Billionaire and Telegram CEO Pavel Durov revealed on Thursday that he plans to make “no difference” between his over 100 children when it comes to who will inherit his $14 billion fortune. Many of these children came from anonymous sperm donations.
The messaging app founder spoke to the French magazine Le Point about several topics, including his arrest in 2024. During the interview, Durov remarked that family was deeply important to him and that, despite being only 40 years old, he had already begun drafting his will.
“I decided that my children would not have access to my fortune until a period of 30 years has elapsed, starting from today,” Durov said. “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.”
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He added, “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. 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.”
Durov told Le Point that he officially has six children from three different partners but added that he has fathered more than 100 babies in 12 different countries through his sperm clinic.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Durov has a net worth of $13.9 billion as of June 19.
He said that he still plans to protect both his children and his company for the sake of his values.
“My work involves risks – defending freedoms earns you many enemies, including within powerful states. I want to protect my children, but also the company I created, Telegram. I want Telegram to forever remain faithful to the values I defend,” Durov said.
In the interview, he emphasized his app’s “duty of neutrality” when it comes to political issues such as the war in Ukraine and his desire to “fight for fair access to free and independent information.”
“Telegram is a platform where opposing ideas can clash, where everyone can access different points of view and freely decide what they want to believe,” Durov said.
Durov was arrested in Paris in August over allegations that Telegram was being used for such illicit activity as drug trafficking and distribution of sexual child abuse images, according to the Associated Press.
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