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Celebrities Who Married Into Extreme Wealth – Nicki Swift

In July 2023, “Days of Our Lives” actor Jessica Serfaty announced her engagement to Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio, the gorgeous Italian businessman who just so happens to be heir to the Ray-Ban fortune. She is not the only actor marrying into money either, as “Pretty Little Liars” star Ashley Benson announced her own engagement to oil heir Brandon Davis that same month. Del Vecchio’s dad died in 2022, at which point he was worth $27.3 billion, per Forbes; the younger Del Vecchio is reportedly worth $4.1 billion. Davis’ family, meanwhile, is also worth billions.

Suffice it to say, both of these actors are marrying into a level of wealth the vast majority of people will never know, even other actors. This got us thinking about how many other celebrities had married tremendously wealthy individuals. We did some digging and it turns out that it is not uncommon for famous folks to walk down the aisle with people who are either incredibly rich themselves, or whose families have great wealth (that will no doubt be passed on generationally). Some of these celebrities are very well-off themselves, but not in comparison to their current or former — since we included people who have since divorced — partners. Here are 15 celebrities who married into extreme wealth.

Brooklyn Beckham’s family is rich, but not as rich as his wife’s family

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It would be easy to assume that whoever marries into the Beckham family would be upping their status of living due to their extreme wealth. After all, David and Victoria Beckham have amassed an amazing fortune from his soccer career and her music and fashion one: Together they are reportedly worth £380 million, according to The Sunday Times’ 2022 Rich List. Needless to say, their four children have grown accustomed to a certain way of living. When their oldest child, Brooklyn Beckham, got married in 2022, he did not choose someone who was looking to up her financial standing. In fact, he married an heiress whose family is worth more than double that of his. Per Forbes, Nicola’s father, Nelson Peltz, is worth $1.5 billion.

Brooklyn married Nicola Peltz in a fabulous Palm Beach ceremony at the Peltz family’s estate, in front of a reported 600 guests. Per Architectural Digest, the estate where they married is one of the wealthiest in the country. Named Monstorrel, it is a 27-bedroom property worth an estimated $103 million, and the Peltz family has lived there since 1985. Clearly Nicola, who was born in 1995, is no stranger to the good life.

Salma Hayek is married to billionaire and does not care what people think

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Salma Hayek is an Academy Award-nominated actor who has appeared in many notable films, including “Desperado,” “From Dusk Till Dawn,” and “House of Gucci.” She is rich in her own right, but that did not stop people from making assumptions about her when she married billionaire businessman François-Henri Pinault in 2009. Hayek and Pinault have never shared how they met, but we know that they first started dating in 2006. By March of the next year, they were both engaged and expecting a child. They had a City Hall wedding in Paris on Valentine’s Day 2009, and then had a large ceremony a couple of months later in Italy.

According to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index, Pinault is worth a mind-boggling $43 billion as of July 2023. The French businessman is the founder of Kering, a fashion empire that owns Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen, Gucci, and Saint Laurent. He also owns Christie’s Auction House, by way of the holding company Groupe Artémis, and has a personal art collection. Even though people assumed the worst in terms of Hayek’s motives, she has not shied away from speaking up against the offending claims she is a gold digger. “And you know when I married him, everybody said, ‘Oh, it’s an arranged marriage, she married him for the money. I’m like, ‘yeah, whatever, b**ch.’ Think what you want: 15 years together, and we are strong in love,” she said on the “Armchair Expert” podcast in 2021.

Ellen Barkin and her billionaire ex-husband had a nasty divorce

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Actor Ellen Barkin has been a Hollywood staple for over four decades now, and she has worked consistently since her breakthrough role in the 1982 film “Diner.” Her credits include notable movies such as “The Big Easy” and “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” but in recent years, it is her work on the smaller screen that has been at the forefront. She was a standout on the short-lived sitcom “The New Normal,” and the beating heart of “Animal Kingdom,” which ran for six seasons on TNT. But at certain points in her life, Barkin’s illustrious career has taken a backseat to her tumultuous personal life — particularly during her dramatic marriage and bitter divorce from billionaire Ronald Perelman (who made much of his fortune from his 1985 purchase of Revlon).

Barkin met Perelman — who is currently worth $1.8 billion, per Forbes, but was once worth around $12 billion — at the Vanity Fair Oscar party in 1999. Perelman became notoriously controlling of Barkin’s acting career, banning her from kissing scenes and the like. In June 2000, made her his fourth wife. Barkin signed a prenup the day before the wedding, but that did not stop things from turning quite sour upon their 2006 split. According to The New York Times, Barkin was “blindsided” by the divorce papers, and was then forced to vacate their townhouse. They also fought over funding for a production company Barkin created during the marriage.

Elle MacPherson is another celebrity who was formerly married to a billionaire

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If you were alive in the 1980s, then you surely know who Elle MacPherson is. Nicknamed “The Body,” the gorgeous supermodel was everywhere back then, including on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue three years in a row; in total, MacPherson has been on that particular cover five times, more than any other model. She married and divorced fashion photographer Gilles Bensimon during that decade, but we are not here to talk about Bensimon’s riches. No, we are here to discuss MacPherson’s second husband, billionaire Jeffrey Soffer.

MacPherson — who has two now-grown children from her relationship with financier Arpad Busson — married Soffer in July 2013, after being engaged for only four months. They had been together on and off for a couple of years, but once they made things official, MacPherson moved her family to the billionaire’s Miami estate. MacPherson kept the property, which sold for $8.1 million in 2018, upon the couple’s 2017 split. She also got a reported $53 million in the divorce, which seems like a ton to us average folk but is a drop in the bucket for Soffer, who is now worth $2.2 billion, according to Forbes. Much of Soffer’s wealth is generational, as his father founded the city of Aventura, Florida, but he has increased his fortune by making smart business decisions while running the family real estate firm (Turnberry Associates) with his sister for the last two decades.

Jesse James has many ex-wives, including a wealthy heiress

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We do not get what women see in Jesse James, given his habit of cheating and those controversial Nazi photos. Somehow, though, the man continues to convince women to marry him — and marriage is something he does quite frequently. The former TV personality and mechanic was most famously married to America’s Sweetheart Sandra Bullock (who he cheated on with Michelle McGee and others) from 2005 to 2010. James was married to two other women before Bullock, and has three children between those two marriages. Post-Bullock, he had a very public relationship with tattoo artist and reality star Kat Von D, but the pair broke off their engagement when Von D accused James of cheating with 19 women.

James’ current wife is adult film star Bonnie Rotten, but before that, he was wed to heiress Alexis DeJoria for seven years. Alexis is the daughter of John Paul DeJoria, whose net worth is $2.8 billion as of July 2023, per Forbes. Much of his money comes from founding two iconic brands, Patron Spirits Co. and the Paul Mitchell hair care line. On top of that, Alexis has done well for herself too, establishing her own career as a successful race car driver. No word on how much James got after their 2020 split, but we hope that Alexis was able to use the fact that James once again cheated (“with at least 20 women,” per the Daily Mail) to her advantage.

Actor Jami Gertz is married to a billionaire, but he was not rich when they wed

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Jami Gertz has been a professional actor for decades, and you may know her from TV projects like “Sibs,” “Still Standing,” and “The Neighbors,” or from movies like “Twister” and “Sixteen Candles.” Or maybe you just know her as Jerry’s girlfriend who would not lend Elaine even one square of toilet paper in her iconic “Seinfeld” guest spot. In any case, Gertz has been around for a long time and has probably amassed a pretty penny throughout her career. But her acting income is probably nothing to the star, since she is married to Antony Ressler, who is worth just over $8 billion, per Bloomberg. Forbes has his fortune at a slightly lower $7.4 billion, but whatever it is, Gertz and her husband are so rich that they even co-own the Atlanta Hawks.

Gertz is a different case than most of the people on this list since she did not actually marry a wealthy person. In fact, she made more money than her spouse when they first walked down the aisle in 1989, so we could say that Gertz unknowingly married someone who would become incredibly wealthy. Ressler co-founded private equity firm Apollo Global Management in 1990, and then co-founded another firm, Ares Management, in 1997. Since all of his wealth was accumulated during his marriage, should he and Gertz divorce, she would have a claim to half of it (provided they divorced in California).

Jane Fonda stopped acting when she married billionaire Ted Turner

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We are not ones to cheer on a divorce, but we are thankful that Jane Fonda split from her billionaire ex-husband Ted Turner. Fonda stopped acting during the marriage, and if they had never split, we would never have gotten the brilliant “Grace and Frankie,” or any of her other recent work. The couple had a solid run, and they remain friends, so we think things worked out as the universe planned. “He was sexy. He was brilliant. He had two million acres by the time I left. It would have been easy to stay,” Fonda said in the 2018 documentary “Jane Fonda in Five Acts” (via People). “But there was this angel on my shoulder…it was hard to even hear her voice, [saying], ‘If you stay, you will die without ever becoming who you can be. You will not really be authentic.'”

Fonda had been married twice prior to meeting Turner — first to director Roger Vadim, and then to activist Tom Hayden. She married Turner in 1991, shortly after the end of her 17-year marriage with Hayden, and left Hollywood for more than a decade. The marriage was plagued by infidelities and communication issues, but Fonda has often referred to Turner as her “favorite” former hubby. Per Prevention magazine, the Academy Award winner received somewhere between $70 and $100 million when the pair divorced in 2001. Turner, who inherited Turner Broadcasting and then founded CNN, is worth $2.4 billion, per Forbes.

Janet Jackson’s third husband was reportedly a billionaire

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While many sites on the internet claim that Wissam Al Mana is a billionaire, Al Mana has never been included on any official list, such as the ones put out by Forbes or Bloomberg. But while we cannot confirm whether he has crossed the line into billionaire territory, we do know that Al Mana is incredibly rich. Like, super rich. Along with his three brothers, Al Mana owns and runs the Al Mana Group, founded by his late father. The group operates 55 companies around the world, and has a hand in everything from cars to real estate. Since the company does business overseas, Wissam Al Mana is most known stateside for his personal life — namely, his relatively brief marriage to pop star Janet Jackson. Both of Jackson’s previous marriages were done in secret, so we are surprised to even have scraps of knowledge about this one.

Jackson presumably married for love and not cash, since she has her own fortune, but the divorce still had people wondering about money matters. While sources were throwing out numbers as high as $500 million, the actual number appears to be less than half of that. Per the Daily Beast, Jackson was reportedly promised $200 million in the prenup, with one of the reasons the number is so high being the son she had with Al Mana. The couple married in 2012 and split in 2017, amidst rumors of Al Mana wanting to have control in the marriage.

Kaley Cuoco was formerly married to the heir of Intuit

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Kaley Cuoco is happily in love with “Ozark” actor Tom Pelphrey, with whom she welcomed daughter Matilda in March 2023. Before Pelphrey, Cuoco dated many notable men including her “The Big Bang Theory” co-star Johnny Galecki, singer Jaron Lowenstein, and model Al Santos. Ever the romantic, she also tried her hand at marriage a couple of times. Her first husband was dreamy tennis player Ryan Sweeting, who Cuoco wed only three months after getting engaged. The couple split two years later, in 2015, and Cuoco continued searching for her forever partner. In 2018, she married equestrian Karl Cook after a couple of years of dating. But things were not meant to be, and the couple divorced after only three years of marriage.

Karl’s father, Scott Cook, is worth $4.9 billion, according to Forbes. The elder Cook co-founded the financial software Intuit and remains the chairman of the company, which produces products like TurboTax and Mint. That makes his son one of the likely heirs to the Intuit fortune, alongside his two siblings. Nonetheless, when Karl Cook married Cuoco, it was Cuoco who had more assets to protect. Per Us Weekly, the couple signed an “ironclad prenup” in order to protect the actor’s ample assets, then estimated to be around $100 million. With her thriving career, that number has no doubt only risen since 2018, and who knows when Karl will come into his inheritance.

Stephanie Seymour’s husband was a billionaire when they married

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We do not know for sure whether Peter Brant is currently a billionaire. The famed publisher is reportedly one of the world’s top 200 art collectors (he has a huge Warhol collection), but his overall fortune is not what it used to be. According to The New York Times, Brandt was worth $1.4 billion in 2007. By 2010, that number had dropped to $500 million, thanks to a flailing newsprint industry and an ailing economy. More current estimates of his wealth are spotty, but we do know for certain that Brant was a billionaire when he walked down the aisle with supermodel Stephanie Seymour in 1995. The couple split up in late 2009, and even though they called off the divorce less than a year later, their dirty secrets were still spilled.

Court records from the split dug into information regarding misappropriation of funds on both Seymour and Brant’s parts and ugly details about their custody fight. Together the couple shares three kids, but Brant has five others from his first marriage to Sandy Simms Brant, and Seymour has one from her first marriage to Tommy Andrews. It is almost shocking that Brant and Seymour did not have a prenup — as reported in The New York Times by way of a quote from Donald Trump — given his wealth. His money largely comes from Brant Publications, which he founded in 1984, and paper manufacturer White Birch Paper, which his father co-founded.

We have model Miranda Kerr’s husband to thank for Snapchat

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The stunning Miranda Kerr made a name for herself as a model, most notably as one of Victoria Secret’s Angels. Kerr started modeling at 13, walked in Victoria Secret’s televised fashion shows every year from 2006 to 2009, and then signed an exclusive deal with Balenciaga in 2010. One of the world’s most recognizable models, she was at one point one of the highest-paid models as well. Kerr’s fame in the aughts was also aided by her high-profile romance with actor Orlando Bloom, who she married in 2010 after three years of dating. The couple had one son before splitting in 2013, and Kerr has since largely stopped modeling to focus on her skincare company, KORA Organics.

Bloom moved on from Kerr with pop star Katy Perry, and Kerr went on to marry into extreme wealth when she wed Evan Spiegel in 2017, after two years together. Spiegel — the co-founder of Snap Inc. and the CEO of its biggest product, Snapchat — is worth a whopping $2.8 billion, per Forbes. The couple now have two boys of their own and, luckily, Spiegel’s money has not gotten in the way of the blended family’s amazing dynamic. “It’s incredible that we’ve been able to find other partners who work really well with us,” Kerr said on the InStyle podcast “Ladies First With Laura Brown.” “Evan and Orlando really get along just as well as Katy and I, so it’s such a blessing.”

Soap opera actor Holly Valance married one of the billionaire Candy Brothers

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Holly Valance is not well-known in the United States, even though that is where she spends a lot of time, but Aussies know her for well due to her appearance in more than 400 episodes of the legendary soap opera “Neighbours.” Valance is also known because of her marriage, which has made headlines due to who her husband is as well as their extravagant lifestyle. Valance first met her current hubby Nick Candy at a party in 2009, and the couple married three years later. At one point, they lived in a London penthouse worth £175 million (equivalent to $225 million). The couple has had multiple other properties, including a 21,000-square-foot Los Angeles mansion that they put up for sale for $85 million in 2022. Per The Sun, the couple splits their time between Britain, LA, and Monaco.

By this point, you are probably wondering how the couple can live so lavishly, knowing full well it is not because of those soap opera residuals. Alongside his brother, Candy has a huge property development business and together the Candy Brothers are worth an estimated £880 million, which makes them billionaires in American dollars. Nick is not shy about showing off his wealth either — in case those home prices did not convince you, he also bought Valance a £26 million yacht in 2020 and together with his brother Christian, has a roster of cars that includes Rolls-Royces, Ferraris, Range Rovers, and at least one Mercedes.

Jerry Hall’s billionaire ex-husband broke up with her by email

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It would be easy to define Jerry Hall by her relationships, given the wealthy and famous men she has chosen as partners, but Hall was famous in her own right prior to any of her public pairings. After leaving her small Texas hometown for Paris at age 16, Hall became one of the biggest models of the 1970s. She quickly began walking for brands like Yves Saint Laurent and Thierry Mugler, and by 1977, had already scored the cover on dozens of magazines. Now that we have given credit to her fantastic modeling career, let’s discuss Hall’s marriages, which have loomed large. She famously started dating Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger when she was only 20, and the pair stayed together for more than two decades.

Though Hall and Jagger had a wedding ceremony in 1990, it was declared void under both British and Indonesian (the wedding was in Bali) law. Though there were other relationships after Jagger, Hall did not walk down the aisle again until marrying media mogul Rupert Murdoch in 2016. She was reportedly gutted when Murdoch ended things in 2022 — as anyone would be considering he did it in an email. “We have certainly had some good times, but I have much to do,” Murdoch reportedly wrote, per The Guardian. We don’t know how much money Hall got in the divorce, but it is public knowledge that she was given possession of two mansions.

Fashion designer Diane Von Furstenberg is married to a billionaire businessman

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Best known for popularizing the wrap dress in the early 1970s, fashion designer Diane Von Furstenberg is nothing short of iconic. According to Forbes, she had sold more than a million wrap dresses by 1976 and still rakes in the dough with her self-named company, DVF. Forbes has not reported on Von Furstenberg’s wealth since 2017, but it was $300 million back then, after reaching $450 million two years prior. This is a startling amount of money, but it is nothing in comparison to Von Furstenberg’s husband’s fortune, which is more than thirteen times that figure. As of July 2023, Forbes reports that the designer’s beau Barry Diller is worth $4.2 billion.

When DVF and Diller met, he was the president of Paramount Pictures and she was an up-and-coming designer going through a divorce (she has two kids with her first husband, a literal prince). According to Von Furstenberg, over the next couple of decades, she and Diller alternated between being lovers and friends before they solidified things legally in 2001 by becoming husband and wife. This was six years after Diller founded IAC, the huge media conglomerate responsible for Care.com, Angi.com, and a slew of other magazines and websites. Up until 2020, IAC also owned significant interest in Match Group — the company behind a number of dating sites including Match.com, Tinder, and OKCupid. Diller is also chairman of travel giant Expedia, and he owns a third of DVF, per Forbes.

Kelly Rohrbach married a Walmart heir

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Anyone who stays up to date with the business world surely knows about the Walton family, whose fortune comes from Walmart and who are the richest family in the United States, worth a collective $247 billion as of 2020, per Forbes. According to the company website, Sam Walton opened the first Walmart in 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas, though his brother Bud is also often credited as a founder. Today, seven of the brothers’ heirs hold half of the company’s stock. One of these heirs is Sam’s son Jim Walton, who Forbes says is worth $66 billion on his own as of July 2023. Jim is the chairman of his family’s Arvest Bank, which has over $20 billion in assets, and sat on Walmart’s board for over a decade.

When Jim vacated his board seat in June 2016, it was taken over by his son Steuart Walton. And Steuart is the Walton we are concerned with here, since he is the one who married a celebrity. It was reported that Steuart wed actor Kelly Rohrbach in mid-2019. Reports from December 2021 suggested that Rohrbach — best known for appearing in the “Baywatch” movie — was expecting their first kid, but no birth announcement was ever made. In April 2023, the Arkansas Times included Steuart and some of his relatives on their list of “Arkansas nepo babies,” and noted his involvement in building up Northwest Arkansas. Rohrbach appears to have given up acting, at least for now, with no IMDb entries listed since 2019.