Divorce Charts Of The Billionaires: George Soros Edition
George Soros (Photo credit: WEF)Original post from Sept. 17, 2010:
When billionaires remarry for their fourth time, an initial question people ask is, “Oh, how young is this one now?” This is nothing short of profiling. Stereotypes are tough things to shake, ingrained in us by the society photos we’ve all seen of Donald and Melania Trump. Sumner Redstone and Paula Fortunato. Larry Ellison and Melanie Craft. She’s so young. He’s so vigorous!
Let’s debunk together. First off, the serially divorcing billionaire is a unicorn, a myth. Most filthy rich men are fairly monogamous. Fewer than 100 people on the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans have been married more than once. Fewer than 20 are on a third wife. The elite four-wife club, which offers your best chance at seeing an old guy marry a woman 30 years his junior, has a mere 6 members. The reality is that billionaires who divorce often tend to remarry women closer to their age, with a few dramatic exceptions.
The charts below track billionaire marital histories. Time is on the horizontal axis, age on the vertical axis. The billionaire’s life line is blue; each of the shorter lines of varying lengths represent a spousal interaction. The shorter the line, the shorter the marriage. The wider the gap between the blue and spousal lines, the bigger the age difference.
Ted Turner, bison rancher, is also extremely age-appropriate in his marital careers. Two of his four wives, including Jane Fonda, were the same age as he.
Ronald Perelman has also shown an impressive adherence to women close to his own age.
Edgar M. Bronfman Sr. has been married four times and thrice divorced, making for a rich data sample. He was 25 when he married his first wife. She was 21. The gap widened with his second wife, the beautiful Lady Carolyn Townshend. It widened further with Georgina Webb, whom he married, divorced and remarried. That gap seemed to work for Bronfman. Fourth wife Jan Aronson is 21 years younger.
With energy man T. Boone Pickens, the earlier marriages lasted longer and were to women of a closer age range—until Boone hit his 70s. Then he went young and stayed there, although you’ll notice the gap is well within reason. Wives #3 and #4 were only one generation away, nothing scandalous here.
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison‘s chart shows short marriages and, after his first wife, he put significant distance between his life-line and that of his spouses. Fourth wife Melanie Craft, who is 25 years his junior, was a real gapper.
The new Soros chart is a bit of a guesstimate, as date of birth was not immediately available for Soros’ first wife Annaliese Witschak, whom he married in 1960. Then came Susan Weber, 25 years his junior when they married in 1983; they divorced in 2005. Soros went two generations deep with Tamiko Bolton. They’re not married yet, so her line is a bit of a fabrication, extended into the future a few years for easier viewing. Best wishes to the happy couple, may their lines run parallel for many years to come.
Read the story here: Divorce Charts Of The Billionaires: George Soros Edition - Forbes
