Google co-founder Sergey Brin -- who's worth $93 billion -- files for divorce
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Sergey Brin — the Google co-founder who is the seventh-richest person in the world with a net worth of $93 billion — has filed to divorce his wife of four years, according to a report.
Brin, 48, filed divorce papers to end his marriage to Nicole Shanahan, a lawyer and entrepreneur who is in her late 30s, citing “irreconcilable differences,” according to Insider.
Shanahan reportedly started seeing Brin sometime in 2015. The two married in a low-key ceremony on Nov. 7, 2018. The couple have a daughter and have been separated since Dec. 15, 2021, according to court filings submitted in Santa Clara County, Calif.
Brin has asked that he and Shanahan have joint custody of their daughter. He is not seeking spousal support from Shanahan, and is asking that she is not awarded it, either, according to Insider, which first obtained the divorce papers.
The Post has reached out to Brin and Shanahan seeking comment on the divorce, which could be in the running to join the most expensive of all time, including those of fellow tech tycoons Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Elon Musk.
According to Insider, the court filings “emphasize Brin and Shanahan’s desire for secrecy around the proceedings, and they have attempted to have much of the case placed under seal.”
“Petitioner is a co-founder of Google and one of the wealthiest and most famous technology entrepreneurs in the world. Because of the high-profile nature of their relationship, there is likely to be significant public interest in their dissolution and child custody issues,” a filing from Brin’s lawyers reads.
“Of great concern is that such publicity puts their minor child at risk of danger, harassment, and even kidnapping, if the specifics of their day-to-day whereabouts are exposed to the public,” the filing warned.
The court filings don’t specify what assets Brin and Shanahan jointly own or how they will be divided. Instead, they merely confirm that some do exist, the details of which “are to be determined,” according to Insider.
“All issues as to the property rights or obligations of the parties will be determined by confidential binding arbitration in accordance with a written agreement between the parties,” one of the court documents reads.
Brin is being represented in the divorce proceedings by the Bay Area law firm Hanson, Crawford, Crum Family Law Group, LLP, while Shanahan has hired Los Angeles-based firms Spector Law Firm, APLC and Meyer, Olson, Lowy & Meyers, LLP, according to Insider.
The couple is using a privately paid “temporary judge” to oversee their case — a pricier arrangement that can help expedite legal proceedings, the news site reported. The judge’s fees are $950 an hour, plus an extra $300 per hour for a legal assistant, according to the site.
Speculation is swirling about the cause of the breakup. Brin was recently photographed alongside fashion designer Gabriela Hearst at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in March. But the VF bash was the first and only time the Chloe creative director and Brin met, according to the sources.
Sources add that socially connected New York artist Dustin Yellin, who was also in the photo, is a close friend of Brin, and that Yellin is also close friends with Hearst and her husband Austin Hearst.
Shanahan is the founder of Bia-Echo Foundation, a private fund dedicated to environmental and social justice causes.
Shanahan had been public about her own struggles to get pregnant. In 2018, she and Brin co-founded a center at the medical research firm Buck Institute devoted to fertility issues.
This is the second time that Brin has gotten divorced. In 2015, he and his first wife, 23andMe co-founder Anne Wojcicki, filed for divorce. The two share two children whom they co-parent.
In 2013, Brin and Wojcicki separated after she discovered that her then-husband was having an affair with a Google employee, Amanda Rosenberg.
In 2014, Vanity Fair reported that Wojcicki discovered emails between Brin and Rosenberg sometime in late 2012 or early 2013. In April 2013, Brin moved out of the couple’s multimillion-dollar Los Altos, Calif., mansion, where they were living with their two young children.
Brin moved into a nearby home so that he and Wojcicki could continue to co-parent their two kids. At the time, Rosenberg was a 20-something employee at Google Glass, the futuristic smart glasses that ended up getting shelved.
Wojcicki dated former Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez for about a year in 2016.
In 2019, Brin and Google co-founder Larry Page announced they were stepping away from their day-to-day duties at the helm of the company, which was rebranded Alphabet Inc.
Nonetheless, Brin — who co-founded Google with Page in 1998 — still retains a controlling stake in Alphabet Inc.
Ian Mohr contributed reporting.
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