TV: Oligarch, socialite heading for Israel's most expensive divorce

Nicol Raidman alleging that Michael Cherney is not honoring terms of $25 million prenup and is reported to be asking for hundreds of millions of shekels

Businesswoman, socialite and former reality TV celebrity Nicol Raidman is divorcing her billionaire husband in what is shaping up to be the most expensive divorce lawsuit in Israeli history, Channel 12 news reported Monday.

After 11 years of marriage, Raidman and industrialist Michael Cherney are dissolving their union, the report said. But Raidman is alleging that Cherney has failed to honor his prenup with her, which promised her $25 million (NIS 86 million) in any settlement.

She is now planning to take Cherney to court and demanding hundreds of millions of shekels from the business mogul, Channel 12 said.

Cherney’s lawyer told the network that any and all claims would be made to the court rather than the media.

Israeli entrepreneur Michael Cherney leaving the home of Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky in Bnei Brak on November 18, 2018. (Yossi Zeliger/Flash90)

Raidman is known to be a close friend of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife Sara. In 2011-2013 Raidman took part in the Channel 10 reality television show “Me’usharot” based on the US show “The Real Housewives.” She has launched her own luxury clothing and perfume brands.

Cherney, an oligarch who made his fortune in the former Soviet Union, is a close confidant of Yisrael Beyteinu party leader Avigdor Liberman. The couple have two children.