How To Handle a Billion-Dollar Divorce

It’s important for the potential next wives of men like Rupert Murdoch to face the very real possibility that your tycoon might one day walk away from you. He’s a wild romantic, too in love with love for any real relationship to compare. So how are you going to put your life back on track when your husband emails you out, as Murdoch – who is 91 years old and not getting any younger – reportedly did recently with Jerry Hall, his fourth wife? This is just six years after they got married at Spencer House in London and he tweeted, “Feel like the luckiest AND happiest man alive.” Here are some tips.

Use your head, not your heart

Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall in happier days. The couple, who married in 2016, started divorce proceedings earlier this year.

If you receive this breakup email, no matter how many sad emojis it contains, don’t reply. At all. His writing and every reply you send is now evidence. “It’s not just that your spouse has already consulted an attorney. They created an entire strategy with a team and took several steps to execute it,” said Thomas Kretchmar, attorney specializing in marriage and family law with Chemtob Moss Forman & Beyda in New York City. “All you can have is what you think. Don’t give it to them on a tray.”

Other things to avoid? Saying or doing anything that might indicate that you are still okay with the prenuptial agreement you signed. You____ not. Trust us: Everything is still negotiable. If your ex puts $75,000 into your bank account to start making the monthly payments you’re entitled to under the prenuptial agreement, have your divorce attorney send it back immediately with a note that says, in legal language, “Nice try.”

And all the mutual friends you found? You can’t trust any of them right now. “There aren’t usually many ways to add value to the superpowers,” explains Kretchmar. Even if your friends sincerely ask how you’re doing, they’ll have a hard time spilling anything when your ex-billionaire asks.

Sara Davison, a London-based divorce coach, advises you to break up with all of your mutual friends. “You can make it beautiful,” she says. “Say, ‘I’m staggering, so I’m taking a break from everyone associated with him. It’s nothing personal.'”

Reconsider your positioning

Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott in 2018. Their divorce a year later would make Scott, a novelist and philanthropist, one of the richest women in the world.

Divorce, like so much else in the 21st century, is an opportunity to relaunch your personal brand. But there are pitfalls to avoid here too. “Some people try to go back to who they were before they were in a relationship,” says Davison. “A woman wanted to go inline skating. I said, “You have children. Now let’s find you something else.” “And don’t make your new brand an attempt to win him back. “Some people will have plastic surgery” as a tactic to rekindle their romance, she says. “But it rarely works.”

However, if it is a treat for yourself, do it. “I had a rhinoplasty after my divorce,” says Davison. “And I feel like a million bucks.” Even if you don’t feel like you’re in seven figures, it’s important to look in public like you would — where, unlike on social media, you’re meant to be seen. “When Prince William left Kate Middleton before her wedding, she went to a club in this really beautiful dress and had a blast,” Davison recalls. “You can break up in private, but don’t post your story on Twitter.”

date, just not too serious

Harry and Linda Macklowe in 2015. When they divorced, the sale of their world-class art collection at auction reportedly fetched $676 million.

When you go out you will meet men. More men than you may have ever met. Maybe more than anyone. Patti Stanger, Bravo Star The Millionaire Matchmaker, recommends waiting at least 90 days. The temptation to retaliate can be strong, but don’t do it. “Once you have that billionaire, you want a bigger billionaire,” she says. “You want Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk, if only to tell the ex fuck you. They want to trade, and then who’s left?”

Lisa Kerkorian, the former women’s tennis champion who was married to Beverly Hills billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, agrees. “Jerry Hall has probably never been hit on by so many younger men in her life,” she says. “Have fun, but entrust your money to a wealth manager.”

It’s also a time to enjoy the company of men your own age — or better yet, a fraction of it. Kerkorian met her husband when she was 19 and he was 69. “I saw a lot of my youth through his politics, his conservatism, his ageism and his misogyny,” she says. “When I was divorced, I immersed myself in younger people and how they saw the world. It really rounded me out as a person.” At that point, in her late thirties, she was dating a 27-year-old and a man seven years her junior, with whom she had two children. “They were interested in what I was thinking and what I was saying,” she says.

Finding another billionaire will likely bring about the same relationship problems you faced in your marriage. “My advice,” says Kerkorian, “would be to resist trying to replace that big life.”

And while it might be a bad idea to start dating right away, Stanger insists you don’t have to become a nun. “Getting pipes clean is another issue,” she says. “If this makes you feel alive again, namaste. Just be safe.”

Moving, moving, moving

Once you’ve started getting your groove back, consider taking it to a new zip code. After Kerkorian’s divorce, real estate agent Jennifer D’Auria encouraged her to leave Beverly Hills and got her a rental home across the country, in the Hamptons. “People said, ‘You can’t run away from your problems.’ I didn’t run away I was looking for new people, new activities,” says Kerkorian. The reset worked. Being the wife of a billionaire, she says, is isolating; You have to worry about how everything you do and say will reflect back on your husband. And such men are often very controlling: Kerkorian didn’t want his wife to hang out with girlfriends because they could all speak ill of their husbands. The women in her social circle were suspicious, mostly because some of them were flirting with their husbands right in front of her.

Three thousand miles away, Kerkorian took her daughter to a new school where she met her parents. She joined the tennis club, planted a garden, and became vegan. Her daughter started horseback riding. “It was a lifesaver that my interactions with new people were about me and not who I was married to,” she says.

Amy Herman, a real estate agent from New York City, encourages her clients to move at least 20 blocks from their home — and not to a townhouse, but to a building where they’ll meet new people.

Also, you don’t know how much you can spend on an apartment until the divorce is finalized, which can take years. So you have to learn a new word: rent. But that doesn’t mean you can’t buy yourself something small for the weekends. “Let’s get you a $2 million getaway and wait for the rest,” says Herman. Proposing a watermill on Long Island or the Venetian Islands of Miami, she doesn’t rule out the power of a water feature. “I hate to say that for political reasons, but in Mar-a-Lago you meet people,” she says. “You go to leading hotels around the world and you meet people by the pool. The same goes for a house.”

We at city ​​Country hope your marriage lasts. We’re sure your new husband learned a lot from his first four rounds, and this time he’ll be an equal partner who really listens – possibly thanks to major advances in hearing aid technology. But should things go wrong, know we’re here for you. It won’t be easy, but with the right team, you could find a whole new you.

This story appears in the October 2022 issue of City Country. SUBSCRIBE NOW