after revelations of a string of affairs emerged.

1. Rupert Murdoch and Anna Murdoch, 1999, $ 1.7 billion

While he may not be a celebrity in the same sense as Tom Cruise or Katie Holmes, Murdoch’s current ubiquity and phenomenal settlement secure him the top spot of this list. Rupert Murdoch divorced his second wife Anna in 1999 after meeting his current wife Wendi Deng. As part of the settlement Murdoch handed $ 1.7 billion of his media fortune to his wife of 33 years.


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