About Roman Abramovich
Roman Abramovich splits with Irina to be with Russian model
Russia’s richest man and owner of London’s Chelsea soccer club Roman Abramovich divorced his second wife. He has confirmed his 16-year marriage to wife Irina is over.
“Mr. and Mrs. Abramovich have divorced in Russia on a consensual basis and have agreed terms in respect of arrangements for their (five) children and a financial settlement,” the statement said, without giving any details.
Abramovich, an orphan, split from his first wife, Olga, in 1990 and married the former Aeroflot flight attendant Irina in 1991.
The couple moved to London in 2003. The couple has five children – three girls and two boys – range in age from three to 15.
The divorce follows newspaper reports that Abramovich has been seen with a young Russian model, Daria Zhukova.
The 25-year-old, a daughter of an oil magnate and former girl-friend of Russian tennis star Marat Safin, has been pictured with Mr Abramovich on several occasions, leading to rumours that the two were having a relationship, although Ms Zhukova has denied this, saying they are merely “close friends”.
According to The Daily Mail, Mr Abramovich apparently invited Miss Zhukova and her father to his party in France last year. His friendship with Miss Zhukova began the following month. The report in October noted that the two enjoyed meetings around the world – including in Barcelona and London – to watch Chelsea in action.
Miss Zhukova studied homeopathy at the London College of Naturopathic Medicine, followed by some modelling, then launched a clothing line that was featured in Vogue.
But within weeks of the unconfirmed affair being reported, she was said to have returned to Moscow.
Mr Abramovich’s personal fortune is estimated at around £10 billion and, although no details of the divorce settlement have been released, it is thought Mrs Abramovich could have been entitled to up to half.
Russia’s Vedomosti business newspaper quoted sources close to Abramovich as saying that Irina will get less than 2 per cent of his £9.6 billion fortune after their 16-year marriage.
Irina’s settlement would include “cash and tangible assets, such as a house in Britain, a house near Moscow, a yacht and a plane”.
It had been speculated that the settlement could have left her the world's richest ever divorcee. But yesterday it emerged that Irina Abramovich - the ex-wife of Roman Abramovich, Russia's richest man - was likely to get only a fraction of her husband's fortune following their divorce announced earlier this week.
According to Russia's respected business daily Vedomosti, Mrs Abramovich will get a mere $300m (£155m) - much less than the $5.5bn suggested by much of the British press. The figure includes the value of homes in Britain and in the Moscow region, as well as a yacht, and private plane, the paper said.
Mr Abramovich - who met Irina on a flight to Germany in 1990 when she worked as an Aeroflot stewardess - has also agreed to pay for the couple's five children. Quoting two friends inside Mr Abramovich's circle, Vedomosti revealed that he had agreed to pay for all of his children's costs.
It added that the couple divorced last month in Chukotka, the remote and frozen region in Russia's far east where the billionaire businessman is the governor, despite his several unsuccessful attempts to resign.
The story of the Abramovichs' marriage and low-key separation was splashed over the Russian press yesterday. It has been transfixed by reports that Mr Abramovich has been seen with the former Russian model Daria Zhukova, 25 - previously known here as the ex-girlfriend of Russian tennis player Marat Safin. The best-selling tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda devoted four pages, publishing photos of the tycoon and Zhukova, as well as listing the value of his numerous homes and jets.
The paper also interviewed Mrs Abramovich's disgruntled Moscow relatives, who complained they had not shared in the Abramovich billions. Vladimir Malandin, her uncle, said he and his wife Vera had been cut off, despite the fact Irina lived with him and his parents until the age of 18.
"I'm a pensioner and they are billionaires," he pointed out. "Between us my wife and I get 7,000 roubles a month (£140). My daughter earns 8,000 roubles." His wife added: "You have to understand us in the right way. We are not beggars. But we really have a hard life."
In an interview with the Guardian Mrs Malandina said that they had written to Mr Abramovich asking him to help their 13-year-old daughter, a ballet student, to take part in a competition in Britain.
"We received a reply saying that Mr Abramovich doesn't help the poor," she said. "She couldn't go. Her partner went with someone else."
The couple have now written to Vladimir Putin - Russia's president and a close friend of Mr Abramovich - to see whether he might be able to help, they said.
Asked why the relationship between Mr Abramovich and his wife might have floundered, Mrs Maldina replied: "We don't know because she doesn't want to talk to her relatives."
Irina Abramovich - whose maiden name was Malandina - grew up with her uncle's family after her father died when she was a child. Now 39, she and her mother Alla have had little contact with their Moscow family in recent years, the Malandinas admitted.
"Ira became different when she became rich," Vera reflected. "When she lived with us in a normal environment she wasn't like this." Yesterday Russian lawyers said that Mr Abramovich - who split from his first wife Olga in 1990 and married Irina in 1991 - had almost certainly signed a marital contract with his second wife.
Under Russian law, assets are normally split 50-50. But unlike in Britain, women do not have a claim on their ex-partner's future earnings, and also have to prove their ex-husband's wealth.
As well as demonstrating his patriotic credentials, Mr Abramovich's decision to divorce in Russia had almost certainly saved him billions of pounds, they said.
The 40-year-old billionaire is Britain's second richest man, and according to Forbes magazine the world's 16th richest person. He announced his divorce in a brief statement on Tuesday night, following earlier denials that his 16-year-old marriage was in trouble.
"Mr and Mrs Abramovich have divorced in Russia on a consensual basis and have agreed terms in respect of arrangements for their children and a financial settlement," the statement said, adding that the tycoon's interests including Chelsea FC were not affected.
The apparent $300m settlement is dwarfed by the $1.7bn that Rupert Murdoch, chief executive of US News Corp, paid his ex-wife Anna in 1999 after a 32-year marriage.
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