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Mark retweeted
Dr. Dre’s wife asked for $1,936,399 a month in spousal support. She ended up receiving about $293,000 a month in temporary support.
They had been married for 24 years. She said the prenup didn’t count.
She said she signed it under duress, and that Dre “tore up multiple copies of the agreement in front of me.”
Her filing said he was worth $1 billion. Forbes put him at $800 million in 2019. Apple had bought Beats for $3 billion.
The court papers described their life: five homes in L.A., a private jet, 12 security guards, seven housekeepers, a private chef. She also asked for $5 million for her lawyers.
In October 2021, a process server came after him at the cemetery where he was burying his grandmother.
Two months later, they settled. $100 million: $50 million right away, $50 million a year later. According to E! News, she also kept a Rolls-Royce, an Escalade limo, a Range Rover, a motorcycle, and her jewelry and furs. He kept the houses, his music and his stock.
In the video below, from 2014, Dre celebrates the reported Apple deal: “The first billionaire in hip hop, right here from the West Coast.”
The case for Nicole: 24 years, and she says she helped name his label, Aftermath.
The case for Dre: she signed a prenup, and still walked away with $100 million.
Was $100 million fair for 24 years, or should she have gotten half?
Dr. Dre’s wife asked for $1,936,399 a month in spousal support. She ended up receiving about $293,000 a month in temporary support.
They had been married for 24 years. She said the prenup didn’t count.
She said she signed it under duress, and that Dre “tore up multiple copies of the agreement in front of me.”
Her filing said he was worth $1 billion. Forbes put him at $800 million in 2019. Apple had bought Beats for $3 billion.
The court papers described their life: five homes in L.A., a private jet, 12 security guards, seven housekeepers, a private chef. She also asked for $5 million for her lawyers.
In October 2021, a process server came after him at the cemetery where he was burying his grandmother.
Two months later, they settled. $100 million: $50 million right away, $50 million a year later. According to E! News, she also kept a Rolls-Royce, an Escalade limo, a Range Rover, a motorcycle, and her jewelry and furs. He kept the houses, his music and his stock.
In the video below, from 2014, Dre celebrates the reported Apple deal: “The first billionaire in hip hop, right here from the West Coast.”
The case for Nicole: 24 years, and she says she helped name his label, Aftermath.
The case for Dre: she signed a prenup, and still walked away with $100 million.
Was $100 million fair for 24 years, or should she have gotten half?
Mark retweeted
SoftBank sold a stake in Nvidia worth about $3.6 billion in 2019. By late 2024, the same 4.9% would have been worth about $178 billion.
Nvidia had just had a bad quarter. SoftBank sold all of it.
Then AI happened.
“The fish that got away was big,” Masayoshi Son said in 2024.
That wasn’t even his biggest miss.
In the video below, Jensen Huang tells a packed room what Son offered him ten years ago. To lend him the money to buy Nvidia. All of it.
“Now I regret not taking it.”
Earlier on the same stage, Huang says Son was once Nvidia’s largest shareholder: “We can cry together.”
In October 2025, SoftBank sold its Nvidia shares again. 32.1 million shares, about $5.8 billion.
The case for Son: he locked in a profit after a bad quarter. That’s what investors are supposed to do.
The case against: he sold the most important company of the AI era. Twice.
Would you have sold after a bad quarter, or held on?
SoftBank sold a stake in Nvidia worth about $3.6 billion in 2019. By late 2024, the same 4.9% would have been worth about $178 billion.
Nvidia had just had a bad quarter. SoftBank sold all of it.
Then AI happened.
“The fish that got away was big,” Masayoshi Son said in 2024.
That wasn’t even his biggest miss.
In the video below, Jensen Huang tells a packed room what Son offered him ten years ago. To lend him the money to buy Nvidia. All of it.
“Now I regret not taking it.”
Earlier on the same stage, Huang says Son was once Nvidia’s largest shareholder: “We can cry together.”
In October 2025, SoftBank sold its Nvidia shares again. 32.1 million shares, about $5.8 billion.
The case for Son: he locked in a profit after a bad quarter. That’s what investors are supposed to do.
The case against: he sold the most important company of the AI era. Twice.
Would you have sold after a bad quarter, or held on?
Mark retweeted
Robert De Niro cut his estranged wife’s credit card limit from $100,000 a month to $50,000. His lawyer told the court the pandemic had hurt his restaurants.
Her lawyer said he was worth $500 million and made $30 million a year.
They first married in 1997, split, got back together in 2004, and signed a prenup. In 2018, he filed for divorce.
The prenup: $1 million a year to her. But only in years he earns $15 million or more.
His lawyer said he’d be “lucky if he makes $7.5 million this year.” The Nobu restaurants he co-owns lost $3 million in April and $1.87 million in May. He borrowed $500,000 from partners to pay investors.
Her lawyer said the story about him tightening his belt didn’t add up.
For now, the judge kept the card at $50,000. And ordered him to pay her $75,000 for a summer home for their kids.
Three years later, at 79, De Niro welcomed his seventh child with his girlfriend, Tiffany Chen.
In the video below, he’s asked how fatherhood feels at his age: “It feels great.”
The case for Grace: two decades together, two kids, and a husband her lawyer valued at $500 million.
The case for Bob: she signed the prenup, and his restaurants were losing millions a month.
Was cutting her card to $50,000 fair, or did he use the pandemic as an excuse?
Robert De Niro cut his estranged wife’s credit card limit from $100,000 a month to $50,000. His lawyer told the court the pandemic had hurt his restaurants.
Her lawyer said he was worth $500 million and made $30 million a year.
They first married in 1997, split, got back together in 2004, and signed a prenup. In 2018, he filed for divorce.
The prenup: $1 million a year to her. But only in years he earns $15 million or more.
His lawyer said he’d be “lucky if he makes $7.5 million this year.” The Nobu restaurants he co-owns lost $3 million in April and $1.87 million in May. He borrowed $500,000 from partners to pay investors.
Her lawyer said the story about him tightening his belt didn’t add up.
For now, the judge kept the card at $50,000. And ordered him to pay her $75,000 for a summer home for their kids.
Three years later, at 79, De Niro welcomed his seventh child with his girlfriend, Tiffany Chen.
In the video below, he’s asked how fatherhood feels at his age: “It feels great.”
The case for Grace: two decades together, two kids, and a husband her lawyer valued at $500 million.
The case for Bob: she signed the prenup, and his restaurants were losing millions a month.
Was cutting her card to $50,000 fair, or did he use the pandemic as an excuse?
Exactly. Spliting the job 50/50 is fair. Hiding the bonus is a character tell. Woz would’ve said cool keep it if he’d just been honest, that’s the part jobs didn’t get.
Mark retweeted
Steve Jobs told his best friend they got $700 for a job. He gave Steve Wozniak $350.
Atari had also paid a $5,000 bonus. Jobs kept it secret.
The job was Breakout. Jobs promised Atari the game in four days. Woz designed it in four nights while still working his day job at Hewlett-Packard. They barely slept. Both got mononucleosis.
Woz found out about the bonus years later.
In 1980, Apple went public and made Woz a multimillionaire.
Then he did the opposite of Jobs. He offered part of his own Apple shares, at a low price, to early employees who had been left out.
In the video below, Woz tells another story. He says Jobs saw a remote control Woz was building at his new company, threw it against the wall and said: “I own everything you do.”
“What decent human being could ever do something that way?”
The case for Jobs: Woz himself says Jobs would take his inventions and “turn it into money for both of us.” Without him, there might be no Apple.
The case against: he lied to his best friend over a few thousand dollars.
Would you have stayed partners with him after finding out?
Steve Jobs told his best friend they got $700 for a job. He gave Steve Wozniak $350.
Atari had also paid a $5,000 bonus. Jobs kept it secret.
The job was Breakout. Jobs promised Atari the game in four days. Woz designed it in four nights while still working his day job at Hewlett-Packard. They barely slept. Both got mononucleosis.
Woz found out about the bonus years later.
In 1980, Apple went public and made Woz a multimillionaire.
Then he did the opposite of Jobs. He offered part of his own Apple shares, at a low price, to early employees who had been left out.
In the video below, Woz tells another story. He says Jobs saw a remote control Woz was building at his new company, threw it against the wall and said: “I own everything you do.”
“What decent human being could ever do something that way?”
The case for Jobs: Woz himself says Jobs would take his inventions and “turn it into money for both of us.” Without him, there might be no Apple.
The case against: he lied to his best friend over a few thousand dollars.
Would you have stayed partners with him after finding out?
Mark retweeted
Anna Nicole Smith was 26 when she married 89-year-old oil billionaire J. Howard Marshall. He died 403 days later. One court awarded her about $474 million. She ended up with $0.
They married on June 27, 1994. He died on August 4, 1995. His estate, reported at $1.6 billion, went through his trust and will to his son, E. Pierce Marshall.
She said her husband had promised her half. The will left her nothing beyond an estimated $6 million in lifetime gifts.
Table 1 shows how the fight went. In 2000, a California bankruptcy court ruled for her: more than $449 million, plus $25 million in punitive damages.
In 2002, a federal judge cut it to $88,585,534.66.
Watch Fig. 1. The number drops to $0 in 2004, comes back after a 9-0 Supreme Court win in 2006, then drops to $0 again.
Pierce died about a month after that ruling. She died in 2007. Their estates kept fighting.
In 2011, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 against her. In 2014, a federal judge rejected her estate’s last claim. 19 years. Two Supreme Court cases. Zero dollars.
The math makes it worse. Had the $88.6 million been paid in 2002 and invested in the S&P 500, it would have grown to about $908 million by 2024.
The case for Pierce: a Texas jury upheld his father’s estate plan, and he was a son defending it.
Here’s the lesson: a promise that isn’t in the will is worth exactly what the will says.
If your 89-year-old father married a 26-year-old, would you fight her in court for 19 years?
The $474 Million Zero
Inheritance, Litigation and the Time Value of a Judgment
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Mark retweeted
In 1975, Sylvester Stallone was so broke he sold his dog.
Then a studio offered him $360,000 for his script. One condition: someone else would play the lead.
He said no.
He tells it himself in the video below.
He was working as an usher. “36 dollars a week. That was it.”
The studio wanted bankable names. Burt Reynolds. Robert Redford.
“I said no, no, I don’t think so.”
At home there was no money for food. “One of us doesn’t eat. My wife or the dog.”
He sold the dog.
“If you make the wrong decision, sometimes you regret it forever.”
The studio gave in. Rocky was made for about $1 million. It made more than $225 million and won Best Picture.
When the money came, he went back for his dog. The man who bought it wouldn’t give it back. So Stallone put him in the movie.
He turned down $360,000 to bet on himself.
Would you have taken the money?
In 1975, Sylvester Stallone was so broke he sold his dog.
Then a studio offered him $360,000 for his script. One condition: someone else would play the lead.
He said no.
He tells it himself in the video below.
He was working as an usher. “36 dollars a week. That was it.”
The studio wanted bankable names. Burt Reynolds. Robert Redford.
“I said no, no, I don’t think so.”
At home there was no money for food. “One of us doesn’t eat. My wife or the dog.”
He sold the dog.
“If you make the wrong decision, sometimes you regret it forever.”
The studio gave in. Rocky was made for about $1 million. It made more than $225 million and won Best Picture.
When the money came, he went back for his dog. The man who bought it wouldn’t give it back. So Stallone put him in the movie.
He turned down $360,000 to bet on himself.
Would you have taken the money?
Mark retweeted
Steve Jobs paid $385 a month for the daughter he swore he couldn’t have.
Then Apple went public. He was worth more than $200 million.
The signed court document said he was “sterile and infertile.”
A DNA test put the probability that he was Lisa’s father at 94.1%. He told TIME magazine that “28% of the male population of the United States could be the father.”
While he denied her, her mother cleaned houses and went on welfare.
At the same time, Apple was building a computer called the Lisa. He called the name a coincidence. Decades later: “Obviously, it was named for my daughter.”
In the video below, Lisa remembers the day her mother read what he said about them in TIME. “We had no money.” Then she describes his last weekend.
He cried, apologized, and kept repeating, “I owe you one.” He left her millions.
The case for Steve: he was 23, he came back, and he made it right in the end.
The case against: millions in a will don’t buy back a childhood on welfare.
Did he make it right, or just run out of time?
Exactly. I owe you one hits different when you’ve got days left. Easy to apologize when there’s no time left to prove you mean it.
Steve Jobs paid $385 a month for the daughter he swore he couldn’t have.
Then Apple went public. He was worth more than $200 million.
The signed court document said he was “sterile and infertile.”
A DNA test put the probability that he was Lisa’s father at 94.1%. He told TIME magazine that “28% of the male population of the United States could be the father.”
While he denied her, her mother cleaned houses and went on welfare.
At the same time, Apple was building a computer called the Lisa. He called the name a coincidence. Decades later: “Obviously, it was named for my daughter.”
In the video below, Lisa remembers the day her mother read what he said about them in TIME. “We had no money.” Then she describes his last weekend.
He cried, apologized, and kept repeating, “I owe you one.” He left her millions.
The case for Steve: he was 23, he came back, and he made it right in the end.
The case against: millions in a will don’t buy back a childhood on welfare.
Did he make it right, or just run out of time?
Mark retweeted
Taylor Swift paid a reported $360 million for songs she wrote herself.
At 15, she signed a record deal that let the label own her recordings.
At 29, a man she says bullied her for years bought them all.
At 35, she bought them back.
Six albums. Every hit from “Love Story” to “Shake It Off.”
When her contract ended, she tried to buy them. She says the label offered to let her “earn” one old album back for every new one she made.
She walked away. Months later, Big Machine Records was sold to Scooter Braun’s company for about $300 million. Her masters came with it.
In the video below, she tells a room full of music executives what happened. Listen for the line “he could buy me.”
So she re-recorded her old albums from scratch and asked fans to stream “Taylor’s Version” instead. They did.
The case for Scooter. He bought a company, not a person. Almost every new artist signs away their masters. That’s the business.
Do the math. $360 million for six albums. $60 million for each album she had already written and sung.
Here’s the lesson. If you don’t own what you make, someone else can sell it.
Would you sign a deal at 15 that gives away everything you create, or stay unknown and keep it?