The most expensive celebrity divorces

When the honeymoon's over and a marriage begins to crumble, the ensuing divorce can sometimes leave you with only crumbs in your wallet! We take a look at the most expensive legal separations in recent years.

Marriages, they say, are made in heaven, but celebrity marriages seem to be made with nothing more than a short shelf life.

Unfortunately, when you're living life in the public eye, domestic drama and a scandal (if any) only serve to create a media circus, as the world and its grandmother try to get the inside scoop on what went wrong behind closed doors.

And if and when a celeb relationship truly ends, the next big thing to grab attention is the financial settlement. Like in the case of embattled golfer Tiger Woods, whose divorce from wife Elin Nordegren was finalised this week.

While the controversy of his many affairs has taken a backseat, what's making the front pages now is the slice of pie Woods handed over to ex-missus, which is rumoured to be in the staggering region of $100 million, with some speculations pegging it as high as an unbelievable $750 million.

This is hardly the first time, however, that a celebrity has had to fork over such a large fortune to an estranged spouse -- in the following pages, we take a look at the most expensive divorces of all time as per a list drawn up by The Telegraph.

Rumoured to be the most expensive divorce in history, the media tycoon legally parted ways with his second wife in 1999, after of 32 years and three children together. The payout: $1.7 billion!

After 20 years of togetherness, the wealthy Turkish-Saudi Arabian businessman, who owns hotels, banks and prime properties across the world, parted ways with his British wife in 1981. Khashoggi left her with a $874 million chunk of his fortune.

McCaw, a wealthy American entrepreneur, found that he had to shell out $460 million to ex-missus Wendy when their two decade-plus union ended in 1995.

Both these immensely wealthy businessmen from the former Soviet Union have set records with payouts to their exes.

Forty three-year-old Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich's second wife and the mother of five of his children, Irina, filed for divorce in 2007 amidst rumours of his infidelity. At the time, analysts predicted that she could have walked away with more than $5 billion after 16 years of marriage, but they are reported to have come to a settlement for $300 million.

Energy magnate Michael Polsky and his wife Maya married in the Ukraine in 1975 and migrated to the US the next year, with only $500 dollars between them. Their fairytale rags-to-riches story, however, ended in divorce in 2007, with Mrs Polsky filing for divorce and receiving $184 million of her husband's wealth.

Close on the heels of the Polskys' $184 million settlement comes the Welchs', at an estimated $180 million.

Jack Welch, an American businessman and ex-CEO of GE, divorced his second wife, Jane, in 2003 after 14 years of marriage.

While he had a prenuptial agreement in place, it didn't do much good -- Beasley, a former lawyer, argued that since their union had passed the decade-mark, it was not applicable to their divorce and walked away with a large fraction of his fortune.

The former basketball star married Juanita in 1989 and they divorced in 2006, after 17 years and three children together. Their parting was reportedly amicable and Mrs Jordan was granted the sum of $168 million by way of a financial settlement.

What is it with the second wives getting the biggest slice of the pie? Musician Neil Diamond had to fork over a rumoured $150 million to Marcia Murphey, his partner of 26 years and mother to two of his children, when they decided to end their marriage in 1995.

This one is certainly the shortest marriage on the list, but the settlement was handsome nevertheless. After only five years as a couple, the hotshot director had to part with both, his first wife and $100 million. It's said that they did have a quick-fix prenup that was scribbled on a napkin, but since Irving had no lawyer present when it was signed, the judge overseeing their divorce disregarded it entirely.

And finally, rounding off the list is the settlement between this British businessman, who made his fortune in insurance and his wife of 28 years. Charman filed for divorce in 2003 and offered her an initial settlement sum of approximately $30 million, but wound up having to pay up more than thrice the amount -- $95 million!