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August 12, 2021

How much is love worth? For one woman, up to $5B

Coming up with an introduction to this blog post was impossible, in that any sentence that rattled off my keyboard sounded like a pitch for a Reese Witherspoon movie.

2614112-2614112-love-and-money But really, despite it being at the centre of a million bad films and novels, the “What is love worth?” conundrum is pretty intriguing.

And never more so: according to the BBC, Spain’s Duchess of Alba has agreed to give her fortune to her children, a gesture to prove her remarriage to a civil servant is for love – and nothing fishy.

Touching? No doubt. But guess how much she's giving away …

By media reports of the bizarre story, the Duchess – real name: Maria del Rosario Cayetana Alfonsa Victoria Eugenia Francisca Fitz-James Stuart y de Silva (eat your heart out, Dikembe Mutombo) – has had her affair with a civil servant 24 years her junior questioned by her children.

So, to prove that the man has no, uh, Anna Nicole Smith-ian motives, the Duchess will bequeath her fortune to her kids ahead of the marriage. “Alfonso doesn’t want anything,” she said earlier this year of her hubby-to-be. “All he wants is me.”

How much is that fortune? Anywhere between $850 million and $5 billion.

The Duchess is surely one of the wealthiest women in Spain, but it’s remarkable that such soap opera-style drama doesn’t escape the rich.

In fact, according to one source, those same suspicious kids vetoed a wedding between the Duchess and Alfonso back in 2008.

So far, the 85-year-old has given each child “a palace each” in the get-off-my-back arrangement, while the divvying of her “other palaces and thousands of hectares of land” has not been decided.

By Jason Buckland, MSN Money

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Gordon PowersGordon Powers

A long-time fund company executive, Gordon Powers now heads up the Affinity Group, a financial services consulting firm. Gordon was a personal finance columnist for the Globe & Mail for many years, has taught retirement planning...

Jason BucklandJason Buckland

The modern-day MC Hammer of money, Jason can often be seen spending cash that isn’t his with the efficiency of a Wilt Chamberlain first date. After cutting his teeth as a reporter for the Toronto Sun, he joined the MSN Money team with...