I’m not sure how one squanders a divorce settlement whose value was rumored to range from one billion dollars to less than a million dollars a year but apparently it is possible. In 1990 Patricia Kluge divorced from John Kluge, a man once considered the richest person in America. In the divorce, Pat received a sprawling 45-room, 26,000-square-foot home near Charlottesville, VA and a boatload of cash which most people agree was $1.6 million a week. Since then she has opened a successful winery whose wine was even served at Chelsea Clinton’s wedding last July and entered into a variety of other ventures. However, the debts have been mounting as rumors of financial trouble started when her $100 million dollar estate was auctioned off and repossesed by Bank of America for $15.6 million. Recently, Kluge and her newest husband have also been auctioning off a lot of her own personal items in what has been viewed as an effort to pay down their debts which have been tallied at around $46 million dollars.
Photo Credit: NYSD
