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Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Stewart Rahr, Hit with $250M divorce payout


Billionaire playboy Stewart Rahr has finally reached a divorce settlement with wife Carol. The jaw-dropping amount: $250 million.

Carol will undoubtedly be walking away a happy, and very wealthy, woman. But many believed she would be even richer when news of the divorce first broke in December.

The 43 year marriage began before the pharmaceutical mogul made his fortune, so many assumed the riches would be split evenly in the absence of any prenuptial agreement.

'Stewart always said he’d never get divorced because it would be too expensive,' a source told the New York Post at the time. 'They met when he didn’t have two cents to rub together. She could be entitled to half his $1.6 billion fortune.'

That’s not how it went down, however. Though it surely hurts Rahr to peel off such a large chunk of change, he’ll remain in the rarefied ranks of America’s billionaires.

The couple’s considerable real estate assets will be split, however. According to the Post, Rahr will retain ownership of their Hampton’s estate, for which he paid a record breaking $45 million in 2005.

Carol will keep their New York City pad, a $30 million unit in the Trump Park Avenue.

Rahr, 67, was served with divorce papers in late 2012 in front of the couples’ own home. Carol Rahr's decision to launch divorce proceedings against her husband, follows reports that the couple have been living increasingly separate lives in recent years.

Speculation over how tempestuous the proceedings would become grew after it was reported that Carol hired Robert Stephen Cohen, a divorce attorney dubbed the 'pit bull’ who has previously represented the likes of Christie Brinkley, Ellen Barkin, and Uma Thurman, and is famous for playing tough.

Those rumors were further fueled when Rahr, in turn, hired attorneys Ben Brafman and David Aronson, whose firm Aronson, Mayefsky & Sloan represented Katie Holmes in her high-profile divorce from Tom Cruise.

'Mr Rahr intends to act honorably and fairly,’ Brafman said when the divorce was first reported. ‘He is hopeful and confident that the parties will come to an amicable agreement and that despite ending their marriage, will remain friends in the years ahead.'

‘I just have so few sunrises left and I want to be happy,’ Rahr explained to Forbes after the divorce was announced last year. He said he believes marriages should have clauses allowing them to be annulled mutually once children reach adulthood.

But if years of reports of Rahr throwing tantrums, threatening violence, and trying to buy his way into the ‘king of all fun’ title are to be believed, the marriage may not have ended as mutually as Rahr describes.

According to the New York Post, one incident allegedly stemmed from a dispute between him and professional gambler RJ Cipriani. Rahr allegedly pulled a gun on an elevator operator at Trump Tower in New York after an altercation with the man.

When police arrived, Rahr was found to have a gun, which was confiscated by officers. He claimed it wasn't loaded.

And in December, Rahr was banned from top New York restaurant Nobu after the staff said that he allegedly threatened to kill the manager when he didn't get his favorite table.

Rahr reportedly sent an email complaint to Nobu owner Drew Nieporent.

He admits having a disagreement with a female manager but denied threatening to kill her after she ignored his phone call.

It was reported that after the face-to-face confrontation with the manager, which occurred on the night of Carol’s birthday party, he sent a caps-locked tirade to Nieporent and CC'ed a group of his famous friends including Mark Wahlberg, Leonardo DiCaprio, Alicia Keys, Andre Agassi and Joaquin Phoenix.

It is unknown what, if any response, Rahr got from his celebrity crowd sourcing but his misbehavior did reportedly get him banned from all 25 international Nobu locations.

But Rahr appears to have a softer side, as well.

His philanthropic activities, including large sum donations to the Make-a-Wish Foundation, have helped him to forge friendships with powerful figures such as Bill Clinton and Michael Milken. Singers Alicia Keys and Andrea Bocelli performed at his annual charity dinner.

Rahr made his fortune selling wholesale pharmaceuticals. He sold the company he started and still wholly owned, Kinray Pharmaceuticals, for a reported $1.3 billion in 2010.

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