Durov beats Musk: Telegram founder has 106 kids in 12 countries at the age of 40

Telegram founder Pavel Durov is a billionaire and has come up with a plan on how to divide his fortune among his children. Technically, Durov has 106 kids - six his own and 100 he has fathered from sperm donation across 12 countries over the past 15 years. The 40-year-old told France's Le Point in an interview that he intends to divide his money among his children. He said that "they are all my children and will all have the same rights." However, his division comes with a caveat - the money cannot be accessed for the next 30 years. Durov said that he wants them to live a normal life and "not be dependent on a bank account".

“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,” he told Le Point. "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.”

However, Durov has found himself at the centre of the ire of the woman who has birthed three of his biological children. She has accused him of holding back on financial support, leading a hidden double life, and child abuse. According to two criminal complaints filed in 2023 and 2024, Durov hit his then-three-year-old son so hard that he fell "across the room."

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Durov has denied all the allegations, saying, "Nothing has ever been proven showing that I am, even for a second, guilty of anything."

Durov has also got into a tussle with the Kremlin over free speech. He once refused to disable or limit access to several dissident groups on VKontakte, a Russian online social media and social networking service based in Saint Petersburg. Durov was one of the co-founders of the platform.

Durov was also charged by French officials last year after being accused of allowing sex abuse and drug trafficking crimes to run on Telegram, an encrypted messaging app. He now lives in Dubai, facing legal troubles in France and allegations that Telegram's communications applications have played a major role in world conflict. Durov has denied those charges. Telegram has more than 1 billion active users and is being actively used in the Russia-Ukraine war.