Billionaire will leave £10 billion fortune to 100 children he has all around the world
A tech tycoon has revealed his plans to share £10 billion fortune out equally amongst his 100 children.
Stories about billionaires fathering whole legions of children aren't uncommon these days, thanks to antics of a certain Elon Musk.
However, the businessman has lost out on the race to become the billionaire with the biggest brood, after Telegram founder Pavel Durov revealed that he is father to around 100 offspring.
Who is Pavel Durov – and does he really have 100 children?
Durov, 40, made his fortune as the founder of Telegram, an encrypted messaging service launched in 2013. You might most recently remember it as the app that members of Trump's administration had been using when they accidentally added a journalist into their group chat.
The app has become extremely popular all over the world thanks to its promise of end-to-end encryption on secret chats, making it the messaging service of choice for people who live under authoritarian regimes.
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Durov's involvement in Telgram alongside his older brother Nikolai has made him extremely wealthy, with the Russian native boasting of an estimated net worth of $13.9 billion (£10.3 billion). He currently resides in France and cannot currently leave due to ongoing criminal investigations into content which is allowed on the app.
And now, he has promised to share his fortune out equally amongst all of his offspring, telling French outlet Le Point that he has updated his will to name all his children as beneficiaries.
You've likely already guessed it, but Durov's brood was conceived by a combination of relationships and many years of sperm donations.
Officially, he is a father of six children, however Durov has been donating his sperm across 15 years in 12 different countries, resulting in at least 100 children.
But the tech mogul doesn't want to differentiate between the children from his relationships and the ones who came from his donations.
"I want to specify that I make no difference between my children: there are those who were conceived naturally and those who come from my sperm donations," he told the outlet.
"They are all my children and will all have the same rights! I don't want them to tear each other apart after my death."
So if you can chase your lineage back to Durov then it's good news, as you're due to receive a major payday down the line.
But there is a caveat, the businessman will only give the sum away until three decades have elapsed, as he wants his children to grow up as 'normal people'.
"I decided that my children would not have access to my fortune until a period of thirty years has elapsed, starting from today," he added.
"I want them to live like normal people, to build themselves up alone, to learn to trust themselves, to be able to create, not to be dependent on a bank account."
Topics: Technology, World News, Parenting
Brenna Cooper