David Geffen is likely one of the most profitable – and RICHEST – leisure moguls of all time. By our depend, David’s net worth is $9 billion. That places him simply $1 billion shy of his buddy/enterprise associate, Steven Spielberg, and is sufficient to make him roughly the four-hundredth richest person on earth.
David’s story is the stuff of Hollywood legend. He’s a Brooklyn child who solid a letter to land a job within the William Morris mailroom, then parlayed his hustle into a career that changed the music and movie industries forever.
Geffen co-founded Asylum Data in 1970. The label would go on to launch bands such because the Eagles, Joni Mitchell, and Linda Ronstadt into superstardom. Within the Eighties, he created Geffen Data, signing acts like Weapons N’ Roses, Nirvana, and Aerosmith. In 1990, Geffen offered the label to MCA for 10 million shares of MCA inventory. When MCA was acquired by Matsushita in 1991 for $6 billion, Geffen’s inventory was value roughly $700 million. Adjusted for inflation, that will be round $1.3 billion immediately. He additionally secured a four-year employment contract and famously gave his longtime secretary 1% of the sale, over $5 million.
By the Nineteen Nineties, he was a co-founder of DreamWorks SKG alongside Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg, producing hits like “Saving Personal Ryan,” “American Magnificence,” and “Shrek.”
Alongside the way in which, Geffen amassed a $300 million actual property portfolio, a $2–3 billion artwork assortment, and Rising Solar, his 454-foot super-yacht valued at $400 million.
With no partner or youngsters for many of his life, he managed his fortune tightly, donating billions to cultural and medical establishments. However in 2023, Geffen stunned his mates by marrying Donovan Michaels, a mannequin 50 years his junior. They did NOT signal a prenup. Now, lower than two years later, that marriage may price him half a billion {dollars}.
David Geffen, Donovan Michaels, Woman Jemma Mornington, and Arpad Busson (Photograph by Kristy Sparow/Getty Photographs for Vogue)
No Prenup
When Geffen filed for divorce in Might 2025, court docket paperwork revealed that he and Michaels had by no means signed a prenuptial settlement. For somebody value $9 billion, that omission shocked Hollywood insiders.
Their relationship has additionally grow to be a degree of competition. In authorized filings, Michaels claims the couple first linked in late 2016 on Searching for.com (previously SeekingArrangement.com), a controversial relationship website typically related to so-called “sugar relationships.” He alleges their first assembly was transactional, costing Geffen $10,000, earlier than evolving right into a long-term romance. Geffen’s representatives, nevertheless, deny this model of occasions, calling the allegations false and insisting that no monetary contract or guarantees of lifelong help have been ever made.
Regardless of the disputed origins, Geffen and Michaels went on to spend years collectively. Michaels, then in his mid-20s, joined Geffen’s internal circle, touring on the mogul’s $400 million yacht Rising Solar and showing at A-list dinners alongside Oprah Winfrey, Bruce Springsteen, and Paul McCartney. In March 2023, the couple quietly married in California.
Lower than two years later, the wedding unraveled. The shortage of a prenup implies that whereas California regulation protects Geffen’s premarital fortune, Michaels now has authorized standing to pursue claims that Geffen promised him lifelong monetary safety. This declare may doubtlessly price the mogul a big sum after only a two-year fling.
$500 Million???!!!
As we said a second in the past, even with out a prenup, most of David’s cash is protected because it was earned earlier than the wedding. Nonetheless, even a settlement to cowl the years they have been collectively will possible be monumental. As The Wall Street Journal noted, $90 million would equal simply 1% of his fortune. However what if a court docket decides the quantity needs to be the still-nominal 6%? That will equate to a $500 million payout. For Geffen, both quantity would barely dent his empire. For Michaels, it might immediately make him one of many wealthiest males in Hollywood.
Michaels’s lawsuit is not about dividing group property. His authorized group argues these guarantees quantity to a binding contract. Geffen’s legal professionals deny this, insisting there was no settlement — written, oral, or implied — and that Michaels is just in search of leverage for a much bigger payout.
Actual Property, Artwork, Yacht & Legacy
A part of what makes this divorce so fascinating is the dimensions of David Geffen’s fortune and the distinctive means he has constructed — and preserved — his empire.
Geffen’s actual property holdings are value an estimated $300 million. He has owned a few of the most prestigious properties within the nation, together with a number of houses on Malibu’s Carbon Seashore, a $54 million Central Park West penthouse in New York, and the legendary Jack L. Warner property in Beverly Hills, which he offered to Jeff Bezos in 2020 for $165 million — the most costly residence sale in California historical past on the time.
His artwork assortment is likely one of the most precious in personal palms, with a valuation between $2–3 billion. Geffen has owned masterpieces by Jackson Pollock, Jasper Johns, and Willem de Kooning. In 2016, he offered a de Kooning and a Pollock to hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin for a mixed $500 million, the biggest personal artwork transaction in historical past.
Then there may be Rising Solar, the 454-foot super-yacht initially commissioned by Oracle founder Larry Ellison. Geffen bought Ellison’s stake in 2010, making the yacht his personal floating palace. Valued at round $400 million, it boasts a basketball court docket, wine cellar, and a crew of 45. Through the years, it has performed host to celebrities starting from Oprah Winfrey and Paul McCartney to Leonardo DiCaprio and Barack Obama.
Taken collectively, Geffen’s portfolio — actual property, artwork, yachts, and investments — represents one of many nice personal fortunes in American historical past. For many years, he was the definition of management: no partner, no youngsters, no board of administrators. Each greenback was his to direct. That is why this divorce is so jarring. After a lifetime of rigorously curating his legacy, David Geffen could find yourself remembered simply as a lot for the fortune he gave away — willingly or in any other case — after a wedding that lasted lower than two years.
