Celebrity splits usually end in big money deals

A RECORDING career spanning 25 years has made the Material Girl one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in music and, while some of Ritchie’s recent films have not exactly been box office smashes, he was behind one of the most successful British movies of recent years — Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

They will doubtless be hoping for a more amicable — and less costly — split than Paul McCartney and Heather Mills managed.

Seven months ago, their break-up reached an acrimonious conclusion in the High Court, with the former Beatle paying €31.2m of his fortune to Mills.

While this might seem like a huge sum, according to Forbes magazine it was small change compared with sums other stars have had to splash out.

US basketball star Michael Jordan and singer-songwriter Neil Diamond both walked away from their marital ties with dents in their fortunes estimated at €111 million.

In 1999, Texan model Jerry Hall split from Mick Jagger after he fathered a child by a Brazilian model.

After 22 years with the Rolling Stone, Hall walked away with up to €16m.

Ten years earlier, Steven Spielberg’s wife Amy Irving successfully contested a prenuptial agreement with the director, and was granted a €64m payout.

Ivana Trump, who divorced billionaire businessman Donald Trump in 1991, offered some advice to other wives who were about to become ex-wives.

In a cameo role in Hollywood film The First Wives Club, she uttered the immortal line: “Remember girls, don’t get mad, get everything.”