Real Estate That's Changed Hands in World's Priciest Divorces

The Saudi arms-dealer/financier Adnan Khashoggi had his grubby little fingers in every corrupt pie in the Cold War era. He found himself mixed up in the Iran-Contra affair and with the deposed and despised Marcos family of the Philippines, but that's not to say his shady enterprises didn't pay. In fact, he was considered the richest man in the world in the 1980s, commanding a personal empire that included several lavish villas, one of the world's then largest yachts, and a fleet of private aircraft. But all was not well in the House of Khashoggi, and in 1979, his ex-wife suited him to the tune of $2.54B. She ended up walking away with $874M as part of an out-of-court settlement. Though Khashoggi enjoyed a lavish lifestyle following the divorce, rumors of his insolvency persist. While there is no proof that the Saudi smoothtalker still owns this villa on the French Riviera (above), it's size—16 bedrooms—and price tag—more than $260M—give a none-too-vague notion of his vast, perhaps ill-gotten, wealth.


? Craig McCaw might not be a household name, but for what he paid to settle his divorce from wife Wendy, maybe he should be. One year after selling his telecom business to AT&T for $12B, he shelled out an estimated $460M to say goodbye to his college sweetheart forever. She also got (one of) their homes near Santa Barbara, this $9M estate on a bluff overlooking the beach. Over the years, she hasn't exactly endeared herself to the citizens of Santa Barbara. She's been waging a legal battle to prevent the public from accessing the beach beneath her massive estate, and she has been accused of manipulating the editorial staff at the Santa Barbara News-Press, which she purchased in 2000. What kick-started this infighting? The paper's publication of Rob Lowe's home address.

? Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich isn't shy about his spending, but his divorce from second wife Irina sure was a doozy. In it, she kept more than $100M in real estate alone, including an $80M London mansion and this country estate, known as Fyning Hill, which he paid more that $20M to acquire. That hasn't dented Abramovich's desire for pricey properties, however. He recently spent some $90M on a beachfront compound on the luxe Caribbean island of St. Barths, and is currently planning to renovate two London townhouses into one massive mansion as his urban oasis. The cost for that project? An estimated $250M.