Roman Abramovich, the Russian oligarch and owner of Chelsea Football Club, has separated from his wife of ten years, Dasha Zhukova. The couple, who share two children together, confirmed their split in a statement issued to Page Six, confirming that the decision had been amicable. It read: "After 10 years together, the two of us have made the difficult decision to separate, but we remain close friends, parents and partners in the projects we developed together. We are committed to jointly raising our two children. We will also continue to work together as co-founders of the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow and the New Holland Island cultural centre in Saint Petersburg."
Roman Abramovich and Dasha Zhukova have split after ten years of marriage
Roman, 50, and Russian model Dasha, 36, were married in 2008. They welcomed son Aaron Alexander in December 2009 and their daughter Leah Lou in April 2013. This was the third marriage for Roman; he tied the knot with Olga Yurevna Lysova in 1987, and they were divorced in 1990. In October 1991, he married former air stewardess Irina Malandina, and together they welcomed five children – Ilya, Arina, Sofia, Arkadiy and Anna - before their split in 2007. Roman, who is ranked No. 139 on the Forbes Billionaires List with a reported $49.1billion, paid Irina a divorce settlement in the region of £150million.
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Roman pictured in June 2004 with his second wife, Irina Malandina
Dasha and Roman are understood to have met at a New Year's Eve party hosted by her father in 2005. She was always referred to as his girlfriend until, in a 2015 magazine interview, she revealed that the couple had actually tied the knot in secret in 2008. Dasha, who is on the board of the Metropolitan Museum, is credited with introducing her husband to the art world, which in turn led to him establishing himself as one of the world's leading collectors of modern and contemporary art.