Expensive Divorces That Cost These Athletes A Fortune

The saying goes, money can't buy you love. While the jury may still be out on that, it's tougher to argue falling out of love won't cost you a dime. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) points to 689,308 divorces amd 1,985,072 marriages in 2021, the equivalent of 2.5 marital breakups for every 1,000 people.

For the average person, a divorce will typically set back a divorcee anywhere between $7,000 to $11,300 in legal fees, with only 10% of those divorces costing anything less than that. Other costs like home appraisals, tax accountants, child custody evaluation, and other miscellaneous needs can add $1,480 to that bill. If either side wants to contest the divorce agreement, the costs above can even double. Due to factors like the increased burden on a woman's ability to earn more money after a divorce — women already earn less than men and often give up better-paying jobs for fewer hours and less pay to make time for child-rearing — women are more often awarded spousal and child support in a divorce settlement.

It turns out professional athletes are just like the rest of us but with much higher divorce costs because of their sizeable fortunes. These are a few of the most costly divorces.

Home run slugger Jose Conseco earned an estimated $45 million with the Oakland A's before the wear and tear of a career in professional baseball, back taxes, and public divorce left him with a total net worth of $500,000. His ex-wife, Jessica Conseco, was a Hooters waitress when the two met in 1996 but has since gone on to become a sought-after plastic surgeon, television expert, and author. Their three-year marriage ended in 1999 under a cloud of domestic abuse charges, and more recently, an accusation that Jessica was having an affair with Alex Rodriguez — engaged to superstar Jennifer Lopez at the time — in a 2019 Twitter rant. This accusation was denied by Jessica Conseco in a response on Twitter, now X.

In a 2021 Vlad TV interview, Conseco points to the $7 million he paid out in two separate divorce settlements, one to Jessica Conseco and the other to his former wife, as factors in an eventual bankruptcy that led to his lowest point of living in a garage with $20 in his pocket.

Mike Tyson is known for what he has accomplished both inside and outside of the boxing ring. Unfortunately, that also includes a high-profile divorce from actress Robin Givens, a few years before the financial peak of his boxing career when his net worth was estimated to be anywhere between $300 million to $685 million. His current net worth of $10 million, which is still nothing to sneeze at. Tyson was just two years into his career when he and Givens met and married, and by the time they divorced seven months later, was already worth about $50 million.

So how much did Tyson's divorce cost him? Allegations of mental and physical abuse, including claims of being tricked into the marriage, led to Givens to seek a divorce. Tyson didn't have a prenuptial agreement with Givens, and the settlement included jewelry, cash, vehicles, and a $4 million mansion, speculated to be valued in total at around $10 million. However, Givens maintains she never saw a single penny.

The wildman of basketball, Dennis Rodman, was worth an estimated $27 million by the end of his career as a three-time NBA champion with the Michael Jordan- and Scottie Pippen-led Chicago Bulls. Just before he retired from the game, he met and married his third ex-wife Michelle Moyer, with whom he had two children and neglected to make child support payments for almost a decade. Rodman and Moyer's marriage ended in 2004, just one year after their 2003 nuptials.

In 2012, Rodman was found in contempt of court, ordered to pay $500,000 in unpaid child support for his two children, and was cautioned he might be put behind bars by the Orange County Superior Court Commissioner if he failed to do so. Rodman had previously been slapped on the wrist with an order of 104 hours of community service for four counts of not paying child support in 2009 and 2010. Rodman learned the hard way how much it costs to have a baby in the U.S., which is about $250,000 more if you're Dennis Rodman.

Alex Rodriguez is another baseball heavy hitter who earned his fame on the New York Yankees as a 14-time All-Star before leaving baseball in 2016. Rodriguez met his ex-wife Cynthia Scurtis in Miami in the late '90s, married her, and ended up on the wrong side of marriage after Scurtis accused Rodriguez of having an affair with Madonna, which the pop icon has denied. The denial didn't stop Scurtis from pursuing divorce, and a previous accusation of cheating with a stripper — who herself outed Rodriguez as having an affair with her — prior to the Madonna allegation probably had something to do with that.

Scurtis was awarded $115,000 a month in child and spousal support, which A-Rod tried to reduce to $20,000 per month based on a post-retirement income adjustment that lowered his $30 million professional baseball salary to $3 million. While Rodriguez claimed Scurtis had become wealthy herself with three homes, several vehicles, and no shortage of money, she pushed back with claims that A-Rod asked her not to pursue a career — Scurtis holds a master's degree in psychology — so that she could focus her attention on raising their two kids. Regardless of whether Rodriguez was able to get his payments reduced or not, this divorce was costly for him.

Richard Morgan Fliehr, known in the ring as "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair, is another living legend in the world of professional wrestling entertainment. His trademark "Woo!" and flamboyant presence are so meme-worthy that he's spawned numerous posts and social media pages like @nocontextRicFlair, boasting hundreds of thousands of loyal followers. However, that wild persona didn't help him with marriages to Leslie Goodman, Elizabeth Harrell, Tiffany VanDemark, Jacqueline Beems, and Wendy Barlow, which all ended on top of over $1 million in debt from failed ventures, unpaid creditors, and poor financial management — and that's before the divorces. This track record of financial illiteracy is just one of many money red flags to look out for in a partner that any one of these women probably wished they had noticed before marrying Fliehr.

In a quote from an interview on The Joe Rogan Podcast, Ric Flair details why he came out of retirement by saying, "$2 million in alimony and $2 million in attorney fees, and $1.5 million in penalties and interest."

Allen Iverson was an NBA superstar at the highest point of his career who commanded hefty contracts and lucrative endorsements. According to Gameday News, although Iverson was around $200 million richer by the end of his career, a gambling and alcohol addiction, including rising debt to various casinos, quickly chipped away at that fortune. At the lowest point of his marriage, his then wife, Tawanna Iverson, was forced to sell some of her assets, including an 8.7-carat diamond ring. This was the beginning of the end. During a particularly nasty initial divorce proceeding, after Iverson claimed not to have enough money to buy a cheeseburger, Tawanna handed the NBA legend $61. A postnuptial agreement saved the marriage at the time, stipulating Iverson would need to get addiction therapy and marriage counseling, and not verbally or physically abuse his wife or otherwise forfeit the agreement. Long story short, by 2013, Iverson had failed to keep that agreement, and the divorce was finalized.

Iverson was made to pay $3 million in alimony and child support, a few assets, and a percentage of his Reebok endorsement money. That percentage was initially 100% based on the postnuptial agreement Iverson didn't follow, however, his ex-wife took pity on the former superstar and agreed to leave him with half.

As per The List, retired NFL football player and daytime talk show host Michael Strahan made $76 million over the life of his athletic career and currently makes about $20 million annually from his hosting duties for ABC News. A prenuptial agreement did nothing to protect Strahan from a nasty divorce from his ex-wife Jean Muggli, who was awarded $15.3 million in alimony and $18,000 in child support every month back in 2006. In just two years, the couple were back in court over Muggli's assertion Strahan owed $311,150 in unpaid support based on their prenup agreement stipulating that 50% of the couple's joint assets and 20% of Strahan's income would be paid to her upon divorce. Strahan must not have made a convincing argument for himself and was ordered to pay up. Even though the initial $18,000 in child support was reduced to $13,000 after Strahan retired from football, that's still pricey for a rich guy who actually had a prenuptial agreement in place.

Muggli dragged Strahan back into court over what she claimed was $321,654.98 in unpaid child support, with interest that would raise that amount to $547,000. Muggli also requested child support go up to $18,378.66 and that he reimburse her about $225,401 for their twin children's horseback riding.