Jamie Cooper-Hohn's $530M Divorce, And The Top 5 Most Expensive Divorce Settlements In History

The wife of a British financier has been awarded 337 million pounds (approximately $530 million) in what is thought to be the largest divorce settlement in the country's history.

Jamie Cooper-Hohn and her hedge fund manager husband Sir Chris Hohn had disputed the allocation of their marital assets, said to be worth in excess of $1.3 billion, according to a BBC report. American-born Cooper-Hohn, had sought half of the couple's assets, while her husband offered one quarter, arguing that he had made a special contribution to their wealth during their 17-year marriage, according to Reuters.

Cooper-Hohn, who has a masters in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, ran, with her husband, the Children's Investment Fund, a hedge fund that returns most of its profits to a charity, according to the Financial Times.

While the sum of money at issue in the Hohns' divorce is enough to raise eyebrows, it does not even rank among the top five most expensive divorce settlements in history. While some divorces are settled in secret, here are the highest divorce settlements on record.

#5: Adnan Khashoggi and Soraya Khashoggi's $874 million settlement

The Khashoggis held the record for the world's most expensive divorce for some time, after their divorce action was settled in 1982. Adnan, a Saudi arms dealer and entrepreneur, once worth $4 billion, is no longer a billionaire, according to CNBC.

#4: Harold Hamm and Sue Ann Hamm's $995.5 million settlement

Although the amount that the Continental Resources CEO was ordered to pay his wife of 26 years by an Oklahoma judge seems large, it was a comparatively small part of the oil tycoon's fortune.

Divorce attorney Seymour Reisman told Forbes: “Typically a wife of 26 years should expect to receive a minimum of 25-30% of the marital assets.” With Hamm's fortune reported to be in the region of $14 billion, his former wife got approximately 7 percent of it.

#3 Bernie Ecclestone and Slavica Ecclestone's $1 - $1.2 billion settlement

The diminutive boss of Formula One racing and his former wife reportedly settled their marriage with a payoff that makes Slavica the richest woman from divorce in Britain, according to the Telegraph.

In an unusual twist, however, it was revealed at Ecclestone's bribery trial in Germany earlier this year, that his former wife pays him approximately $95 million a year after they divorced. Most of Ecclestone's vast wealth was reportedly held under his wife's name.

#2 Alec Wildenstein and Jocelyn Perisse: Estimated $2.5 billion (1997)

Alec Wildenstein inherited half of an art-dealing business valued at $10 billion when his father died in 2001.

When his wife, Jocelyn Wildenstein, famed for her fondness for plastic surgery, caught her husband in flagrante delicto with a woman 42 years his junior, she initiated divorce proceedings that resulted in her receiving a $2.5 billion settlement and $100 million every year for 13 years after, according to Vanity Fair.

#1 Dmitry Rybolovlev and Elena Rybolovleva: $4.5 billion settlement

Dmitry, a Russian oligarch known as the “fertilizer king,” who also owns European soccer club AS Monaco, was ordered by a Swiss judge earlier this year to pay his former wife the staggering sum.

Elena had sought $6 billion of the $12.8 billion fortune her husband had amassed, according to the Associated Press. Rybolovlev's lawyers said they believed that the award would be reduced on appeal.

Honorable mention: Rupert Murdoch

The Australian media mogul has divorced twice, from first wife Anna (Torv Murdoch) Mann in 1999, and from second wife Wendy Deng in 2013.

Murdoch regularly features on lists of the most expensive divorces, and reports claim that the settlement in his divorce from Anna was worth up to $1.7 billion. Others have claimed, however, that the size of Murdoch's settlement with his first wife has been grossly exaggerated with estimates ranging from $100 million to $1.7 billion.

Estimates of Murdoch's settlement with his second wife range up to $1.8 billion, according to Buzzfeed, but there are few authoritative reports of the amount of their settlement.