It’s no secret that a successful life in politics is a great way to make money. That’s great for the politicians who are constantly raking in stacks of fat cash…most of the time, at least. But the politicians who fumble their marriages discover the biggest downside of a big bank account: their spouses will walk away with a huge chunk of it if the marriage falls apart.
It’s a tad morbid, but that’s what we’re focusing on today: some of the most expensive divorces in political history. This list is filled with big names who are famous for having deep pockets. In each case, those pockets were a lot lighter after the divorce was finalized. Just who paid whom the most, and is your favorite politician on this list? Keep reading to find out!
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s divorce “terminated” his wealth
There are plenty of ways that politicians become wealthy, including making wise investments that some critics say are more like inside trading. However, some politicians are already wealthy when they enter office. One such example is Arnold Schwarzenegger, the famous actor who surprised us all when he became the governor of California.
He stepped back from acting to serve as the “Governator,” but that left him with a little too much time…time enough, in fact, to have an affair with Mildred Baena, his maid. When news of the affair (including the fact that the maid was pregnant) went public, it destroyed the marriage between Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver. It took 10 years for the divorce to finalize, and when it did, she walked away with half of his $400 million fortune and half of his SAG retirement plan.
These days, the actor and his ex-wife are on great terms with each other. But we can only imagine getting a cool $200 million in the settlement helped soften her disposition!
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Donald Trump: the man of many wives
Donald Trump is on his third wife, having previously been married to Ivana Trump and Marla Maples. When he and Ivana divorced (amid rumors of him having an affair with Maples, no less), she got far less than you might expect. When all was said and done, Ivana walked away with $14 million along with a few special benefits, including Trump’s Connecticut mansion and her own Trump Plaza apartment.
That’s nothing to sneeze at, of course, but Ivana thought she’d get more because her lawyers claimed the future president was worth over $5 billion. In truth, Trump had recently filed bankruptcy and just didn’t have much more cash to give her. He seemed to learn from this experience, though, and made Marla Maples sign a prenup. Therefore, when they divorced, Maples only received $2 million, much less than what Ivana got. But both divorces had one thing in common: Donald Trump provided child support for the kids.
Vladimir Putin’s insanely pricey divorce
Unfortunately, Vladimir Putin is one of the most powerful people in the world. As the president of Russia, he is responsible for major aggression on the international stage, including Russia’s unlawful invasion of Ukraine. It turns out that the Russian president’s personal life is sometimes as tumultuous as his private one, which is especially clear once you learn the details of his highly secretive divorce from Lyudmila Shkrebneva.
The two started dating in 1979, got married in 1983, and divorced in 2014 after a highly estranged marriage. As reported by Deutsche Welle, she described the simple reason for their divorce: “Our marriage is over due to the fact that we barely see each other,” she said. “Vladimir… is completely submerged in his work.” Now, Putin is one of the most secretive people in the world, so we don’t know exactly how much she got in the divorce. But Anti-Corruption Foundation founder Alexei Navalny claimed on X that Putin “literally arranged a multi-million-dollar dowry for his ex-wife” that presumably included plenty of real estate all around the world in addition to cold, hard cash.
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Rudy Giuliani loses his shirt and his reputation
Few people have had such a reputational rollercoaster as Rudy Giuliani. He rose to international fame as the mayor of New York City during the 9/11 terror attacks, and many saw him as a strong leader who helped keep both his city and his country together. But he later became Donald Trump’s lawyer, and a series of high-profile mistakes made him something of an international laughingstock.
His multiple divorces also ended up being quite a rollercoaster: in 1982, he annulled his 14-year marriage to Regina Peruggi (she was revealed to be his second cousin), which doesn’t seem like it really cost him anything. But after he divorced his second wife Donna Hanover in 2002, he had to pay her $6.8 million along with child support and a swanky apartment on the Upper East Side.
When Rudy Giuliani divorced his third wife Judith Nathan in 2019, the exact settlement details were kept secret. But in 2022, she sued her ex-husband and claimed that the man still owed $260,000 to her as part of their settlement. After Giuliani skipped his court date for this and was threatened with jail time, everyone was left wondering if he had finally run out of money altogether after years of messy divorces and Trump-related scandals.