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While we were wondering who, between Bill and Melinda Gates, would get the massive family mansion after the divorce, others were calculating how their divorce would stack up against that of other billionaires.

Still, many questions remain unanswered about the details of Bill and Melinda Gates’ divorce, but what we do know is that fortunes are bound to split, it’s just a matter of how.

Being in the top five richest people in the world, of course, means Forbes has their eyes on Bill’s money and what’s going to happen with it.

While the settlement can only be speculated on, for now, Forbes reckons their split will likely be one of the largest divorce settlements in history due to the sheer size of their fortune.

It’s unclear how the couple will divide their assets or whether they signed a prenup, but because Washington, where the Gates family resides, is a community property state, if there is no prenup, the assets might be split equally.

This would put Melinda ahead of MacKenzie Scott, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife.

All speculation, though, for now.

On the other hand, Forbes does have surety about who the other top five billionaires are with the largest disunions – at least where they could follow the money.

Here’s who they are and how much ended up with.

Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott: At least $35 billion.

In April 2019 they announced the terms of their divorce: She received about 4% of Amazon’s outstanding shares—worth over $35 billion in 2019 when the settlement was announced (and far more now, with Amazon stock up nearly 75% since then).

Jeff held on to all of the rocket company Blue Origin and the Washington Post.

Once the divorce was finalized, MacKenzie, who changed her last name to Scott in 2020 and got remarried in March 2021, became the world’s third-richest woman.

Bill and Sue Gross: $1,3 billion

Sue filed for divorce in 2016 from her husband, the founder of asset-manager Pimco, and she walked away a year later with a $1.3 billion fortune.

That haul included a $36 million Laguna Beach house and “Le Repos,” a contested 1932 Picasso painting that she later sold for $35 million.

While Bill tried to hang on to one of their three pet cats, Sue eventually got custody of all of them.

Steve and Elaine Wynn: $850 million

The cofounders of the casino giant Wynn Resorts divorced (for the second time) in 2010.

That settlement dictated that Elaine, a Wynn Resorts board member since 2002, receive 11 million shares, then worth an estimated $795 million.

Steve also sold around $114 million in stock that year—some, if not all, went to Elaine as part of the deal…

Elaine, now worth $2.3 billion, is Wynn Resorts’ largest individual shareholder.

Harold Hamm and Sue Ann Arnall: $975 million

After three years of bitter court proceedings, oil tycoon Harold in 2015 tried to finally end his 26-year marriage with Sue Ann (no prenup) by writing her a check in the amount of $974,790,317.77 from his Morgan Stanley account.

She deposited it, but then changed her mind, decided she wanted more and filed an appeal seeking a bigger share of the then-$13.7 billion fortune tied to Hamm’s 75% ownership in publicly traded Continental Resources.

In April 2015 the Oklahoma Supreme Court ended the saga, granting Harold’s motion to dismiss her appeal, reasoning from precedent that Sue Ann had agreed to the settlement by signing and depositing the check.

Roy E. and Patricia Disney: $600 million

Roy and his wife filed for divorce in 2007 at the ages of 77 and 72, respectively, after 52 years of marriage.

Roy, a nephew of Walt Disney, was worth approximately $1.3 billion at the time.

Previously a Forbes 400 mainstay, he lost nearly half of his fortune in the split and was dropped from the list.

I also wonder where Britain’s most expensive divorce settlement fits into all of this.

[source:forbes]