When you’re an athlete there are tons of issues eating away at your funds. The IRS, hefty Cheescake Factory bills, and the cost of supporting everybody in the circle, have all contributed to the financial demise of some of sports’ biggest ballers, but there’s another money grabber among us and it’s called divorce.
Several athletes have had to shell out the big bucks when their unions hit a sour patch, which may contribute to why Kobe Bryant has worked things out with his better half. Vanessa Bryant filed for divorce from the Lakers star in 2011, allegedly fed up with his cheating. Although neither party ever publicly admitted to the reason behind the split, the lack of a prenuptial agreement put Vanessa in line to get her hands on roughly $75 million plus the couple’s three homes.
Drake’s famous “you wasn’t with me when I was shooting in the gym,” diss turned sports fans against Vanessa, who may not have contributed to his growth on the court, even though she held it down on the home front. Kobe however gave Vanessa whatever she wanted, and set out to repair the damaged union.
Now that they’re back on track, Kobe potentially dodged a huge money bullet, and in the spirit of his victory we’re looking at other athletes who weren’t so lucky.
Check out 10 athletes who lost big in their divorces.
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Photo: Getty
Kenny Anderson
The former NBA player lost $60 million thanks to three ex-wives, all of whom challenged the terms of their prenups.
Michael Stahan
Strahan’s divorce from wife Jean Muggli was not cheap. In the end the former New York Giants player was ordered to give the mother of children $15 million (half of his net-worth), plus $180,000 a month in spousal support.
Good thing he has a day job.
Alex Rodriguez
The final divorce bill has never been released (so it must have been pretty big), but the Yankees star is said to have given his former wife, Cynthia Scurtis, tens of millions. Scurtis also got custody of the couple’s $12 million mansion.
Deion Sanders
Primetime may have won a percentage of the battle, but divorcing wife Pilar cost him at minimum $10 million.
After a judge ruled in his favor, Sanders’ lawyer quit because his client failed to pay his attorney bills. Yikes.
Sugar Ray Leonard
The terms of his 1990 divorce settlement were sealed, but Leonard’s ex was seeking $50,000 a month in alimony, so chances are he forked over a pretty penny.
Charlie Bell
He was the one who filed, and ended up losing a good chunk of his fortune. The NBA star was ordered to give wife, and former Basketball Wives cast member , Kenya Bell, $780,000 in cash leaving him with only $6656,000. Kenya also got $1,000 a month in child support, and half of the money in their bank account, in his NBA 401K plan, in his retirement plan, in his pension, in his welfare plan, and in his supplement benefit plan.
Damn!
Sugar Shane Mosley
The boxing star lost pretty much everything in the divorce from his wife, Jin. Shane had to give up three championship belts, custody of his children, and half of all his earnings.
Michael Jordan
We already know how this story ends. Juanita Vanoy went from a secretary to wife of arguably the best player in basketball. After their divorce, she was awarded $168 million.
Mike Tyson
Iron Mike ran through a multi-million fortune by making lots of bad financial decision including two divorces, one of which was from Robin Givens. The aforementioned split cost him nearly $10 million, she also filed a $125 million libel lawsuit against him for saying she stole his money.
Go figure.
Tiger Woods
He’s not broke, but Tiger’s s-xual escapades ate up a large portion of his fortune, $100 million of which he gave to ex-wife Ellin Nordigren (possibly as a peace offering for cheating on her with multiple women?).
Rumor has it that Woods has successfully won his wife back.
