From John Profumo in 1963 to Jensen Huang this week, every figure in today’s money.
Number one
Jensen Huang
Admitted an affair on 8 November 2026
$192.1bn
Wiped off Nvidia’s market value on the next day of trading
Who paid
Nvidia shareholders
In pounds
£143.8bn
Forecast beforehand
$199bn to $270bn
What happened
Mr Huang, chief executive of Nvidia, admitted an affair in an email to staff on Sunday 8 November 2026, and the board opened an investigation. He named no one. Press reports of a US intelligence memo allege a relationship with Alice Huang, a Megaspeed executive. That is unconfirmed, and Megaspeed denies wrongdoing. The shares closed at $186.64 on Friday 6 November and at $178.67 on Monday 9 November, down 4.27%. Across 24.1 billion shares, that is $192.1bn.
The small print
Less than forecast. Before the market opened, published estimates of the loss ran from $199bn (Yahoo Finance) to $270bn (Ynet, on Frankfurt trading). Shares can recover; this is one day.
For scale
The GDP of Morocco, $184.0bn
1.04 times
NHS England
244 days
Every Premier League club valued by Forbes
5.2 times over
At the UK average escort rate of £105 an hour†
1.37 billion hours
That is almost exactly twice the other nineteen affairs combined.
No. 1, Jensen Huang
$192.1bn
Nos. 2 to 20
$97.0bn
Paid by shareholders, 7 affairs
$219.1bn
Paid by the man himself, 11 affairs
$69.9bn
Paid by others, 2 affairs
$19.0m
All twenty
$289.0bn
The full ranking
Costs in today’s US dollars, with pounds beneath. Select a row for the detail.
Order by
Who paid
No.The affairWho paidWhat it costFor scale
1
Jensen Huang
An affair, admitted 8 November 2026
Nvidia market value, one session.
Who paid Nvidia shareholders
$192.1bn£143.8bn
More than the GDP of Morocco
Jensen Huang
What happened
Mr Huang, chief executive of Nvidia, admitted an affair in an email to staff on Sunday 8 November 2026, and the board opened an investigation. He named no one. Press reports of a US intelligence memo allege a relationship with Alice Huang, a Megaspeed executive. That is unconfirmed, and Megaspeed denies wrongdoing. The shares closed at $186.64 on Friday 6 November and at $178.67 on Monday 9 November, down 4.27%. Across 24.1 billion shares, that is $192.1bn.
The small print
Less than forecast. Before the market opened, published estimates of the loss ran from $199bn (Yahoo Finance) to $270bn (Ynet, on Frankfurt trading). Shares can recover; this is one day.
The couple announced their divorce on 9 January 2019. Hours later the National Enquirer reported Mr Bezos’s relationship with Lauren Sánchez. Ms Scott kept about 19.7 million Amazon shares, valued at $38.3bn when a judge formalised the settlement on 5 July 2019.
The small print
A division of marital property, not a penalty. The shares were worth nearer $36bn when the terms were announced that April.
Intel said on 21 June 2018 that Mr Krzanich had resigned as chief executive, after an internal inquiry found a past consensual relationship with an employee that breached its policy for managers. The shares fell that day.
The small print
Intel raised its profit guidance in the same announcement, so the fall cannot be attributed cleanly.
Mr Woods crashed his car outside his Florida home on 27 November 2009. His affairs became public and he admitted “transgressions”. Economists at UC Davis estimated that shareholders in his sponsors lost between $5bn and $12bn in the weeks that followed.
The small print
An academic estimate, not a traded price. The figure used is the lower bound.
The couple announced their divorce on 3 May 2021 and it was finalised that August on undisclosed terms. Later in May the Wall Street Journal reported that Microsoft’s board had investigated an earlier relationship between Mr Gates and an engineer. Filings show $6.3bn of stock moving to Ms French Gates.
The small print
The link between affair and divorce is not established. The top of the range adds the $12.5bn she received on leaving the Gates Foundation in 2024.
McDonald’s said on 3 November 2019 that its board had removed Mr Easterbrook as chief executive over a consensual relationship with an employee. The shares fell the next day. In 2021 he returned more than $105m in equity and cash to the company.
Pictures. Steve Easterbrook: AI-generated image, made with ChatGPT, not a photograph.
7AI
Alec Wildenstein
Divorce from Jocelyn Wildenstein, 1999
Reported settlement.
Who paid Himself
$5.1bn£3.8bn
Six days of NHS England
AIAlec WildensteinAI-generated image
What happened
The art dealer and his wife divorced in New York in 1999, after she said she had found him in bed with another woman at their Manhattan home. She was reported to have received $2.5bn, with further annual payments.
The small print
Reported figures; the terms were never published. The figure is the lump sum only.
Pictures. Alec Wildenstein: AI-generated image, made with ChatGPT, not a photograph.
8
Bernard Looney
Past relationships with colleagues, not fully disclosed, 2023
BP market value, one session.
Who paid BP shareholders
$3.5bn£2.6bn
The GDP of Bhutan
Bernard Looney
What happened
Mr Looney resigned as chief executive of BP in September 2023, after admitting he had not fully disclosed past relationships with colleagues. The shares fell the next day while the FTSE 100 was flat. BP later said £32.4m of his pay had been forfeited.
Rupert and Anna Murdoch separated in 1998 and divorced in 1999. The Irish Times attributes the split to his affair with Wendi Deng, whom he married a few weeks after the divorce. Anna Murdoch reportedly received $1.7bn.
The small print
A reported figure. The settlement was not published.
Priceline Group said on 28 April 2016 that Mr Huston had resigned as chief executive, after a board investigation into a personal relationship with an employee. The company reported no earnings that day.
The small print
About $15m of his unvested awards was also forfeited. It is not included here.
Sue Ann Hamm filed for divorce from the oil billionaire in 2012, and alleged in a later filing that he was having an affair. In November 2014 an Oklahoma judge awarded her $995.5m.
The small print
The court gave the grounds as mutual incompatibility.
A Geneva court ordered Mr Rybolovlev to pay CHF 4.02bn in May 2014. An appeal court cut the award to CHF 564m in June 2015, and the couple announced a private settlement that October.
The small print
The final settlement is private. The figure is the appeal award. The top of the range is the first ruling, later overturned.
The chairman of SK Group publicly acknowledged an extramarital relationship in 2015 and filed for divorce in 2017. In July 2026 the Seoul High Court ordered him to pay 944bn won in property division.
The small print
Under appeal to the Supreme Court. Not yet paid. The dollar figure is as reported by Korea JoongAng Daily.
In December 2016 Mr Worner, chief executive of Seven West Media, apologised for an earlier affair with a former executive assistant at the group. The shares fell about 8% and the board kept him in post.
The small print
The A$100m is one trade publication’s estimate of the fall. Only the 8% drop is confirmed.
Pictures. Tim Worner: AI-generated image, made with ChatGPT, not a photograph.
15
Silvio Berlusconi
Separation from Veronica Lario, 2014 to 2017
Alimony paid.
Who paid Himself
$93.3m£69.8m
Under three hours of NHS England
Silvio Berlusconi
What happened
Veronica Lario sought a separation in 2009, after Mr Berlusconi attended the 18th birthday party of an aspiring model. He denied any improper relationship. Courts set, cut and finally revoked her maintenance. About €60m was paid along the way.
The small print
Italy’s highest court later ordered the alimony repaid, and the two settled in 2020.
The Prince and Princess of Wales divorced on 28 August 1996. Both had publicly acknowledged infidelity during their separation. The Princess was reported to have received a lump sum of about £17m.
In July 2015 hackers published the personal details of about 37 million users of the adultery website. Its owner paid $1.6m to settle with US regulators in 2016, and agreed $11.2m to settle class actions in 2017.
The former senator had an affair with Rielle Hunter, a campaign videographer, around his 2008 presidential run. Prosecutors said about $925,000 from two donors was used to hide her.
The small print
He was acquitted on one count in 2012 and the rest were dropped.
The Secretary of State for War resigned from the government and from Parliament in June 1963, after admitting he had misled the House of Commons about his affair with Christine Keeler.
The small print
No fine and no settlement. The only hard cost on record is his salary.
The director of the CIA resigned in November 2012, acknowledging an affair with his biographer. In 2015 he pleaded guilty to mishandling classified material he had shared with her, and was fined $100,000.
† The UK average escort rate of £105 an hour is from Erobella research. It is given for scale only.
How we worked it out
What counts. An affair of a public figure, admitted, alleged in court or widely reported, with a sum of money on the public record.
The figure. The single best supported sum for each affair. Where sources disagree, the detail gives the range.
Share price falls. The change in the company’s market value from the last close before the news to the next close: one day of trading, with no adjustment for the wider market.
Divorces. Included where an affair is on the record as part of the story. The figure is the court award or the reported settlement. Splitting a couple’s property is a transfer, not a fine, and the detail says so.
Today’s money. Sums in other currencies are converted to dollars at that year’s average exchange rate (Federal Reserve). Everything is then brought to 2026 dollars with the US consumer price index, September 2026.
Pounds. Converted at $1.336 to the pound, the Bank of England rate on 6 November 2026.
Comparisons. NHS England’s budget for 2026 to 2027 is £215.4bn, or £590m a day. Club values are from Forbes, 2026. National output is from the IMF World Economic Outlook, October 2026.
Who paid. A fall in market value is borne by shareholders and may be recovered. A settlement is not. Each entry names who paid, and the ranking can be filtered by it.
What we left out. Sexual assault and harassment are not affairs and are not on this list. Nor is any affair without a sum of money on the public record.
Pictures. The photographs are in the public domain or openly licensed, and are credited below. Four pictures (Steve Easterbrook, Alec Wildenstein, Tim Worner and Rielle Hunter) are AI-generated images, not photographs of the people named. Each is marked AI and is there for representative purposes only. The other person is pictured only where they are a public figure in their own right. Where there is no picture, initials stand in.
Press release
For immediate release · London, 10 November 2026
Jensen Huang’s affair cost almost twice as much as history’s next 19 most expensive put together
Erobella has ranked 20 affairs by what they cost in today’s money. Shareholders paid three quarters of the bill, and the affair that brought down John Profumo cost less than eight weeks with an escort.
Mr Huang’s $192.1bn is 3.8 times Jeff Bezos’s divorce ($50.5bn), the next on the list, and almost exactly twice the other 19 combined ($97.0bn).
Seven of the 20 were paid for by shareholders, who had no part in them. They account for $219.1bn of the $289.0bn total.
The two cheapest ended two of the biggest careers. John Profumo’s cost him $177,000 in today’s money, David Petraeus’s $142,000.
At the UK average escort rate of £105 an hour, Mr Huang’s bill would buy 1.37 billion hours, or about 156,000 years.
The $192.1bn (£143.8bn) that Nvidia lost in a day this week has been widely reported. A new ranking by Erobella, the UK’s fastest growing escorting website, shows how far out of line it is with every other affair that has had a price put on it.
The ranking sets 20 affairs from 1963 to 2026 side by side. It counts only money on the public record (share price falls, court awards, settlements and fines) and brings every figure to today’s dollars. Jeff Bezos’s 2019 divorce, which followed reports of his relationship with Lauren Sánchez, is second at $50.5bn. After that nothing passes $8bn: Brian Krzanich’s exit from Intel, the value Tiger Woods’s sponsors lost and Bill Gates’s divorce complete the top five.
Who pays is the clearest pattern. In seven cases the cost fell on shareholders, through a drop in a company’s value once the news came out. Those seven come to $219.1bn. The 11 men who paid out of their own pockets paid $69.9bn between them.
Erobella’s own research puts the average UK escort rate at £105 an hour, so the ranking also prices each affair in hours. Mr Huang’s comes to 1.37 billion hours. John Profumo’s, which cost him a year’s ministerial salary in 1963, comes to 1,263 hours.
“Everyone has the $192bn. We wanted to see it next to every other affair that has ever had a price on it, and nothing comes close. What stood out was who pays: three quarters of this list was paid by shareholders who were never in the room. We know what an hour of company costs in Britain. It is about £105, and it is agreed in advance. Nothing on this list was agreed in advance.”
The ten most expensive affairs, in today’s money
1Jensen Huang, 2026Nvidia market value, one session. Paid by Nvidia shareholders.$192.1bn
2Jeff Bezos, 201919.7 million Amazon shares. Paid by himself.$50.5bn
3Brian Krzanich, 2018Intel market value, one session. Paid by Intel shareholders.$7.9bn
4Tiger Woods, 2009His sponsors’ market value. Paid by his sponsors’ shareholders.$7.9bn
5Bill Gates, 2021Stock transferred, per SEC filings. Paid by himself.$7.8bn
6Steve Easterbrook, 2019McDonald’s market value, one session. Paid by McDonald’s shareholders.$5.2bn
7Alec Wildenstein, 1999Reported settlement. Paid by himself.$5.1bn
8Bernard Looney, 2023BP market value, one session. Paid by BP shareholders.$3.5bn
9Rupert Murdoch, 1999Reported settlement. Paid by himself.$3.4bn
10Darren Huston, 2016Priceline market value, one session. Paid by Priceline shareholders.$2.5bn
Erobella is the UK’s fastest growing escorting website and a progressive brand. Its research includes the Liberal Cities Index, Out on Campus and the Sex Work Statistics series.
Photographs are shown cropped and in black and white. Each credit links to the original and its licence. Pictures marked AI are AI-generated images, for representative purposes only. They are not photographs of the people named.
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