Jeff Bezos Who? These Global Divorce Sagas Take the Cake

Top Bank AccountsAugust 9, 2021

In South Korea, the controversial Divorce maybe the most expensive one yet. Despite the pain involved, divorces happen fairly regularly nowadays. It is often messy, filled with drama, and very costly for all average Joes and Janes. A marriage dissolution besides being sensitive, is complicated if you are the world’s richest, coupled with global media attention. Just take a look at Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and ex-wife Mackenzie Bezos. Divorce is a heart-breaking process, with no love lingering between the couple, who are too annoyed with each other to opt for inexpensive and non-time-consuming processes, for dispute resolution, and determined not go down without a fight. The sad reality is that dissolution of marriage is often a good option.

The Bezos’ Case ended in a $2.5 billion pay-out

It’s never about how long you were together that would be factored in. Mackenzie and Jeff were married for 25 years and yet ended their marriage. The settlement by the tech genius was a whopping $38 billion, a 4-percent stake of the online shopping giant. The sum is the largest divorce agreement sum in the history, overtaking the $2.5 billion settlement of Jocelyn Wildenstein. Mackenzie became the world’s fourth wealthiest woman due to the massive pay-out, while Jeff remained the richest man. However, half of the money will be donated to Bill Gates’ Giving Pledge, an initiative that encourages the affluent to donate generously to the really poor. Jeff isn’t a member of the organization. Mackenzie Bezos has easily become a very rich woman

South Korea’s Messy Divorce

Credit: The Investor

Dubbed as the “divorce of the century” obviously by the Korean media, the on-going divorce of Mr. Chey Tae-won, SK Group’s chairman and his art museum director ex-wife, Mrs. Roh Soh-yeong, makes news as both come from very rich families, Chey is groomed as the heir to SK Group while Roh is the daughter of a former army general turned President. Following in the Bezos’ footsteps are Chey Tae-won and wife Roh Soh-yeong, adversaries since 2017, after Chey’s letter to the newspaper Segye Ilbo, about fathering a child out of wedlock! Chey chaired the SK Group, the third-largest conglomerate in South Korea, owning the biggest oil refiner and mobile carrier. Roh insists on a 42.3 % stake in the company, which is now worth over $1.6 billion, making her a major shareholder in SK Holdings, after Chey. Roh plans to move on after seeing the hopelessness in reviving their relationship. The love birds met during studies at University of Chicago and married in 1988, when Roh’s dad became the South Korean President. The couple share three children. Roh, like Mackenzie, already has decided that the money will be contributed to society.

Another messy Korean Drama

The divorce of South Korean superstars Song Joong-ki and Song Hye-kyo (the SongSong couple) is another high profile divorce. While the former couple did not split their assets or any settlement money, they both jointly own assets worth a staggering US$ 86.5 million. The celebs are South Korea’s highest-paid celebrities, due the popular drama ‘Descendants of the Sun’ they starred in. The 20-month reel to real romance ensured their split became the talk of the town. Song Joong-ki’s villa is worth US$ 2.2 million while Hye-kyo has 3 properties worth US$ 17.8 million. The ex-couple’s mansion in Itaewon is worth US$ 8.6 million.