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Subscribe to RSSThe divorce between Oklahoma oil baron Harold Hamm and his second wife, Sue Ann, is attracting attention, in part because Sue Ann could win one of the largest divorce settlements in history, worth billions of dollars. TODAY's Natalie Morales reports.
A contentious divorce involving an Oklahoma oil baron could potentially lead to a multibillion-dollar settlement for his estranged wife that would be the biggest in U.S. history.
Harold Hamm, 67, the chief executive of Continental Resources, is in the midst of divorce proceedings with his second wife, former Continental Resources executive Sue Ann Hamm. After filing for divorce on May 19, 2012, she has claimed in court documents that her husband was unfaithful during their marriage. He has acknowledged that the couple separated back in 2005, and the two have lived separate lives ever since.
Hamm is worth an estimated $11.3 billion and was No. 35 on last year’s list of the 50 richest Americans put out by Forbes. The potential settlement his wife could receive may exceed the more than $1.7 billion paid out in 1999 to Anna Murdoch, the ex-wife of News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch, depending on whether or not there was a prenuptial agreement.
“This is the King Kong of divorce cases,’’ divorce attorney Raoul Felder told TODAY. “Vast fortune. Sue Ann stands to make lots and lots of money, more than what is really on the table.’’
The control of Continental Resources also could be at stake, as Harold has a 68 percent stake in the $11.2 billion company that could be considered marital property and divided up in a potential settlement. Since news of the divorce became public on Thursday, shares of Continental Resources have fallen by almost 3 percent.
Hamm was named one of the most influential people in the world by Time magazine, and served as an energy adviser in Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign. The couple married in 1988 and have two adult children. Harold Hamm also has three children from his first marriage, which ended in divorce in 1987.
The couple’s marriage has been tempestuous for the last 15 years. Harold filed for divorce in 1998 and ordered Sue Ann to undergo a psychological evaluation before he later withdrew the divorce petition, according to a report by Reuters. Sue Ann filed for divorce in 2005, but the case was dropped.
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He filed for divorce in 1998 and she filed in 2005 and both dropped the cases at those times, and now she is suing again 8 years later? Since they have been apart for 15 years, I'm not sure how she could be entitled to that much of his estate, especially anything he has made in the past 8 years. When was he supposedly unfaithful?
A few billion for a few decades of marriage. Not bad.
She's a woman. She feels entitled. Other women will come out to support her and say she deserves everything no matter what.
He lives in a 50 50 state.. there's no doubt he's going to lose a nice chunk of his wealth. Still married in the eyes of the law, no matter.
This is the sole reason I will never marry. Harold will still be in our club, just not as high on the list...
Mr. Burns, may I correct you.....you're classifying all women feel they are entitled. I hate to burst your bubble, but there are women out there who know right from wrong. :) Have a good day
Another gold digger. Women come into marriage and marry wealth. These women get everything they want. Then the women divorce and want his money. Yes I'm sure a few men do it also. Know a good case of a gold digger woman. A man lost his wife after many years. They worked and accumulated some wealth. He remarried they had problems after a few years. She convinced to stay. Then after 10 years she divorced him. Received half of all the money. His ex wife and he had accumulated.
HAHAHAHA. GOLD DIGGER! Oh it's only fair. But us women have rights too. I love the word entitled. I never hear them mention calculated just entitled. I deserve half. Half. Half. When a broke family splits i never hear of the xe-wife wanting half the debt. I love America and it's entitled poor deserving society.
I had a trophy wife, unfortunately she was 4th runner up.
I hope she cleans out the greedy robber baron.
They have been living apart with separate lives how many years? I will bet she wasn't celibate in all those years.
I hope he had a prenuptial agreement.
This is what happens when men get involved with women at work. Of course she is entitled to half of their accumulated wealth since their marriage. As a former Continental Resources executive, Sue Ann Hamm is partly responsible for the success of the company. She should get more than the previous settlement of $1.7 billion. How would she be able to live on a measly billion dollars?
I hope he didn't. A fool and his money are soon parted and this man although he is extremely wealthy is a fool.
She might have been digging for gold, but instead she struck a-bubblin' crude!
Black gold...
Texas tea...
Anti: they're still married that's all that counts in most states.
No problem, tens of thousands of women will line up to marrythis man. It's good to be wealthy!
I would like to be the next Mrs. Hamm!
10s of thousands will line up to marry his soon to be ex-wife..........she will be beyond wealthy. And she still retains the Gold Mine!
Dick, no one is going to be standing in line wanting to marry this man. He is, IMHO, not attractive and no $ on earth could pay me enough to sleep with him.
That you babyshoes how do you look . I hope this is not my wife under a different name
babyshoes, don't kid yourself. I mean no disrespect to women as a whole but some women would sleep with ugly men for much less than he offers. Just look at Woody Allen and Larry King. lol
Looks like in this case it's good to be the Queen!
married is married--whether or not they lived together or apart, or whether or not he was unfaithful. Still a contract. Sucks, but, yes, still a valid contract. He should have cut her loose way back. THEN he wouldn't have to split everything he'd gained since. Besides, she was an executive at Continental, so she deserves half more so that an unconnected-from-business housefrau would. And I know I'm gonna catch he11 for that statement.
Just because she was an executive with the same company does NOT entitle her to half of his wealth. Only the fact that they live in a 50/50 state would do that...especially if he foolishly failed to do a pre-nup. It would have been nice to know the details of his divorce filing and the required therapy that was to be part of that divorce. Is she a psychotic person? Is that what led to his filing? Why did he drop the suit? Why did she drop her suit in 2005, only to do it again in 2013? Was his wealth too little to suit her in 2005 and she decided to risk the potential of income growth? Besides, what is to say that he's not entitled to half of her earnings/stocks/etc. from her employment? After all, if it is a 50/50 state, then all of her earnings need to be included in the "spoils" as well.
women having it all, though she really didn't earn one penny of it.
Marriage, lulz.
WHY would you do this for a woman, most of them are parasitic, and is how they claim having it all, while doing essentially nothing save have ta-ta's a nice butt, and a hole.
So this is how females have it all.
Men - it's not worth the poon if you have to empower a woman that basically dislikes you from day one.
Wild-P - I AGREE.
This makes me sick to my stomach.
Might be some damn good Poon, he asked for it. And has plenty enough money that he was willing to give it to her anyway. He has known she is a Psycho bitch for years. Best part of that is you can go to bed with a different woman every night. And the Poon never gets old.
You are perfectly describing my ex-husband
wild,
I'm sorry you feel that most women are parasitic. Must have been burned before.
We tend to our husbands, children, give our all only to be betrayed by our efforts and love. So, let's not be too hasty in casting out your spew and hatred. We work hard, very hard to please our man.
Like it or not, a married man that is happily married will be more successful. Her support as a wife probably contributed to his ongoing success, if not, he would have dumped her a long time ago. She's earned a good portion of the wealth if this is the case.
@ Wild P, So who lets us have it all? If you men weren't so weak, we couldn't have it all. How about some self control? It's not our fault you think with your genitals.
You are equally at fault because you take ADVANTAGE of the situation! Its not our fault that all that makes you happy is MATERIAL POSSESIONS.
You bassically just admitted to being a PROSTITUTE. Women like you see a TRICK and you TURN IT into a PAYDAY!
Marriage is legal prostitution.
Indeed! That is why I will never marry again...men use their money to manipulate the woman to stay, or the woman finds a way to manipulate the man and get what he has worked for and leave. I left with nothing. I'm done with marriage. I don't give a @!$%# how much money they have. That's the last thing I ever cared about and I proved it by leaving with nothing. People are too focused on @!$%# that doesn't even matter.
Men couldn't manipulate women with money if that wasn't their main goal. Same with men, women couldn't manipulate them with sex if it's not their main goal.
Love is love and as far as I'm concerned you can't put a price on that. Call me old fashioned, but all the $ in the world can't buy happiness.
I hate that statement. "Money can't buy blah blah blah...." Shut your stupid mouth.
Yes. Yes it can my fine feathered friend. People get divorced everyday fighting over money, bills, just getting by. I always dread auto repairs. Seems like it's $500 bucks everytime. Bills sneak up on you. Christmas comes with a hefty helping of more bills.
I'm killing myself working for a living, only dreaming of world trips to Norway or Rome while them Kardashian twits use the entire globe as their personal playground. I have to fight to try to "vacation" guilt free then try to recover from putting bills on the back burner.
If you have barely enough money in the bank they fee you left and right, overdraft, overdraft again. You always pay for everything while people with money, you know, the "unhappy" ones, get money given to them for having lots of money. They get "compliments of the house" wherever they go. Little spiffs and gifts and "special offers" while we get what we pay for which isn't much. So, stuff that stupid sentence up your "blank". Thanks, have a good one!
Boy ! you got that right, In my case I hurt my self working hard trying to a good job for the company try to keep my job.
Please don't generalize. That hurts. Not all men are like that. I can understand why though. It's the high-profile cases being exploited by the media that make it seem that way. Sadly, until faithful men stop being portrayed as boring wimps and losers missing out on all the "fun" in pop culture, we'll be hanging on in quiet desperation.
"Strange game. Seems the only winning move is not to play." --Wargames
No such thing as trophy wives. Only trophy husbands. Imagine what the lawyers, on both sides, will make from this.
He played around with the company help and had his fun so now it is time to pay the piper; besides, anyone stupid enough not to get a pre-nupt deserves to be taken to the cleaners. In any event, she produced at no small price two more children with all that entails so she has earned a nice settlement. Silly that they are giving so much to the lawyers. Just sit down and split it up.
True. I dont have much, but when I get marriage, that is going to be a must for me. She doesnt want to sign, Ill find a woman who is not a gold digger.
How bout this........ A nice minimum wage job an a trailer for the selfish bitch. Your not intitled to anything just because you gave an old man blowjobs... make her take a lie detector test an ask her if she married him for love or money... If it comes back that she never loved him except fort his money then she gets nothing.....
Isn't this the Bozo that came on CNBC and called Obama a socialist? Complained about Oil Regulators meanwhile he was racking in cash drilling in up north.. I hope she cleans your clock..
umm, Obama is a socialist.
But he still won even though the opposiiton spent $300M to make him a one term president!
She should have known he would cheat. He was screwing her, a subordinate at work, while he was married to wife number one.
Exactly-- history does repeat itself!!!!
Sounds like, with all his $$, he was too stupid to get an iron clad pre-nup!
She came out with nothing but a smile on and he said OK anything you say baby.
If I ever consider getting a married again I'll just find a woman I can't stand and buy her a house instead.
.
Now I ain't saying she a gold digger....
I'd use a much shorter term, one syllable, begins with a ...
How about Hugh Hefner's 26-year old bride? He is 86.
hmmm, wether you love her or hate her you are probably still going to buying her a house in the end...
hugh probably had her sign a pre-nup. SMART.
Divorce, alimony and what have you are archaic in the US. Women claim to want equal rights. That means you aren't incapable of working and being married or getting married again after a divorce.
EVERY divorce should be simple. There shouldn't even be a need for a prenup if it was handled LOGICALLY and not based on ancient women can't remarry or own property myths. Everything you have saved before you get married stays yours after the divorce. Whatever you make during the time you are married is also divided according to what YOU contribute.
Women say they have equal rights - if he asked you to quit your job and maintain the house - then you should "earn" what a house keeper would make for the number of hours you work cleaning the house - not watching soap operas, not blathering on phone with your mother and friend and not what are paying for yoga classes you don't go to. Be smart - hire a housekeeper and then your earnings are much more easily counted - no need to bitch.
Marriage will become a thing of the past so long as ridiculous divorce settlements continue. Get out of a relationship before common law nonsense takes over your property.
You'll notice that rich women are too smart to fall for it. How long has Oprah been "dating" Stedman?
So if a woman gives up her career and raises the children, keeps the house going, takes care of homework, school obligations, sport and dance practices and lessons and games and schedules and is class mom, team mom, chauffer, makes dinner, does the errands and shopping, arranges kids' bday parties and takes kids to friend's parties and buys the gifts and decorates for the holidays and makes sure his family gets gifts at bdays and holidays and does all this so he can go to work and stay late and travel and become successful while having his life, kids, etc. all looked out for - her "share" is maybe $150K a year (I assume a good live in nanny and personal assistant and driver would make that?) and that's all she deserves in "salary?" And if she earns that salary for "the number of hours she works" - does that mean she gets off at 5pm and tells the kids she is done, no more working for her, she's off the clock - nights, weekends, when the kids are sick, etc.? Or does she get time and a half for nights and weekends?
And when the kids are gone and he decides he wants a new wife - does she get a pension? 401K? Has he contributed to her retirement? What exactly is she supposed to do now? Most husbands would not be where they are today w/o the wife in the background taking care of these things (and many more I could have listed).
JAGL you are talking from a very lopsided and skewed point of view. Who said he asked her to give up anything including her career. Who said HE wanted to have children. If a woman wants to have children don't be offended if HE doesn't and doesn't really want her to become a hausfrau. If you want children and give up your "career" to become a hausfrau - what sacrifice did you make on HIS behalf.
Since 70% of divorces are instigated by women your argument is misleading. What you have are women who get bored with their lives and decide to divorce and make their ex-husbands pay for their new lifestyle. Obviously that doesn't apply to every woman who divorces her husband but it happens enough.
In this day and time women have the CHOICE to have children and stay at home or work. So why should the man have to pay for her CHOICE to not have an income. He can't force her to quit her job, she has rights and protections under the law. Which makes anything she does her responsibility and yet you still want men to pay for something they have little to no control over.
You are sexist and have an entitlement attitude.
I have money. I will never marry a man. I'll go to the sperm bank. When I feel like it, I'll use you for sex with a very strong condom, in case you've been around and I don't know it. Then I will dump you for someone else, because I can. I won't support you, but I'll let you drive one of my Jags from time to time. But ultimately, no man is worth marrying--if you don't need him!
When my husband and I split, I did not take him to the cleaners. I could have, but what would be the point? We had joint custody and we were amicable about things. We are still good friends, just grew in different directions. Divorce doesn't have to be nasty. We all have to survive.
My first got the house a car the new one, but what got me was she sold my bike for 20$ a 250 dollar bike.
Prenup, Prenup??? anyone??
This is where alimony gets out of hand. Whose expertise created all that value? HIS. Regardless of whether they were together during that time or not. Maybe $50M is enough. If she can't sustain a satisfying lifestyle with that much, maybe she should marry another rich man and further postpone any attempts to add anything valuable to society.
Women do have it all thanks to dumb rich men. No matter how smart a man is in the boardroom, women are smarter where it counts; the bedroom.
Kind of reminds me of a song from long ago. "Rule #2 don't trust nobody, especially a bitch in a hookers body." He is also a dumb-ass for staying with that! He should have known she was all about the money money money. lol
Anybody who has this much money & gets married without having an airtight prenuptial agreement in place is an idiot !!
Never get married. They only last on average 7 years. Date a women for six then move on. No getting caught up in common law scenarios, no paying for last years vagina. All good. Stay single and rich and date/screw single women. Gifts are optional. Keep what YOU earned. And get a vasectomy, don't want know future paternity suits. Just freeze it if you want a kid later in life and pay a surrogate. Easy peasy. No gold diggers allowed. Marriage isn't an institution, it's a penalty, and now it's even more nutured by allowing everything to get married.
People with lots of money should never get married. It is generally union of gold diggers. The money can buy plenty of happiness without the ring.
Job - Not all women are like that. Some just want to be loved and appreciated for what they do and can bring to the table. It's women like that, that give the honest and faithful ones a bad name. :(
babyshoes........You're talking apples and oranges. The relationships of the rich and famous are what we're talking about. How do these short ugly wealthy men get these gorgeous women to marry them, much less go out with them? Do you think they just want to be loved and appreciated, or maybe the money had something to do with it?
She should take him for all he's worth..the schmuck.
Half of $11 billion is still $5.5 billion. He won't be hurting.
True but you can bet energy prices will soar so he can recover his billion$$$$$.
And what exactly did she do to earn this money you want her to have. She had her own job and they have separated for years, yet now she wants his money.
I feel that if she prospered during the time of their marriage and SHE decided to live off of that instead of having a career, she should be entitled to a severance package worth around 10 million dollars given his worth.
Why so low you ask? Simple, if she did not have a hand in his oil business and they split up, she should not be entitled to large sums of money or even splitting up properties. Yes, being married gives women (or men in some cases) plenty of wriggle room to swindle lots of money or property and the laws need to change. Not every relationship is the same and when you have people being entitled to stuff that they did not provide and they also got to live better than they would have alone, they should be able to get half of everything or some massive payout like this women may get unless she had some hand in making the fortune.
10 million a month that is!
How come there's no such thing as a common law divorce?
BTW, this is more proof that the government needs to get out of the business of regulating marriage. If men and women are truly equal than there is no need for "marriage" and the default result should be each participant keeps what they brought in. If they want a different property arrangement they have to draw up a contract and sign it.
There is a no fault, Closest thing I think!
Actually, if you consider the principal that laws are created by lawyers to create work for other lawyers it's clear why there's common law marriage: it creates the need to hire a divorce lawyer down the road. However, a common law divorce would cheat a divorce lawyer out of a job so of course that can't be allowed.
why do these guys get married...
♫ If you wanna be happy for the rest of your life
Never make a pretty woman your wife
So for my personal point of view
Get an ugly girl to marry you ♫
lol...great song:)
they're too cheap to pay a good hooker?
Marriage remains the leading cause of divorce, that being said, she is one hot looking mama. A debt free woman is a plus and she will be debt free +++++.
He could have hired a bevy of better looking hookers and paid them their normally hourly rate to clean for him when they weren't servicing him and it would be a hell of a lot cheaper than this gold digger and he'd actually have gotten his money's worth (no headaches or other excuses and nothing is off the table).
That's what these morons get. Marrying way out of their league. Making a womans looks a priority. Picking out the best "trophy wife" they can......surely knowing she is attracted to the money......and then NOT having a prenup.
MORONS
Ummm, not really looking like a trophy wife here. Maybe 30 years ago?
If she did nothing to contribute to his earnings than she is entitled to $0.00 especially since they have been living apart for so long. jblo your spot on once seperated common law divorce should take affect.
Thinking like that is why you're poor and she's rich.