Multi-million dollar lawsuits and irreconcilable differences: The most expensive celebrity divorces

Honey Wyatt, The Independent

Divorces can be fraught and stressful enough as it is, without throwing billions of dollars and assets into the mix. Not to mention the scrutiny of both the public and the press. Over the past year, a number of prominent celebrity couples have split, including Ariana Grande and her husband of two years, Dalton Gomez. and Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner and pop singer Joe Jonas. In August, personal trainer Sam Asghari filed for divorce from pop star Britney Spears after just 14 months of marriage. Whether they go their separate ways because of “irreconcilable differences” (apparently the favoured neutral term among celebrity divorce lawyers), cheating scandals, or allegations of abuse, celebrities spend millions on ensuring that their countless assets are divided fairly between both parties.

And all of this in the public eye. As we form increasingly parasocial relationships with the celebrities whose lives we keep track of, obsessing over their relationships from beginning to end, it’s no wonder their divorces are an endless source of fascination. That they involve dividing millions, if not billions, of dollars, as well as divying up mansions, ranches and beach resorts, makes them ever more intriguing. With that in mind, here are the nine most expensive celebrity divorces in recent years: Record executive Scooter Braun, known for managing pop star clients including Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande, divorced Yael Cohen in 2022 after seven years of marriage. The couple’s divorce settlement called for Braun to pay $20 million in assets to his ex-wife.

The couple had a prenuptial agreement in place, so the 42-year-old will keep more than 100 pieces of art, as well as his $65 million mansion in LA. Cohen kept their $30 million family home in Brentwood, California. They now co-parent their three children, with Braun agreeing to pay Cohen spousal support. Braun was represented by Laura Wasser, the top divorce lawyer who also represented Kim Kardashian in her split from Kanye West. MacKenzie Scott, ex-wife of Amazon CEO Bezos, finalised her divorce from science teacher Dan Jewett in September 2022. Scott divorced Bezos in 2019 and was subsequently named one of the richest women in the world.

In January 2023 the Bloomberg Billionaire Index estimated Scott’s worth at $30.1bn. At the time of their marriage, she was ranked the 22nd richest person in the world. The couple met at Scott’s children’s school, and married in 2021. They were committed to offloading their wealth, and announced that as of June 2021 they had given $2.4bn away to 286 organisations “that have been historically underfunded and overlooked”. The divorce was finalised in January 2023, after they signed a separation contract.

NWA founder Dr Dre and Nicole Young were divorced in June 2021 after 24 years of marriage. Dre was infamously served with divorce papers at the funeral of his grandmother. In 2019, Forbes estimated Dre’s net worth at $800m, but it took 18 months of legal disputes for the rapper to agree to pay Young $100m. The couple signed a prenuptial agreement when they were married in 1996, but Young contested it, saying it was signed under duress. She cited Dre’s abuse of her as reason for the marriage, which he denied in court. Court documents show that in July 2021, Dre was ordered to pay $293,306 in child support for their two children by a Los Angeles Superior Court Judge. He was allowed to keep his master recordings and trademarks, as well as his Apple stocks. He also kept six vehicles and seven of the couple’s properties, while Young was allowed to keep all her jewellery and four vehicles.

After 10 years of estrangement, Arnold Schwarzenegger and journalist Maria Shriver confirmed their divorce in 2021. The couple were married in 1985 and separated in 2011 after claims that The Terminator star had an affair with the family’s former housekeeper, Mildred Baena, and fathered a child. In the Netflix documentary, Arnold, the actor and ex-governor described the affair as his biggest failure. On an episode of Soda Kotb’s Making Space podcast, Shriver said she went to a convent for advice when her marriage ended. “She says: ‘You can’t come live here, but you do have permission to go out and become Maria.’ I was like, sobbing,” Shriver recalled the advice given to her by the Reverend Mother. ““I had never given myself permission to feel, to be vulnerable, to be weak, to be brought to my knees, and the world did it to me.”

Schwarzenegger and Shriver have four adult children, so there were no child support or custody arrangements to be agreed on. The divorce reportedly took so long to complete because of their joint net worth, which was estimated to be $400m.