Donald Trump
Donald Trump
aired some candid advice to Mark Zuckerberg this week, when he told CNBC’s Squawk Box that the Facebook CEO should get a pre-nuptial agreement if he ever intends to marry his long-time girlfriend, Priscilla Chan. Zuckerberg and Chan have dated since they were classmates at Harvard, according to news reports.
Zuckerberg ranks 14th on the Forbes 400 list, with a net worth of about $17.5 billion, which experts agree should increase significantly once Facebook shares go on sale Friday.
Divorce attorney to the stars Raoul Felder, known as “The Duke of Divorce,” agreed with Trump’s assessment.
“If (Zuckerberg) doesn’t get a pre-nup, he ought to get a psychiatrist, not a lawyer,” Felder said. “It would be insane to have this kind of money and not have a pre-nup.”
If Zuckerberg ever does march down the aisle and into the courtroom, he could join the ranks of Rupert Murdoch, Bernie Ecclestone, and Adnan Khashoggi — three love-lorn billionaires whose marriages and pocketbooks were torn asunder (see: The World’s Most Expensive Divorces).
Still, Felder noted that it’s unlikely that a billion-dollar divorce would claim half of a total fortune — as Trump implied a Zuckerberg spouse might attempt to do.
“Theoretically you could lose half your fortune, but not really,” Felder said. “In practice, if the amount goes up, the percentage usually goes down.”