Greg Norman's Divorce Payout

Celebrity divorces are no different from any other divorce on the sadness stakes the only difference is the size of the numbers being bandied about for settlement. There are a couple of divorces in the pipeline that might see some big numbers being thrown around such as Alex Rodriguez of New York Yankees fame. A-Rod as he is affectionately know just inked a 10-year USD 275 million deal which is unlikely to be protected by any pre-nuptial agreement.

It would seem that his alleged philandering ways and an inability to reconcile with his wife means that a drawn out ding dong battle is looming. He has two kids one is a three years old and the other is a mere 3 months old. This will be certainly one to watch.

However, this is not a piece about A-Rod but rather one of my favourite under-achieving in the majors golfers, Greg Norman. Although Norman did end up winning a couple of British Opens, the man who dominated the game should have won at least half a dozen more but seemed to be afflicted by that perennial choking disease and ended up throwing some excellent chances away. He was still a great golfer all the same.

Anyways, it seems that his ding dong divorce battle has ended up costing him a payout to the ex of some USD 100 million and a guaranteed payout to his two kids of about USD 103 million and the all important trophies on his death.

This is just the making public of the terms of the settlement. Greg Norman has since remarried. The Shark has recently married the former tennis star and now legend, Chris Evert.

The divorce battle was messy and included acrimonious public court filings and personal spats such as changing the locks on family homes to keep the other one out. All child like but nevertheless a good read for those of us looking to humour ourselves on the suffering of the rich and famous.

One of the filings included Norman's lawyers claiming that the wife was entitled to much less because she did not teach the husband how to swing a golf club or how to win. This is a line that A-Rod might want to consider. After all A-Rod has been considered a star since he was 15 years old. This is way before he met his wife.

When it is all said and done the payout to his former wife amounts to less than 1/4 of Greg Norman's estimated wealth which sits around USD 500+ million. Some men out there would think that he has done well.

Laura Andrassy, the wife, ended up getting:

1. a cash payment of USD 50 million;

2. 500K in jewellery;

3. Range Rover;

4. paintings, furniture, Christmas decorations, and other valuables;

5. USD 30.2 million distributed over the next 15 years;

6. USD 21.5 million from the sale of family homes; and

7. USD 466K from a retirement account.