Most Expensive Celebrity Divorces

Rumors were rife throughout 2010 regarding the divorce settlement between scandal-plagued golfer Tiger Woods and former Swedish model Elin Nordegren. Various sources quoted $110 million, which ranks highly amongst high-profile divorce settlements, but is far from the most expensive.

Greg Norman and Laura Andrassy: $103 million

Tiger Woods does not appear to be the only golfer whose tournament cheques become alimony payments. Australian Greg Norman reportedly settled with first wife Laura Andrassy for $103 million.

Neil Diamond and Marcia Murphy: $150 million

Neil Diamond's easy listening style has seen him enjoy a career spanning 4 decades, with record sales exceeding 100 million copies. He wed high school sweetheart, Jayne Posner in 1963. Apparently, in November 1969, Diamond went to buy cigarettes and never returned. By December, the couple were divorced and Diamond had married production assistant, Marcia Murphy, with whom he had 2 sons. Amidst rumours of Diamond's "extramarital activities," the marriage ended in 1995. The divorce settlement was ½ of Diamond's fortune, amounting to $150 million, although he claimed Murphy was "worth every penny."

Michael and Juanita Jordan: $168 million

Former NBA star, Michael Jordan married Juanita Vanoy in September 1989. They filed for a mutual and amicable divorce in December 2006. The settlement of £168 million was, according to forbes.com, the biggest celebrity divorce settlement on public record at that time.

Roman and Irina Abramovich: $300 million

Russia billionaire and Chelsea FC chairman, Roman Abramovich, married Irina, an Aeroflot flight attendant, in 1990. Following 17 years of marriage, Roman filed for divorce, having fallen for 20 year-old socialite Daria Zhukova. Roman had a lucky escape, managing to negotiate Irina's original claim for $7 billion to a far smaller figure, but still got stung for $300 million.

Rupert and Anna Murdoch: $1.7 billion

Australian media magnate, Rupert Murdoch began developing his "empire" with the 1952 inheritance of his father's newspaper business. He married Scottish-born Anna Torv in 1967 and they remained together until 1998. The split was relatively amicable until Murdoch forced Anna off the board of News Corporation. The divorce was finalised in June 1999 with a settlement of $110 million cash, plus other assets totalling a massive $1.7 billion.

Although divorce seems very common place according to UK government statistics divorce is falling year on year as In 2008 in England and Wales the number of divorces fell by 5.0 per cent to 121,779, in Scotland they fell by 10 per cent from 12,810 in 2007 to 11,474 in 2008 and in Northern Ireland they fell by 4.8 per cent from 2,913 in 2007 to 2,773 in 2008.

One in five men and women divorcing in 2008 had a previous marriage ending in divorce. This proportion has almost doubled since 1981 when 11 per cent of men and women divorcing had a previous marriage ending in divorce. Sixty-nine per cent of divorces in 2008 were to couples where the marriage was the first for both parties, make sure if you are going to make the mistake again, it doesn't cost you as much as the people above

Garry Hudson writes about all thing financial and currently works for Baines and Ernst